You Grow Girl™

Yo!~

Nearly Summer, a week and a half until the Bucktown Garden Walk and it's the time of year when it's too rainy to do anything in the yard except to glower through the window at the plants and weeds happily growing amok. Though the sun was out this afternoon, it was too wet to work outside, so I decided to go visit my neighbor Jennys' yard.

I've spoken about her here as my go-to Woman for plant ER. Jenny is a Brit and it shows in her garden. Although our yard is many times the size of hers, I envy her every inch and cadge plants and cuttings whenever she allows. She and her Husband, Mickey, live at their place in W. Virginia in the Summers and her garden here still looks lush and tasteful.

Let's start with her Garden Gate. Covered with a rose and clematis , it's the focal point of the yard for me. Well, alright, the Dutchman's Pipe (aristolochia) comes in a close second for focus-pulling. Ye ghods, that plant has an eco-system all its' own.
It grows into an enormous natural awning and I've watched sparrows and squirrels battle over the choicest piece of nesting space on the block...the inside, upper corner of Jenny's back porch, which is totally protected by the vine.

Jennys' Brit side comes out in her Cottage Garden style.
This view from the back porch shows the color and depth in her choice of plants and there's nothing like sitting at the patio table after a rainy afternoon with the moss covered brickwork and the birds at the birdfeeder. She called me up one day to report that there were 22 Mourning Doves waiting patiently for their turn at the seed.

Jennys' yard is the 4th in a row where the owners have taken down the fencing between them and, as you can believe, the British influence isn't minded at all. Now let's take a look at the front yard.

Jenny and Mickey live on a street that, until recently, had trains running down the middle of it. The tracks are raised about 12 ft. above the ground. There's no car traffic and it's a lovely walkway with the wall up to the tracks covered in ivy on one side and some nice small yards on the other. Now that the trains have stopped, it's quite a unique place in the city.

This clematis is my favorite plant in Jenny's front yard. It's backed-up on the East by a big pink peony, a nice smattering of hosta and the deep green of a juniper.

Jenny is a great friend, an excellent neighbor and one of the finest gardeners I know....even if she does get a wicked glint in her eye and offers me, "Just a bit of the Dutchman's Pipe".