A towering maple tree gives shade to the gardens in summer. (Photo by Chris Eirschele)
My garden in Hales Corners, Wisconsin, began as a clean slate of top soil and compost in early 2000s. I was the first person to plant anything in it and I chose primarily perennials. The garden faces eastward, set on an incline, and surrounds the trunk of a honey locust.
Neighboring my past garden, the arborvitae still stand watch. The plain hostas have multiplied. The mass of peonies are new. Everything is green! (Photo by Chris Eirschele)
Bones in a Perennial Garden
The bed came to me with two huge slabs of Lannon stone that gave the garden its rough ledges. I could sit on them; I could stand on them. Later, I added thinner and relatively flatter rocks to create walk-paths, which added structural bones to the garden. The stone steps allowed my dogs and I to walk into the garden without causing erosion until the young plants took root.
The tall purple allium still take me back to seeing the song birds sitting on the globes swaying in the wind. Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum sp.) and barren wort (Epimedium sp.) have flourished. (Photo by Chris Eirschele)
Perennial Plants and Bulbs on Kelly Place
The garden was a canvas for the daylilies (Hemerocallis) I collected and even now, though none were blooming in May, the plants looked healthy. Heuchera and Ajuga are still in residence. (Photo by Chris Eirschele)
Brunnera plants (Brunnera ‘Jack Frost’) added the low growing for-get-me-not kind of flower, and Alliums (Allium ‘Gladiator’ and Allium ‘Globemaster’) the tall swinging purple inflorescence that you see still growing in the garden. Both give the garden late spring color.
Lamium ‘White Nancy’ and Penstemon digitalis ‘Husker Red’ make a nice contrast. (Photo by Chris Eirschele)
Penstemon digitalis ‘Husker Red’ plants were chosen for their white flowers and because the plant tolerates Wisconsin weather; though the plants’ foliage color the garden with red, too.
Speedwell spikes brought more purplish shades (Veronica ‘Royal Candles’) to the garden and the burgundy color of Heuchera, which continue to be my favorite, though I realize there are so many more choices these days.
Back in the day, I purchased most of my daylily plants from Klehm’s Song Sparrow Farm and Nursery and the local SouthEast Wisconsin Daylily Society. (Photo by Chuck Eirschele)
I had planted the daylily Siloam Double Classic with Calibrachoa in a large planter and set the box on one of the large stone ledges to give the garden summer-long color. (Photo by Chuck Eirschele)
I still like the shorter alliums. Allium ‘Ivory Queen’ is going strong in the garden on Kelly Place. (Photo by Chris Eirschele)
Gardens Evolve
Gardens evolve, whether you stay and nurture them or move away and someone else tends to their needs.
The second year of my perennial garden was still evolving, but was a wonderful place I enjoyed with my dogs and where I could grow perennials I loved. (Photo by Chuck Eirschele
The perennial garden on Kelly is still there, though a bit smaller. I am happy I can still see plants of my ideas in the perennials that grow there today.
Garden Truths From My Family's Stories
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