Summer Garden, Oceanside . . .

 My botanist-horticulturist (artist-writer-naturalist) friendAlisononce called my front garden a Darwinian garden, alluding to my tendency to throw plants into the soil here and see what survived.  While the rest of the garden is shielded by the house, the front is up close and personal to the ocean and its meteorological vagaries. Alison has a similar situation a few homes away from me, although her waterfront lot faces a more ferocious wind. Both of us subject whatever we plant in front to summers whose droughts and hot sun are compounded by the drying effects of wind and salt spray. Most plants chosen to match these tough conditions — xeric — don’t like to have their feet wet, so are seriously challenged by our long rainy winters.

 Still, over the years (I can almost say “decades” now . . . ) we’ve found a few happy campers. The native roses, of course, and I love the way they complement the rosemary (unstoppable, that rosemary!). . . But this Darlow’s Enigma, planted just two years ago, has declared itself unafraid of the weather — it’s a take-no-prisoners climber that produces sprays of these lovely white blooms, each one donating all kinds of fragrance to the salt air — a joy to have just outside my office window!

 As for fragrance . . . can there ever be too much lavender? (Answer, emphatically, NO!)

 And I love purple and orange together, and crocosmia seems happy almost anywhere, so . . .

 And bronze Phormium (New Zealand flax)

And rudbeckia. . . .

 Finally, these unstoppable fuschias. . . these were on the property when we arrived. They were beaten back drastically through our renovations/addition, but once again sprawl over the deck stairs, siren-singing the hummingbirds to their sweet red-and-p;urple architecture. . .

Again, I sigh, Ah Summer . . .

11 Comments

  1. K.Line
    30 July 2013 / 1:09 am

    You live in a phenomenal landscape. Really, there are people who have never come across such natural beauty in all of their lives. How fortunate you are! (I need to be a bit more Darwinian and a bit less hen mother about my gardens.) As my landscaper says: It's a plant. If it dies, rip it out and try a new one. I just think that's so harsh! I get SO attached.

    • materfamilias
      30 July 2013 / 2:58 pm

      I know why you mean about getting attached, but sometimes reality has to be acknowledged, right.

    • materfamilias
      30 July 2013 / 2:59 pm

      That should be "right?"

  2. Madame Là-bas
    30 July 2013 / 1:42 am

    Do you sketch among your Darwinian friends? There are so many colours of plants along with the changing shades of ocean and sky. There is something about those plants that survive year after year on the edge of a forever changing sea.

    • materfamilias
      30 July 2013 / 2:59 pm

      I haven't yet, my sketching and painting skills being rather limited . . .

  3. LPC
    30 July 2013 / 2:57 am

    What beautiful photographs. Really beautiful. And I usually feel like photos of flowers are kind of cheating:).

    • materfamilias
      30 July 2013 / 3:00 pm

      Well, this cheater thanks you . . .;-)

  4. Pondside
    30 July 2013 / 3:33 pm

    Survival of the fittest is the order of the day here too. So far that seems to mean, daisies, crocosmia, ferns and rugosa roses.
    And of course, the blackberries!

    • materfamilias
      1 August 2013 / 5:07 am

      Oh, those blackberries! almost jam time. . .

  5. Jane M
    1 August 2013 / 3:30 am

    Gorgeous pictures and wonderful plants, a few new to me. We've had such a wet, cooler than normal season that my garden is lush, quite an usual word to be using for July and Maryland. I' especially jealous of your fuschias.

    • materfamilias
      1 August 2013 / 5:08 am

      we had cool wet weather until the 3rd week of June, but it's been dry and warm since then. Lush is good, right?
      The fuschias are a treat, aren't they?! And they take no care at all here, except for a bold cutting-back each spring.

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