Today we’re in Nella’s Michigan garden.

Usually my spring garden is my favorite. It’s a lovely welcome to the new gardening season after a cold, gray Michigan winter. This year I was rewarded with lush, full, late summer blooms after a summer so dry that we only cut the lawn once in the month of June. I garden in a space that was totally shaded by overgrown trees when I first bought the house. Twenty-seven years and 15 fewer trees later, I have mostly partial shade. I retired last June, so this was my first gardening season when I could wander out to the garden at sunrise and putz around until mid-morning most days.

I went crazy on pots this year! The final count on August 1 , front and back, was 26! That’s a record for me. Admittedly, some I bought specifically to fill in gaps before this year’s neighborhood garden walk. Some are my every-year standards. Some I bought at the end of the season because I couldn’t resist the sale price. Would I do it again? Maybe, but not all at once. It was a gradual thing as I saw a need for a pot or I had plants but no spot for them in a bed.

Late summer splendor includes coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea, Zones 4–9), tall phlox (Phlox paniculata, Zones 4–8), and black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida, Zones 3–9).

Bold leaves of a castor bean (Ricinus communis, Zones 9–11 or as an annual) with pink turtlehead (Chelone obliqua, Zones 5–9)

This container is filled with shade-loving plants including Caladium (Zones 8–10 or as a tender bulb) and trailing creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia ‘Aurea’, Zones 3–9).

Panicle hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata, Zones 3–8) blooms blushing pink as they age.

Pan, the god of fields, groves, and wooded glens, greets Nella each morning when she opens the curtains. This year he has a crown of variegated fern.

Bright pink begonias (Begonia hybrid, Zones 8–11 or as an annual) line the edge of a bed full of shade-loving perennials.

Hosta and hydrangea spill over onto a stone path.

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