I woke the other morning, looked at the clock and no power. Hmmm. Looked at my dumb smart watch and had to calculate the time from military time. I haven’t quite figured this thing out yet! Turned on the light and said oh yea no power. Went thru the morning routine and went into the kitchen to make coffee. Ugg no coffee!!! Reached for an iced tea that was thankfully still cold and thought I’ll just go to Starbucks and then realized I can’t do that either the garage door won’t open. So I took my pouting self out to the deck and started checking my email only to discover I didn’t have wifi. Of course not!!! So my powerless self sat on my deck drinking iced tea, typing a blog post in “notes” with no whirrring of neighboring air-conditioning and listening to the crickets keep me company. OK not at all a bad way to start the day. Then suddenly about 2 hours later the ceiling fan on the deck ever so gently started to whir and eureka I was able to make coffee! What does any of this have to do with the “power of white in the garden” I have no clue, I just needed to tell you how I started my day. So important!

Have you ever wondered why you’ve never done something? I have never planted white flowers in my garden. This garden is almost 30 years in the making but still in it’s developmental stages. Over the years I have focused on structure in the beds and adding color with annuals in my baskets and pots. The yard initially was all about the deck but as the years have gone by the gardens keep getting improved. This gardening stuff is a very dangerous disease!

My beloved CoCoMo hiding in plain sight. I lost her last year. She was the best dog ever.

I always want to get the annuals in the pots and baskets first and then I start working on the beds. Over the last few years I have really been focusing on perennials because I discovered that my garden is at is zenith on the 4th of July when the Lillies are blooming and the rest of the summer it is just blah.

Love this Lillie I don’t know it’s name because years ago when I planted it I just stuck it in the ground and walked away. So dumb!

My “back 40” was originally planted as a full sun garden only to have that change to complete shade because of the flowering crab we have planted in front of this plot. Dah!!! I have had to completely rearrange the planting back here and there is not a lot of flowering going on. I am quickly running out of areas for full sun unless of course I want to create another bed.

I have always gravitated to the corals, reds and yellows. It has always been gorgeous and year after year I have just stuck with the formula. It’s worked. I’ve gradually started transitioning to more pinks and purples. So now I kind of have a hot mess of everything!

This year I decided not to plant any geraniums.

Not a one. Have I missed them? Certainly, but I decided to try to make things as easy on myself as possible and beautiful geraniums are a lot of work. I used to buy 30-40 geraniums every summer and these weren’t the little ones. These were the full grown $10 a pop kind.

For a few years I even wintered my geraniums over by pulling them in the fall and hanging them upside down in the garage until December. At that time I would put them in a single layer in a cardboard box to protect them from our cold Nebraska winters and then in March I would cut them way back and plant them in troughs until they were strong enough for spring planting the end of April 1st week of May. If you’re a geranium lover you should try this it works. During those years I had 75 geraniums in the yard. Lovely. But now I am older and geranium worms, extra feeding, dead heading and fuss are just something I don’t need anymore. I decided to substitute with Dragon Wing Begonias.

I first planted DWB’s in the tall pots on either side of the stairs leading to the deck. With the pergola they get plenty of shade and are quite happy all summer long into the fall. I just give them a drink and feed them once in awhile and they perform beautifully. Last year I tried them in sunnier locations because I was seeing them around town in sunny spots and again they performed well. So this year I bought them like crazy. Going to different nurseries looking for different varieties. So far so good. I found some white DWB’s for the first time this year and also white impatience which I haven’t planted in quite some time.

I mixed in some purple 1000 bells and I have some interesting combinations of containers. I never knew how powerful white could be in a garden. It acts like a punctuation mark.

At night they become magical brightening up the dark garden. Why I haven’t planted white before? I don’t have a clue but I am now hooked and will continue to add white.

I have added an Annabelle Hydrangea to replace the Giant Phlox that I lost this spring.

I added another Hydrangea to the mix to replace the Lilac Tree we lost and here and there I’ve tried to bring white in with the new perennials I’ve planted this year.

Astilbe I planted last year is looking great

Is my garden a perfectly manicured work of art absolutely not! It’s kind of a mess actually with a yellow/orange Lilly right next to my currently blooming pink Phlox, it’s a sharp clash of color and texture.

Has my gardening style changed over the years as I have more experience and my tastes have changed, sure. But I’m accustomed to my crazy eccentric way of gardening and the surprises it continues to yield year after year.

What surprises has your garden brought to you this year? I would love to hear about it.

Thanks for stopping

Shelley