Many apologies for not updating this website in August. My only excuse is falling in love with gardening all over again, to the point of obsession for an entire month.

The old saying about the shoemaker being so busy making other people’s shoes his own kids go shoeless applies to other trades, as I’ve known the doorknobs to be falling off in many a carpenter’s house, etc. I wanted to avoid this while I was a landscape designer, and thus for fourteen years I’ve had a low-maintenance formal courtyard in the part-shade front area of my home. This year, however, the shade is gone, thanks to the removal of a large, dirty mulberry tree that was becoming a problem, and to the removal of the trees on my neighbor’s property as part of a project to shore up the foundations of our homes.

The resulting full bright sun and the drought conditions were more than my hostas and hydrangeas could happily bear, and the nice tidy layout looked just plain bleak. Sun-loving plants were sorely needed. I thought adding some Russian Sage would perk things up, but it is difficult to meander through the perennial display at Remus Farms in high summer and come away with only one kind of plant. I came back with the sage, and a few other things, purple coneflower, Becky daisies, liatris, butterfly weed, gaura, blanket flower, artemisia, dianthus, blue oat grass, and red fountain grass.

I thought I’d simply set the new flowers in the existing pea gravel, to keep the weeding and maintenance down. But now that I am retired from designing landscapes for other people, I discovered that it was actually great fun to garden just for myself. My husband Steve, good Englishman that he is, had been ribbing me for ages about the rigidly formal courtyard, and was pleased that I was finally adding flowers to have a “proper garden”—softer, flower-laden, and more casual.

This meant that the flowers would have to grow freely, without the constraint of the landscape fabric and plastic which lurked under the gravel. I also had an area in the back yard which needed a lot of gravel, but it is an expensive material. 50 trips up and down the hill from front to back yard with a 5-gallon bucket strapped to a handtruck got the gravel to where it was needed and out of the way of the new “proper garden.” Recycling at its best.

An intensely hot, dry August is not the most conducive time to start a new garden, but I was determined. I set up a 10 x 10 canopy over the work area to get a break from the sun, and worked carefully to avoid damaging the roots of the boxwood hedge and crabapple trees. It was so much fun to finally indulge in a garden for myself that I was oblivious to the humidity and biting insects.

One advantge of an August start was the 3-for-$10 sale on perennials at Lowe’s. The selection was somewhat limited, but the plants were healthy, and I added scabiosa, phlox, more gaura and dianthus, and more coneflowers. Johnson’s Farms had a useful clearance sale, as well, and I picked up yarrow, thyme, and basil for a dollar apiece. There were also leftover plants from the garden club plant sale, and I picked out coralbells with light green leaves and a lanky sedum that looked like it would eat flies if given a chance.

I even found useful plants in my own yard, irises, purple-leaf coralbells, harebells, oriental lilies, blue asters, a yellow chrysanthemum, and a passel of giant alliums. These were all in areas where they couldn’t be appreciated on a daily basis, so now in the new garden they will receive much more care and adoration. There were two small shady spots in the new garden, in the corners of the boxwood hedge, so I transplanted variegated hostas there. The Stella d’Oro daylilies that had been lined up like soldiers along the walkways were moved into a mass planting near the roses on the west side. The existing vinca border is now allowed to spread freely in the planting area. In two or three years very little mulch will be needed, as the vinca is evergreen.

I have a soft spot for concrete statuary, particularly rabbits, and went for a browse at Saylor’s Basket Place. Steve spotted a large rock-like gnome’s head amid the various creatures and its goofy grin suits the new garden. Three bright red giant plastic ladybugs on sticks were too hokey to pass up, and satisfy my need for something camp. I also moved in an ancient concrete urn that has been in my family for decades, and am planning a redesign of the existing fountain, using materials already at hand. I generally avoid buying garden magazines, but indulged in one which had instructions for making a trellis of copper piping, which I may adapt and use when I transplant a clematis from its current too-shady-for-blooming site.

That same magazine also had an article about drip irrigation. Lugging heavy hoses and struggling with sprinkler heads has long been a pet peeve of mine. Since my garden is two areas separated by brick walkways, a lot of water is wasted with a sweeping sprinkler head. I found a drip irrigation kit at Lowe’s called Mister Landscaper, for about the same price as a good hose, and I can’t say enough about it. It was easy to install, easy to correct mistakes, and easy to expand. Now I can water the garden even when I’m in my best clothes.

The garden is the view from the living room, so it’s been like having a great big bouquet. It’s also become a Butterfly Cafeteria, with a half dozen Monarchs hanging around. This fall I’ll take advantage of the garden club’s bulb sale and next summer I might add annuals like cosmos and dwarf sunflowers. The hostas and hydrangeas will gradually be moved to shadier areas and be replaced by butterfly bush, lilac, and perhaps wiegela. Most of all, though, gardening will be fun again.