My name is John Markowski, and I garden in Zone 6B in central New Jersey. My property is inundated with deer, and the soil drains poorly, so I’ve built my garden around ornamental grasses and native perennials. The grasses are shining right now in combination with the slowly declining perennials.
Many gardens peak in the spring with a brilliant display of bright flowers, but this garden looks amazing right now in the fall, with each plant taking on a subtly different hue but all working together to end the year beautifully.
The flowering stems of Miscanthus sinensis (Zones 5–9) have given way to their beautiful silvery ripening seeds. Behind them is a different variety of the same grass, which is just maturing a little later, so there’s a contrast between the different colors of seed spikes.
This miscanthus has bright variegated foliage that contrasts with the darker foliage around it. In the front left is a bit of pink from obedient plant (Physostegia virginiana, Zones 3–9), a wonderful and very long-blooming native perennial.
Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale, Zones 3–8) has colorful daisy flowers in shades of yellow, orange, or red. But here, after the showy petals have fallen, it takes on a subtler beauty of the central yellow ball maturing slowing into ripened seeds. Note that the common name for this native perennial is a bit misleading; it is just one of the many native plants with show flowers that happens to bloom around the same time as ragweed, and so it gets blamed for the ragweed allergies.
Fall foliage and ripening seeds are doing what they do best.
Deer and poorly drained soil can present challenges, but John shows that you can still make a beautiful garden in those conditions.
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Comments
Inspiring! You have aptly shown how to use a site to your advantage despite its disadvantages, a good lesson for all gardeners. Thanks for sharing.
Great job in a tough environment. Your grasses are spectacular! Thanks for sharing.
Bravo, John! Glorious colors and textures with such a natural flow. (Do you cut all those grasses down every spring…?!?)
For those who may be interested, type John's name in the search & you can see his other submissions.
Over the years I have become more and more infatuated with grasses and your garden is a perfect example of how beautiful and versatile they really are. Thanks for sharing this beautiful fall garden.
Re: grasses
I have a new property and hope to design the small area I have with some lower clump forming grasses e.g. prairie drop seed. Right now there is a mess of ground cover, grass, and volunteer trees in about one third of the back garden. Will probably do a long period of smothering, but there is a slope, so that might make it more difficult.
John - I enjoyed looking at all the photos and reading the text. Your style reminds me of e.g. Kelly D. Norris and Piet Oudolf.
You created a beautiful natural looking landscape- I just love it!
So relaxing to look at all those natural looking colors and textures.
STUNNING! STUNNING! and more STUNNING! I love the colors and textures. Well done!
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