Today' photos are supplied, once again, by Cherry Ong. Thanks, Cherry!! She says, "Not sure if you remember an old submission with Sylvia Cheng's garden (we featured it in 2012–refresh your memory HERE!). We've been good friends since our kids attended preschool together. She gets stressed with the numerous selections at the nurseries so each year we plant up her containers together. It's a lot of fun.
We've made over parts of her yard as well. In 2009, after many years of neglect, she decided it was time to overhaul the backyard. We used some nursery purchases, some existing plants in the same garden bed, and some perennials from my own garden as well as my Mom's. The entire yard was a DIY project from design to bed preparation to planting. When I visited this Spring to pot up containers, I was pleasantly surprised to see how the garden had grown in. She's really happy with the results.
I still remember how difficult it was to convince her to plant Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola') instead of variegated Japanese sedge (Carex oshimensis 'Evergold'). She kept saying, "Are you sure? I don't know about that." Long story short, she is now a big fan of JFG. She wasn't too happy when her husband mowed off some of the grass blade tips during the first cut of the season.
Anyhow, this year she wanted to redo her frontyard so we have redone that island in that previous submission. She has another garden bed by her front door that has unfortunately been infested by goutweed. She had decided to rip everything out and try the solarization method to eradicate the weed. Hope it works and we can plant again next year. Wish us luck, folks! (and feel free to volunteer any suggestions – you all know we value your expertise!). Gardening with friends has been really fun. It's a lot of work but brings a smile to everyone's face when they see what they've worked for years ago. Please enjoy and have a great day, everyone!" Wow, Cherry, can you come to my house next?? I'm so jealous!
****Another day of all of the photos in the comments (look below). Feedback welcome! And send in photos of your garden while you're at it…..****
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Comments
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Hi Sylvia! I hope you're reading this. I have to add that you have done such a terrific job taking care of your garden since we started all these little projects. I hope they bring you joy everyday.
Have a great week everyone!
PS Sent a query to Bridges Restaurant in Granville Island Public Market inquiring about the mystery artist/designer of those containers. Their answer: Bridges large red planters are designed by Adian at Garden Sanctuary. Can't find him/her on the web so I sent another query.
I sent an email to the restaurant and and the designer of the pots is Adian at Garden Sanctuary. Susan Sharun was very kind to give me this information. The pots look amazing in front of Bridges Restaurant.❗️❗️❗️
BAM...YOWZA...YIPPY KI YAY....leave it to Cherry and Michelle to give us some soul satisfying high resolution pictures! So nice to see every luminous strand of that beautiful Japanese Forest grass. I can well imagine why your friend is eager to do more projects with you, Cherry. This was certainly a resounding success!
Thanks meander1. You are so sweet!
Cherry, you are now ready to take this show on the road. containers, earthbound gardens, you do it all! looks great. Michelle, the photos expand beautifully,,,,,,,,thanks!
Some of my friends tell me I should change careers.
That new bed really looks vibrant. Doesn't it feel great to dig in and create such marvels? My one suggestion one have been to actually remove more of the grass which would have given a bigger bed for even more cool plants. Nonetheless, it's beautiful. Well done.
Cherry and Sylvia-absolutely superb mix of colors and textures. So fun to see how it has matured so quickly. Love the forest grass. For me it sleeps for several years and then goes wild. You should feel proud! Great teamwork!
Michelle-I think I squealed a little bit when I enlarged that first photo. These are the good old days!
Cherry and Silvia...its all so very inviting and balanced! I really enjoy all the grasses and everything is so well groomed. How lovely to come home to this! And how fun to work together on planting pots! The manicured lawn just adds such a neatness to the whole and sets everything off! Iam so glad Silvia that you are enjoying the Japanese forest grass! Its a wonderful plant! Happy digging! Thanks Cherry for sending these in!
This is a beautiful transformation. Sylivia you are so lucky to have a Cherry to help you sort things out. Collaboration generally always works to our advantage.
Michelle: I love the enlargement option but when I click on an individual pic to enlarge, it does enlarge but then I can find no way to go back to the original sequence to see the rest of the pictures. The only way I can manage it is to close the browser, go back to the original e-mail and start over from scratch. Cumbersome to say the least. I'm using a Mac so maybe that is part of the problem, or maybe I am just not intuitive enough to figure this out on my own. Any suggestions out there?
Maybe right click on it and choose to open it in a new window/tab? I'm sorry--I'm on a PC right now so I can't experiment.... :-(
Thanks a bunch. I've got it now. Trying to figure out how to open in a new window I finally asked my son and he found (so easily of course!) that there was a little X above the picture which didn't show up unless you moved the cursor close to it which would take me back to where I wanted to be. I had tried every other clickable thing that I could see to no avail. I sometimes think that computers were invented just to make otherwise fairly intelligent people like me feel totally inept and stupid!
I view GPOD in Safari on my mac and on my iPad. When I click on a photo in the comments, it automatically opens a new tab in Safari. I just close that tab and the original GPOD tab is right where I left it. What browser are you using? In Safari, under preferences, the second section is "tabs". There is an option that says "Open pages in tabs instead of windows: Never, Automatically, or Always. Choose Automatically. Let me know if this helps, is gobbled-gook, or if it works for you. Cheers, Tim
Thanks Tim,
I finally asked my son to help me and apparently the preferences are set up that way but I didn't see the little X at the top of the picture which will take you back to the original GPOD.
I'm a complete doof when it comes to computers and often can't see the forest for the trees. I do much better just digging holes here and there and filling them with flowers.
Glad you got it worked out! We keep learning; both technology and how to fill a hole better with flowers!
Goutweed! we smother it with heavy duty black plastic - after cutting it back first - but it takes more than a year. Plastic could be covered with mulch, and then containers set on that.
Oh happy day!! Yes, to see the individual plants, in detail, is wonderful! Thanks Michelle!
Cherry, I'd take your advice anytime. Sylvia can't help being happy with the Hakone grass, as well as with the other plants. The results are gorgeous!
While I love the Hakone grass and am trying it in various places, including containers, I too depend on Carex oshimensis 'Evergold' a lot because it seems to be the only low, variegated grass that the rabbits and deer don't touch. It spreads without being invasive, seems to thrive under all conditions and is evergreen here.
I hope my story above wasn't misleading... I do love Carex oshimensis 'Evergold' too but Sylvia's backyard could only accommodate one kind so I thought JFG was a better choice.
I do agree and would probably choose JFG for that space too. It is definitely more showy and "alive to the breezes" than the Carex.
Goodmorning Granny May ~I just clicked back on some of your Fall photos that were on the bottom of one of the postings and reminded myself how beautiful your gardens are in the Fall. You must be getting ready for that wonderful display real soon now. Just thought I would add ^_^
Thanks for the compliment! Right now we still look and feel like summer here, warm, sunny and dry! There is the tiniest hint of fall colour in a few maple branches, so I'm hoping it will be a good year. Sometimes the leaves just turn brown - I think if we don't get some frosty nights before they are ready to drop.
I love the combination of the hakonechloa and the heuchera. It is a real eye catcher. I love Heucheras ,especially since Christina Salwitz told me how to multiply them when they get a giraffe neck,so you never have an ugly Huechera again. Your work has paid off the gardens look so bright and inviting. You two make a great team,and what a great friend you are to help with such a personal process. This was a wonderful way to start my day.
And on a side note the photos are great Michelle I have an Ipad so expanding has not been an issue,it's been the clarity and you have solved that problem. It is once again a happy way to start the day. One question though is there text with each photo we can't see or am I missing something?
There were no captions for this post.
Thank you Michelle
Sorry no captions.
Glad you found out the secret to propagating and dividing heucheras. My experience is that the red, purple and green ones do well planted in the ground while the lime and orange colored ones do better in containers. Are you finding the same?
I have Heucheras everywhere,I love the color and texture they add. I have them in pots and in the ground,it depends on the color I need to add the contrast in the planting area or in the pots I'm planting. I don't use to many flowering plants so I need special plants that have color to draw attention to a particular location in my gardens.
Wonderful garden and what fun to have a friend working along with you. The colours are amazing and everything looks so healthy and happy. Loved the picture of you taking the picture. Saw you in the window.
Thank you Michelle for the enlarging feature. Makes the detail so much better,
Wow, talk about seeing everything in the enlargements!
The color and texture combinations are superb. Gorgeous garden. Michelle, I neglected to add my request to thank your technical staff for the improvements - I know you did not do the programming yourself...! Great job.
Cherry & Sylvia ~ You have certainly filled my color/lush quota for the day. Just beautiful ! I especially love the pink Astillbe. You are an amazing plant coordinator Cherry and you have both created a gorgeous setting. Thanks for sharing the beauty.
Do you live closeby Pat?
Thanks everyone for your compliments and kind words. I met up with Sylvia today and prodded her to open a discus account and respond. Happy Fall Gardening everyone!
Not close enough for a helping hand. =(
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