Tom Charbonneau from Minnesota shares his lush gardens and landscape with us.
"Welcome to my zone 4 garden in Arden Hills, MN. My 1/2 acre garden abuts a 15 acre nature preserve. Lots of hosta, wildflowers and perennials. Never enough room!"
Have a garden you'd like to share? Email 5-10 photos and a brief story about your garden to [email protected]. Please include where you are located!
Have a mobile phone? Tag your photos on Instagram or Twitter with #FineGardening!
You don't have to be a professional garden photographer – check out our garden photography tips!
Do you receive the GPOD by email yet? Sign up here.
Follow us: @finegardening on Twitter | FineGardeningMagazine on Facebook | @finegardening on Instagram
Fine Gardening Recommended Products
A.M. Leonard Deluxe Soil Knife & Leather Sheath Combo
Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs.
Comments
Every photo is beautiful but man,,,,,,,,,,,those lady's slippers!
beautiful
So very pretty. All the flowers and all the colors. The lady's slippers are outstanding. How nice to abut a nature preserve which just extends your 'not enough room' garden visually. The rainbow shows promise of a beautiful spring. Thanks for sharing.
Tom, what a wonderful lush garden. . . and in zone 4. This is the look I'm going for in our garden. In particular, I envy you and your beautiful lady sipper. Thanks for sharing.
Beautiful! The yellow Lady slipper stole the show though!
Wow. Love those packed borders and digging those woodland plants. The cypripedium steal the show here for me, but all of it is beautiful. What a fantastic garden. Thanks for sharing.
Those glowing beautiful lady's slippers look like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow...what a treasure to have them growing so happily. Love how your handsome stone edging gives such a nice framing to the curving line of hostas. I join Diane in being curious about what plant the interesting shaped green leaf in picture #8 belongs to? And while I'm at it, what is the red flower with the yellow center right next to it?
Good morning, Michaele! I think the red flower is a pulsilata or Pasque flower. I am curious about the yellow one too!
Thanks, Rhonda. It's such a happy looking flower face.
The yellow flower is Uvularia grandiflora, called bellwort or merrybells. It is a native wildflower. I agree with Rhonda about the red flower.
Thanks for your two posts of info, Chris. I should have recognized the leaf of the bloodroot. I actually have one because a generous gpod-er sent me a chunk of his 2 autumns ago. It bloomed delightfully this spring and now I have my own clump of those interesting shaped leaves.
And the interesting green leaf is bloodroot, Sanguinaria canadensis.
I do believe that the IDs provided by Rhonda and Chris are spot on! :)
Awesome, overflowing, friendly, textural, colorful...hmm.. what's not to love? Thanks for sharing.
Great photos, Tom. I am in love with the Lady Slippers like everyone else. And the photo of the hillside in summer is beautiful. What a great explosion of color in a very meadow-like planting. It is great that you can take advantage of the borrowed views of the nature preserve as a backdrop.
Good grief! Everything is so beautiful.
Oh so pretty! Love your lady slipper!
What beautiful gardens you have created, Tom. I especially love the hosta hillside with the steps curving upward, but all of the gardens are lovely
Paradise! I can't choose a favorite photo. The hosta walk is so serene but the giant perennial border is gorgeous. So lovely.
LOVE the native ephemirals Bluebells, Bellwort and (gasp) you have orchids in Z4!!! You are my hero.
Well Tom, it looks like you need to be a regular contributor! Great rainbow photo. I have to say, the lady slipper is my fav. I see your bloodwort is not in bloom but they are spectacular when they are. I missed photographing mine this year. You have so much to look at, I'll be going back over them a few more times. Thanks for sharing!
The yellow flower is Uvularia grandiflora, called bellwort or merrybells. It is a native wildflower.
Good morning , Kim called it right when she wrote "lush" You might be in a unique northern tropical micro-climate because your gardens have it all going for them. The wild flower garden to me looks like a meadow & is my favorite photo.
Thank you for posting & good luck, Joe
lady slippers...sigh
Great job, Tom. I like it all. I appreciate the shot of the tulip beds and then the same shot later in the summer. It's always fun to see the progression through the seasons. You've put together a fine mix of native and ornamental plants.
Tom absolutely stunning. May I ask the name of the plant with yellow drooping flowers in the woodland picture with the bleeding heart.
Susan W
Tom what a glorious garden you have. I love all the color and variety of plants. Like Susan, I'm curious to know the name of the yellow flowered plant. Vikki in VA
Wow, what amazing views you must have out your windows! You must anticipate all of the beautiful blooms all winter long!
Good morning, Tom. Wow, living through a MN winter might be worth it if you have your garden to look forward to in the spring. Backing up to a preserve, do you have issues with the wildlife feasting in your yard? The photo of the stairs climbing through the bed of hosta just drew me in as well as the yellow lady slipper. Thanks for a great ending to the GPOD week. Enjoy your weekend everyone. We're off to the laburnum tunnel at one of our local nurseries. Photos to follow.
Hi Tom! What a treat to see your gardens this morning. You have some amazing areas filled with wonderful plants! I sure want to try lady slippers in my gardens after seeing yours! Every photo is so beautiful! I wonder what summer is like! Thanks for sharing!
Wow, Tom. Absolutely gorgeous. As a self-confessed serial-cypridedium-killer, I'm yellow with envoy over your beautiful ladyslipper orchid. The Uvularia isn't too shabby, either!
Wow!
Stunning, love it all and the greens are fab, the third photo down is my favorite, plus of course the first photo! Good for you. Thanks for sharing, what a pleasure to sit back and enjoy. Just makes your heart smile, right?
Great show Tom! Your hostas are outstanding and I can hardly believe you are in ZN4! All of your beds are so thick and robust, really beautiful. How long is your summer?
Wow great job! Gorgeous! What is the yellow flower in the next to the last photo? And is that a May Apple next to it?
I don't know about the yellow flower but that is Bloodroot next to it.
The yellow flower is Uvularia grandiflora
So Lush and what a beautiful zone 4 garden!. The lady's slippers and Uvularia grandiflora etc are stunning! Thanks for sharing. What's the cultivar name for the lady's slippers?Thanks for sharing and great photos.
So beautiful! I am a Minnesota gardener too - your neighbor to the South in Savage. Thanks for sharing!
Very nice and very lush. I keep hearing about how fast hostas can fill up a space, but I've yet to see it myself :)
Log in or create an account to post a comment.
Sign up Log in