We’re visiting with Tingshu Hu from Massachusetts again today. We’ve visited their beautiful garden in the spring  when the flowering trees are stealing the show, and today they’re sharing their garden in the summer, with photos they took in June:

My husband loves to build structures. He designed and built all the structures in the yard by himself, the pergolas, fences, fish ponds, walkways, patios, green houses and chicken coops. He also enjoys taking pictures around the garden. All the pictures are taken by him. I take care of the plants and chickens. The most recent project was done last year. This project in the front yard includes two connected fish ponds, an aquaponic system, a patio, a pergola, a solarium, several garden beds and a walk way, all integrated together.

The new fish ponds, the pergola and plantings around it.

Fish and flower bed

The patio and flower beds under the pergola.

The front yard garden was started after Luke, our Harvanese dog, joined the family, in 2017. The picture shows Luke checking on some insects in the new draught tolerant garden, the red showy flower behind him is Ben Ledi rock rose (Helianthemum, Zone 4-9).

Peonies along the fence. The purple fence was built to keep Luke and his older brother Deedee safe. The spacing was decided based on Luke’s size when he was only 9 weeks old and 3 pounds.

Our favorite peony Madame Emile Debatene (Paeonia ‘Madame Emile Debatene’, Zone 3-8), Walker’s low catmint (Nepeta ‘Walker’s Low’, Zone 4-9).

Plants along the walkway to the garden gate.

From a different angle. The flowering plants are Baptisia ‘Pink Lemonade’ (Zone 4-9), lady’s mantle (Alchemilla mollis, Zone 3-8), Dianthus ‘Tickled Pink’ (Zone 5-9), Salvia ‘Pink Profusion’ (Zone 3-8), and Geum ‘Totally Tangerine’ (Zone 4-7).

Easy to care plants in the draught tolerant garden. Maiden grass (Miscanthus sinensis, Zone 5 – 9), catmint (Nepeta, Zone 4 – 9), Knockout rose (Rosa ‘Radrazz’, Zone 5 – 9), self seeding tricolor viola (Viola tricolor, annual)

New walkway toward the fish ponds. Low growing perennials alongside the walkway. Red poppy flowers (Papaverorientale, Zone 3 – 7) can be seen outside the purple fence

These photos are all from Tingshu’s front yard, tomorrow we’ll be back to see her back garden in the summer.

Have a garden you’d like to share?

Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!

To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.

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