A New Vision

At the very end of 2025, I impulsively took out the skinny Blue Arrow juniper by the fence and that unleashed a torrent of changes for 2026. 

I moved the birdhouse in front of the fence to have something to look at, then arranged a moss rock border in front of it and imagined the perennials I wanted to put in there.

Then I was ordering plants, lots of them -- penstemon and verbascum and then more things to enhance the other spaces I have and I even moved things like the serviceberry and the Jackmanii clematis. 

I ordered plants to weave among the rock border stones along the walkway, and things to fill empty spots.

Everything was suddenly in play as I imagined a new vision for my garden: lusher, busier, more filled up.

Before that one act of taking out the juniper I had been cautiously conservative about changes. I wanted to edit down, streamline, wait for structural items to fill in, keep a more open and spare garden.

I had originally created separate rooms and levels -- the circle garden bordered and surrounded by a line of rocks, cut off from the lower flagstone patio, which ended even with the raised deck, separated from the garden under the aspens behind it, which was further bounded by the step down to the potting bench level.

Now I suddenly wanted flow, with the entire long narrow space tied together. I envisioned lots of plants and a fuller look all blending together, extending from the garage wall down through the yard to the aspens, skirting the deck and patio, filling out against the fence. Yikes.

A whole new vision.