Today we’re visiting with Shelley Haefner in Old Chatham, New York, who is sharing a few favorite garden photos that always help her make it through those long New York winters.
I started gardening ten years ago in an attempt to “pretty” my yard. Little did I realize the journey I was about to begin! Our home is situated in upstate New York, half of our landscape is in the shade, and the other half is in full sun. I get the best of both worlds and enjoy creating interactive gardens around my home. I use mostly perennials, shrubs, and small trees. My gardens have meandering borders and follow the contours of our natural landscape. Beauty was only the beginning of my journey. The garden has since rewarded me with amazing experiences. I love learning more every year about the relationships between insects and flowers, plants and soil, and humans and nature. It is my true happy place.
My shade garden is over 40 feet long and 20 feet wide!
In the full sun garden, a panicle hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata, Zones 3–8) blooms in the foreground, and a variety of coneflowers (Echinacea hybrids, Zones 4–8) and other perennials do the same beyond.
Another view of the full-sun garden.
‘Festivus’ daylily (Hemerocallis ‘Festivus’, Zones 3–9) takes center stage in the sun garden.
The boulder to the far right was dug up during excavation of our property. It is an amazing part of the structure for this shade garden.
A local artisan in the Catskills built this rustic cedar arbor for me as the entrance to my vegetable garden.
I caught this beauty on my phone and used the “Live” option to see it fully open its wings as it flew.
Yellow hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra ‘All Gold’, Zones 5–9) highlights the foreground of this small island bed.
Hummingbird on our catmint (Nepeta × faassenii, Zones 3–8).
Looking down the length of the shade garden.
A tree frog rests on ‘Golden Jubilee’ hyssop (Agastache rugosa ‘Golden Jubilee’, Zones 5–8).
Late summer, packing the blooms in!
Have a garden you’d like to share?
Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!
To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.
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