Circle Garden’s shades of green
Our elevated deck offers a nice overhead view of the Circle Garden. And as I recently discovered, when you climb a stepladder on the deck, you can get almost the whole garden in the frame, including the new rose and salvia planting at the base of the deck. Just don’t fall off.
‘Winter Gem’ boxwoods, after 11 years finally at the size I envisioned when I planted them as tiny 1-gallons, anchor the four doorways into the circle. Miniature ‘Micron’ yaupon hollies ring the center bed, where a variegated whale’s tongue agave (A. ovatifolia) has pride of place.
Everyone asks about the sunburst path around the circle. It’s made of chopped stone.
The new rose bed is in its infancy (where I pulled out bamboo muhly grasses that had grown overwhelmingly large), but the ‘Icecap’ roses are supposed to stay small. So I decided to fly in a couple of round UFO planters — what else?? — to help tie the ground level to the deck.
They’re Orbit planters from one of my favorite garden shops, Los Angeles’s Potted (yes, they have an online shop), and aren’t they fun? ‘Frazzle Dazzle’ dyckia and silver ponyfoot pilot the two flying saucers. I’m hopeful that soon the ponyfoot will cascade over the rim like Spanish moss.
__________________________
Digging Deeper
Come learn about gardening and design at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, authors, and gardeners a few times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events that sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance; simply click this link and ask to be added. Season 8 kicks off in fall 2024. Stay tuned for more info!
All material © 2024 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
All that lush green must have a very cooling effect. It looks lovely! I still miss the pond, but what you’ve done is quite nice, Pam. I enjoyed the earlier verbena bonariensis, but the current iteration is calmer. Always a pleasure to see what you are up to!
Thanks, Ginny. It can take a while to find the exact right combo that will look good all, or at least most, of the year. The pond looked great in the summer and fall but not so much in the winter and spring. The verbena looked awesome in the spring but couldn’t hold up in our summers. We’ll see if this is the right match for my challenging conditions!
I bet the verbena has seeded itself in that bed! Cut it back early, at about 6-8″, it’ll branch and be shorter. And bloom a wee bit later. And yank it out when it gets unruly!
Looks great! It has a soothing effect.
Thanks, Laura. 🙂
I love overhead shots of gardens especially this type of space with all the symmetry. Love those little space ships. The ponyfoot will look great dripping down into the rose bed.
When you have an overhead view it practically screams for a geometric planting of some kind, doesn’t it? 🙂