Last year, at this time, we had the Accidental Poppy Garden in the front of the house. It had happened because Bill had gone out one day in the winter and sprinkled a mixture of poppy seeds all over the place. By June we had such a delightful mix of poppies that we were in awe.
This year we waited to see if the poppies would re-seed themselves as they’d done in the back garden for years. But instead we got a whole new surprise garden. This garden was not the result of planning or work, but more of a wait and see garden. In fact, other than a bit of weeding of the most obvious weeds, in other words one’s that we knew for sure were weeds, we did very little. We just went out and looked to see what would come up.
For someone who is trying hard to learn not to be controlling, to have a much less judgmental attitude, to go with the flow, this garden has become one of my best lessons.
This was the year for Foxgloves. They are biennial and bloom every second year. I’ve never planted them, they must be from the old garden, an inheritance from the last person who grew here before we moved in. Or maybe they are dormant in our compost heap and come up where ever we spread new compost.
We have snapdragons, and have been enjoying the Bumble bees who crawl right inside each blossom. And there is a new plant, a volunteer, we had to do a bit of research to find out what it was, since we’d never planted it ourselves. It’s called Purple Toadflax, and is considered a weed by most but we left it, since it was tall and worked well with the Foxgloves that had spread themselves everywhere. Also giving some colorful zing with their bright yellow-orange blooms were the California Poppies. Now we do have a packet of seeds but it’s never been opened. These girls are volunteers all over our garden and are Bill’s absolute favourite.
On the way to one of the gates leading to the back garden we have the California Lilac in full bloom. Oh we know it really needs a pruning and shaping, and maybe the Snow on the Mountain is getting away from us and a few things are coming up again unplanned, but you know it looks kind of exuberant and wild and quite over the top. We kinda like it, even though you can barely get through to the gate.
So far it’s been a rather nice succession of things coming up and going to seed. Right now the Fried Egg or Poached Egg as the British gardeners prefer to call them, are going to seed. We’ve never had so many! The next phase I think, will be the lavender now almost ready to bloom and there are signs that the Artemesia has gone rampant. Who knows what will surprise us next. But we’re enjoying it.
I suppose I was never cut out to be a tidy, planned gardener. After all, as artists, Bill and I both tend to go for the expressive and intuitive arts like abstraction and mosaics and collage. And anyway, maybe we’ve somehow discovered that low maintenance, no work garden that all the books keep promising. It may not be for everyone and I certainly don’t think it should be, but we’re enjoying this “Surprise Me” way of gardening and trying to learn from it.
Today is Garden Bloggers Bloom Day on May Dreams Garden and I think I’ll enter this post. Please check it out and see what’s blooming in other gardens today. It’s always enjoyable.
Tags: Accidental Poppy Garden, California Poppies, Foxgloves, maintenance free garden?, Snapdragons, surprise garden, Toad Flax
Foxgloves are so fun, aren’t they? I keep thinking I need to be proactive and plant some so that I’ll have them to bloom the next year. I’m not very good at letting stuff self-so, and I would really need to re-dedicate for that to work!
Your color combos are gorgeous!
Hiya Helen,
Nice to meet you.
Amazing: that picture of the foxgloves, campanula and daisy-leaved toadflax could be mine. I now feel I ought to put it in my bloomday list. To think that we are, what, 6000 miles apart and our gardens could be nextdoor.
Hi, Helen - I just LOVE your garden!! It’s wild and free, and full of the kind of surprises we like (the beautiful kind, not the unexpected bill in the mail or the snowfall in May kind). Thanks for sharing your glorious photos, as always!
I was just posting about a poppy garden! You beat me!!
Gorgeous pics, too.
Hello Joco, Actually I’m not surprised that we have the same flowers. Victoria is has a reputation as being little England in Canada. Or at least I’m pretty sure that a lot of transplanted Brits end up here because climate-wise it is so much like home for them.
Hi Marianne, Glad you like it. It really is quite wild looking and does have a very unplanned look to it.
Hi Jenn, I love poppies so I’ll have to cruise over and see your post about poppies.
Dear Helen, Well, these are the kinds of surprises one could do with all of the time. Your garden is, indeed, a riot of colour, but in the most pleasing of ‘cottage garden’ ways. It must give you such pleasure to be enjoying so many old favourites. These are certainly the flowers of summer which I love to see.
What an amazing and colourful garden. Wonderful.
Hello Helen,
Well, I definitely do not have a neat and tidy garden, with all my plants in a row
I love the natural beauty of your garden. I think nature knows best, don’t you?
Hi Katie, I do like Foxgloves and so far I’ve never planted any. They have always just come up on their own and I never have any idea where they’ll come up next.
Hello Edith, The garden is a pleasure and you’re right it is actually a “cottage garden”, which I quite like. But it’s fun that it’s done this basically all on it’s own. These plants have for the most part self seeded.
Hi Valerie, Glad you’ve enjoyed it.
Hi Noelle, There’s definitely nothing neat and tidy about this garden. It’s rather chaotic and wild actually.
The colour in your garden is definitely zinging! Thanks so much for sharing your blooms!
Hello Helen,
Well, your ‘accidental’ gardening sure has a different result from mine! Mine does look like an accident
All of those flowers and colour is an absolute feast for my eyes!
WOW! Those shots of your front gardens are fabulous! The colors are all perfect together and there is a wonderful balance to everything.
Those purple poppies are gorgeous as well. I have red and pink ones, but could really go for some of those.
Hello Heidi, No, I’m pretty sure the result is exactly the same, mine looks like an accident too. I’m just learning to enjoy it as it is, unplanned and colorful. There is actually another garden planted under all these volunteers and when they go to seed the garden I planned will be showing, or not. I wonder what else will happen.
Hi Sylvana. Glad you enjoyed my surprise garden. The colors do look good which is something as it certainly wasn’t planned. As for the poppies, there are so many wonderful colors! As I walk around my neighbourhood I have my eye on some that I might try to get some seeds for.
Fabulous! I adore the exuberance and joy in your garden. I love garden surprises! (I just posted on a surprise of my own.) Your color combinations are stunning.