Gardening Day 2013 Cindy Grisdela

Gardening Day 2013 Cindy Grisdela

I’ve taken some time off from the studio this week to play in my garden. I asked for plants for Mother’s Day and my younger son Matt helped me pick them out. In our old house, we had huge beds of plants that were beautiful, but required lots of time and effort to keep them looking that way. It’s a challenge in our new place to choose my favorites in a smaller, more compact space, but the garden will be more manageable for me.

The Knock Out roses in the back were here when we bought the house, but they had gotten too big to be in the front of the bed, so I moved them back toward the fence line so they can act as a background. The large clumps of Candytuft on the right and left sides was here as well, but I planted three varieties of Coral Bells in the front with three different leaf colors, plus three different Coneflowers–purple, yellow and white, some Stella d’Oro daylilies, Coreopsis and a Monarda plant to attract butterflies.

The planter in the middle wasn’t really to my liking, but my son encouraged me to put some plants in it to give it a chance before I took it out–so it has two varieties of sweet potato vine that hopefully will trail out of the planter and soften the edges, plus some colorful petunias and a scented geranium in the middle. I also found an unusual oregano plant with very thick leaves and a wonderful scent, so that went in as well!

I’ll tackle the back yard next week.

Interesting how gardening is like art in many ways–combining the colors and textures of the leaves and flowers into a pleasing composition. What are your favorite plants for the garden?

3 Comments

  1. Dorry on May 24, 2013 at 8:11 pm

    As a gardener and quilter I often find that the color combinations I plant out with annuals in the garden are the color combinations that show up in my quiltwork for the next several months. Now when I review your plant selections they seem to echo the colors that you frequently work in – what color are the petunias you planted? In a few months maybe you’ll pose and photograph some of your quilts in front of your garden and we’ll see similarities.



    • Cindy on May 29, 2013 at 7:09 pm

      Good idea, Dorry! the petunias are white and purple–and I’m working today on a purple quilt. I think this has all been simmering since Santa Fe with the strong colors out there. I’ll keep you posted!



  2. MOM on May 31, 2013 at 10:20 pm

    Beautiful garden. You always have such interesting plants. Maybe you need to come down here and make my garden look pretty. Love you!!