I have a few photos of my garden, and it reminded me of advice to take pictures for a more objective view of your garden, to use as a base for making plans and noting what you like, what is working, and what you might want to change.
I find as my garden is maturing that there is a need to change the design and plantings. But I am so attached, sentimentally so, to a garden that has been such a part of life and creative process, that I need some mental distance to make changes.
Photos help create that objective distance… toa certain extent, at least.
Here is the beginning of recording it as it now is….
The Lavender Walk
lavender walk
This had to be replaced several times due to cold damage, the flagstone walk requires regular attention, and other plants, Rue and Iberis sempervirens are placed within the lavender plants.
container and lavender walk
Another view looking toward the bench under the lilac.  The amounts of Lambs ears, Stachys byzantina, waxes and wanes from year to year, but always beloved by bees. My battered urn just filled with the summer planting of Cappuccino petunias, Calibrachoa and grass- recipe detailed here
pyracantha in spring
I was hard at work..weeding, filling containers, pruning, doing a little bit of everything. I finally put the trellises back up on the porch, and now belatedly training the clematis on this side, honeysuckle Belgica on the other. I desperately want to replace this porch, but I don’t think it will happen any time soon. The Pyracantha is periodically pruned back heavily. A job requiring long-sleeved shirt, garden gloves, ladder, and various pruning tools.
Two pictures that are a perennial joy are the views through the pyracantha bush that I have trained up the side of my house, and the “Look Into” garden that greets me each morning through the bay window facing east. In winter these two views are especially cheering, the shrub always alive with bird activity which can be observed up close and the adjoining garden which is planted up for all season interest.
This is the fruit of planning your landscape, creating features that give you joy in the world around you.
A Gallery Of Scenes From My Yard
Various Seasons, Various Perspectives
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Peony, Paeonia lactiflora, under the weeping crabapple.
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Dream Catcher Beauty bush
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Naturalized Muscari and Puschkinia
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Queen of the Bartigons
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Firepit project
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Prairie Fire Crabapple Tree
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Alberta/Hinoki cypress
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M. Stellata
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Magnolia stellata
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The first Lavender hedge renovation
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Muscari naturalized bulbs under Globe Arborvitae
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Chionodoxa patch
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Sweet Cherry
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Bowl of Beauty and Dames Rocket
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Chamaecyparis obtusa with Tulipa 'Renown'
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Endless Summer is pink for me
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bench under the lilac
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Leaves! Autumn tasks
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I began here... in the side yard
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My view to the West. Red Maple tree
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Arbor view of Cherry tree and Texas Scarlet quince
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Weeping Willow
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Foliage colors, Euphorbia, Ninebark, and Sedum
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Hinoki and potted pelargoniums
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Mugo pine highlights tulips
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Greenhouse when new
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Twisted branches and dangling catkins
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The pine protagonist of my story
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Old farmhouse in the country
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It got away from me!
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Diablo ninebark, Tiny Tim cotoneaster and daylily
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Coreopsis verticillata in garden
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Therese Bugnet rose
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Magnolia stellata buds in spring
