Tulips at Gilmore Gardens

Cherry Corner is full of Tulipa 'Apricot Impression' this May.

Welcome to Garden Blogger's Bloom Day in Pennsylvania!
We are finally in full swing for spring around here and we are absolutely loving it!

While we have been working like crazy on our new gardens at Havenwood, our old garden is blooming away effortlessly this spring. It is amazing to stand back and watch it go... rather like seeing your beloved child run and win a race all by themselves. We did have two spring clean up times this spring, cutting back out sticks, etc. And another nice layer of mulch. But really, it was very little for such a beautiful show...

Gardening in Pennsylvania ~ October 2013 GBBD

The Hill Garden with Canna 'King Humbert', Echinacea purpurea, Berberis purpurea, and glorious yellow maples (Acer) leaves for autumn.

Welcome to my small town Pennsylvania garden in October!

I would be delighted to show you around our corner here in US zone 5. The foliage colors are intensifying this month, though they have not yet reached their climax. Our first frost is still on its way this year. Hurray for a few more weeks with tender plants in the garden! The begonias, cannas, dahlias and annuals are still adding their pretty bit to the mix. Come talk a walk around...

Gardening in Pennsylvania ~ GBBD August 2013

Pink Anemone japonica, Spirea 'Goldflame', red Canna 'King Humbert' and white Cosmos fill the Front Walk garden this week.

Welcome to August in Pennsylvania! We have quite a few flowers this month since the Japanese anemones and meadow rues have started their long season of bloom and the black-eyed Susans are prettying the curb. Come take a walk around!

Echinacea purpurea and Canna 'King Humbert'

Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) and the red-edged leaves of Canna 'King Humbert' in our Hill Garden this August.

While we are busy taking kids to the pool, picking local blueberries, biking some short trails, enjoying tea and fresh blueberry peach galette on the patio, buying "new" used books at our local library sale, swinging in the hammock, playing with our new bunny Ginger, etc., it is nice to know that the garden can just hold its own for a little while. Purple coneflower (and also the white ones, also in this bed) make summer color look effortless.

Hope you are all out enjoying the fruits and joys of summer!
~Julie

Veronicastrum 'Lavender Towers'

Veronicastrum 'Lavender Towers' in the Hill Garden this week with Echinacea purpurea.

You may have missed this flower in our July garden tour this week, so let me point it out to you! It is quite pointy after all... :)

Veronicastrum 'Lavender Towers' attracting a pollinator to its tiny flowers that are arranged in a whirl around branching spikes.

Roses in the Hill Garden

Rosa 'The Fairy' in the Hill Garden.

The finale rose in our garden this month is the classic polyanthus Rosa 'The Fairy'. When we planted our Hill Garden, which started as just a pile of dirt from our new gravel parking area (see before photo), I planted four of these pretty re-blooming rose bushes to ring the hill. They are backed by four purple barberry bushes (which I am not sure I would recommend as they can be invasive in some areas, though they look lovely here). The silvery lamb's ears (Stachys byzantine) and evergreen moss phlox (Phlox subulata) fill in here. There is also a host of perennial flowers at the crown of the hill: Echinacea purpurea, Shasta daisies, Sedum 'Autumn Joy', russian sage (Perovskia), Mallow and others.

I love this garden in all seasons, starting with the bulbs in early spring, then tulips (early tulips and late tulips), roses and daisies for summer, bold foliage in the late summer (Cannas are in again this year!), and more roses and Sedum for October, even til December snow. But for now, we are soaking up July. :)

Tulipa 'Apricot Impression' on the Hill

Tulipa 'Apricot Impression' surrounded by silvery lambs ears (Stachys byzantine) on the Hill. Photo by Melissa Ellen.

If you missed my GBBD post, then you missed a ton of beautiful photos of our garden taken by my good friend Melissa Ellen. I love the above photo so much, that I felt it should have its own post. It shows our Hill Garden this May with Tulipa 'Apricot Impression' blooming and a few blue Muscari armenicum woven in here and there. Silvery Stachys byzantine, purple barberry, and purple-flowered Phlox subulata fill in the tapestry.

While we were away...GBBD May 2013

Full of tulips at Gilmore Gardens in May!

As excited as I was to be touring Chanticleer and Winterthur last week, I was a little sad to be missing the over 200 tulips we planted last fall in our front garden! So, while we were away on our spring trip, I asked my friend Melissa Ellen to take some photos of our tulips. Melissa did a great job! I knew she would, as she does a wonderful job with photos of everything beautiful on her own blog, Melissa Ellen's Loft. If you are in need of some pretty ideas for your home, give her blog a look. Thanks to her for all of the beautiful photos in this post!!

Tulip 'Apricot Impression' in the Hill Garden

Tulip 'Apricot Impression' in the Hill Garden

Cherry Corner Garden in April

Pink Cherry blossom in Cherry Corner today.

Though it has been a bit cold at night, our days have been beautiful this week. And the plants have certainly responded to the weather!

Here are a few photos of our Cherry Corner garden (so called for the weeping cherry tree that is its center piece). I snapped them in the afternoon light sometime between watching the kids ride their bikes on the driveway, an afternoon homeschool session, writing a meal plan for next week, lying down for a wee rest, getting out pancakes to warm for dinner, and going grocery shopping until my mini van overflowed...  because we had no more food and were reduced to eating leftover pancakes for dinner!

The garden is such a reminder to me of the Lord's peace, and a greater Beauty, in the midst of a busy life. I hope it can be a reminder for you today as well.

Tulips for April

Tulipa 'Persian Pearl' in our garden this week.

Spring is in overdrive here in Pennsylvania. I took another walk around our garden today and I already see so much change from Monday tour for Garden Blogger's Bloom Day! The weather has been sunny and in the 60's, and we just had a few nice days of saturating rain last week.  The plants are zooming ahead to catch up to their normal April schedule, which was delayed this year.

These two tulips are sure to add some color to your April days! They are both very early bloomers, do well in containers, and have perennialized well here in well drained planting medium.

Gardening in Pennsylvania ~ April 2013 GGBD

Blooms for April along the front of our house at Gilmore Gardens.

Spring seems to have finally arrived here in western Pennsylvania, zone 5. Temperatures will be in the 60's this week (18 C) and the sun is shining.... and I have the sunburn to prove it! oops.

Yellow is the theme color this week with the forsythias and daffodils in full bloom. And our pet bunny, Bella, is enjoying the fresh new dandelion greens that I am pulling out from the lawns and borders. (Hint: Now is the time to get a jump on those weeds!)

First Snow at Gilmore Gardens

Snow on the Circle Lawn and Shade Path.

After a week of beautiful weather at the end of November, we finally had our first snow of the season at Gilmore Gardens.

Seed heads of Allium tuberosum

Papery Allium tuberosum seed heads glowing in the morning light on our Hill Garden.

An Allium tuberosum silhouette. This photo is in the same spot, but just after the sun has risen in the sky for a late fall day.

Gardening in Pennsylvania ~ GBBD November 2012

Sedum 'Autumn Joy' with its bright autumn foliage around our Circle Lawn.

Welcome to November in Pennsylvania!

Gardening in Pennsylvania ~ October GBBD 2012

Perennial mum Dendranthema 'Sheffield Pink' and double purple Aster hybrida 'Peter III'.

Welcome to October at Gilmore Gardens in Pennsylvania! 

Everywhere in our area we are seeing the colors of autumn. The trees are in the middle of their foliage change - the earlier ones having dropped most of their leaves and the later ones still holding on to their green. The asters are out in full force, the milkweeds pods are just about ripe and the first nips of frost have just come this past weekend. Some of the annual flowers did not take kindly to the cold, but others have survived to bloom a bit longer. Hope you enjoy your look around our tiny town garden!

Asters and pumpkins add color to the sunny Driveway Garden this fall.

Gardening in Pennsylvania ~ GBBD Sept 2012

Pink Dahlia with Euphorbia 'Diamond Frost' in our Front Walk Garden.

Welcome to Pennsylvania in September! My garden has definitely perked up for fall. We finally had a normal amount of rain for the month, which is the first month since last year. The plants are putting on new growth, looking greener and flowering a bit more. Here are some highlights from around our two-tenths of an acre at Gilmore Gardens.

Gardening in Pennsylvania ~ August GBBD 2012

Sedum 'Autumn Joy' and Mandevilla 'Pretty Pink' in PA zone 5 for August.

Welcome to August in my Pennsylvania, zone 5 garden! It is not what I had hoped that it would be, but the garden is perking up after having some much needed rain in the past two weeks. I took these photos last night after another rain came.

Large-flowered hardy hibiscus (Hibiscus moscheutos 'Pink Elephant') in our Driveway Garden is blooming away this month.

More in the Driveway Garden: Hibiscus 'Pink Elephant',white Miscanthus 'Dixieland',  a tall blue Buddleia and Agastache foeniculum 'Golden Jubilee'. The ground cover in front here is Sedum 'Acre' which is a much used cover plant in our gardens.

Garden Party at Gilmore Gardens

Our annual garden party in Pennsylvania is in the beautiful month of June!

I wanted to post a few photos of our 3rd annual Gilmore Garden Party that was held the first Saturday in June this year. June is such a beautiful time of year in our gardens, which I am especially appreciating now that the garden is a bit ratty from our dry summer.

I set up the food in the kitchen, since I am shy of being caught in the rain like we were for our first party! We were, however, able to eat outside this year thankfully. The little girls so look forward to dressing up in all their finery. It was a fun, relaxed time of yummy food, walking through the garden and the ever popular hunt for little garden trinkets amongst the flowers. My girls could not wait to find their birdies! In past years, we have had a flower identification hunt with an illustrated guide. It was so nice just to share being in the garden with so many friends.

A garden party needs a yummy cake: Almond cake topped layered with fresh whipped cream and the most scrumptious strawberry icing!!

GBBD April Flowers in Pennsylvania, Zone 5

The Circle Lawn on April 15th, 2012.

 Welcome to GBBD April at Gilmore Gardens in Pennsylvania, Zone 5!

Our garden is still a month ahead of where it normally is in spring.  It looks much more like May from last year than April.  We are located on a corner lot in our little town, so we have lots of passersby with which to share our spring celebration. Our location contains gardens in shade, semi-shade and lots of full sun. See the map of Gilmore Gardens to link these areas together in your mind as you look around.