Days in the Sun

Last year I had my eye on the sun garden at the top of the stairs. It is a generous garden, on a secondary walk path next to a stand of bottlebrush buckeyes and tall boxwoods.

Over the years most of my gardens were in the shade. Sun plants were carefully tucked into little spots here and there but overall, the gardens were ruled by the shade. The sun garden at the top of the stairs was new and exciting. It was drenched in bright light during part of the day and dappled shade in the early morning and late afternoon. I wanted to play in the space and experience the changing light.

After weeding and adding a few plants.

This spring the owners told me they were not coming back to the park; the garden was open for adoption! I had already passed along one of my gardens to a new gardener about two weeks earlier. At the time all of the gardens were spoken for and I didn't want to have to tell the new gardener no.  I had a new space to work on that is not part of the AaP and I felt it was time to let new hands work the area that had been mine for a few years. I was glad I did, for now I could adopt the sun garden.

This week in the sun garden.

I daydreamed about a simple design using three or four plants; perhaps roses, grasses and lantana. A design built on simple repetition. But as I began to weed and experience the space of the new sun garden first-hand my plans for simplicity flew out the window. The sunny isles of the garden store also plotted against my minimalistic design aspirations. How could I say no to all of these new plants I had never grown before? My mind was swimming with visions of lush border gardens overflowing with color, texture and continuous blooms. 

The garden is much fuller already. I have added more plants than I am ready to admit. I hope my repetition of a few foundational plants and colors will keep the garden from looking too wild and discombobulated.  Time will tell!