Y’all know about the Garden Blogger  Bloom Day, no doubt, so let’s get right to the photos.  As usual, I interpret “blooming” loosely to include seasonal foliage color.  So shoot me.

First up, the front porch made prettier by mums, annuals holding their own, the foliage of a Spirea, and in the foreground, Alyssum that blooms its guts out all season.

Then the view from the deck into the valley.

In my woodland garden, everyone notices the birdhouses, but my favorite focal point is this oakleaf hydrangea – that the deer won’t eat!

Part 2 of my Bloom Day report is here on the Homestead blog.

Recently your intrepid gardenblogger was treated to – in one single day – tours of Baltimore’s Cylburn Arboretum, the amazing private garden of Nell Strachan in upper Baltimore, dinner with a whole bunch of cool local gardeners and Erica Glasener from Atlanta, then Erica’s talk and slide show at the Cylburn.  And by the way, Erica’s a local girl, having grown up in Bethesda, worked at a local garden center before studying at Longwood Gardens and then working at the Scott Arboretum, then moving to Atlanta.   Here’s Erica and Nell at the Cylburn.

Below, a close-up in Nell’s garden as a teaser.  Click here for the post and photos of her wooded valley garden.   It’s titled “Choosing Magical Hillside Garden over Courtroom Drama”.

And below, a shady spot at the Cylburn.  To see and read my post about it, click here.

It’s very cool to have actual garden photographers shoot my own garden, especially when they let me publish the photos right here!  So thanks to Evelyn Hadden, Minnesota garden writer, author of upcoming Timber Press book about lawn alternatives (with photog extraordinaire  Saxon Holt), for sharing these photos with me.  I love that she saw such different viewing angles than I usually do, and actually got some great shots in glaring sun.   (Her tip: shoot from the shade into the sun.)

Above, the view from the guest room, where Evelyn was sleeping.  I’ve never taken a photo from that window.

Above, the dreaded under-deck doesn’t look too bad, with the help of a few shade-lovers.   In the foreground you see, left to right, Liriope spicata, Sweet Woodruff and Begonia grandis. In the background between posts, the large ornamental grass is an unidentified Carex, but I CAN tell you it’s evergreen.

And here’s what Evelyn calls a “signature plant” in my garden, the evergreen Carex variety ‘Ice Dance’.   I started with three of them a few years ago and after many divisions, I have enough to cover lots of territory, both in full sun and in full shade.  It’s a do-er!

Last, this photo by Evelyn isn’t actually of my garden but hey, I’m in it!  That’s Barbara Dinsmore with me in her DC garden – she and I were in the same class for our DC Master Gardener certification.  On a really hot day, this tiny, lawnless garden manages to be pretty cool and is crammed pack with color and interesting plants. And doncha just love the fieldstones with smaller rocks in between them?

Showing fellow Lawn Reformer and Minnesota garden writer Evelyn Hadden some of my favorite lawnless gardens this week gave me the chance to see them in a new way.   Like this particular view of feather reed grass ‘Karl Foester’ in the bright sun but paired with a backlit hosta in shade.    For another view, see my recent garden-center post glorifying  ornamental grasses.

In the same garden, Japanese blood grass with Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ and Russian sage.

Nearby, this painted lady has plenty of color in the front garden, thanks to crapemyrtle, Japanese anemone and goldenrod.

And for sheer drama you can’t beat banana leaves – really all season long but especially when the Lespedeza is blooming.  (This one is probably the variety ‘Gibralter’.)   Here’s more about this garden from 2007 when the garden was new, and back when I used really small photos in my blog posts.

Been hearing a lot lately about curb gardens – a book in the works, articles in major newspapers – so I thought it was time to compile the stories about them, with links and examples – here. I’ll be adding to it because, well, it’s an example of very public bits of turfgrass that are being turned into GARDENS, and they’re just so much fun to see.

Now enjoy a couple of cool examples from the City of Gardens – Buffalo, NY, of course.

Here’s my Garden Blogger Bloom Day post and I’ve gotta say I sure love August.  Not a popular sentiment here in the Mid-Atlantic.