This was the first tree I planted after I bought the house. I had been watching Tracy's garden videos through 2023, and I was really loving hydrangeas at the time. When I decided to transform the garden, this Quick Fire hydrangea in tree form was where I started. Pollinator friendly, and simple, which is what I wanted. It went in on July 21, 2024. It will be the focal point too, the thing people see right away when they come into the garden.
Shao’s Garden · No. 11
September
Nothing here is permanent, and so nothing here is background. September is both an ending and a beginning, and the two are not in conflict.
7 moments · 3 days · 18 of 25 in bloom
September 5
One moment
September 2
One moment
September arrives quietly. A few leaves let go before you notice them going. The flowers that carried August start to soften at the edges, and the garden begins the long work of putting itself away. I used to find this sad. Now I think it's the reason I pay attention at all. Nothing here is permanent, and so nothing here is background. The last of the dahlias, the light coming in lower each evening, the roses holding on past the point of tidiness. If they lasted, I would stop seeing them. And this is also the month the garden asks me to think ahead. While things are fading above ground, I'm on my knees planting for a spring I can't picture yet. September is both an ending and a beginning, and the two are not in conflict. One is what makes the other worth doing.
Garden
1
September 1
Five moments
The new bench in the east garden, tucked among the tall grasses and the hydrangeas going pale pink, new grass filling in at its feet. I bring my coffee out here every morning now.
I moved the Mexican feather grass closer to the east lawn border, where its fine, golden-buff foliage sweeps out over the edge. It's the movement I keep coming back to, the way it never quite settles.
A cute little bee is taking a nap on the raised, golden-brown center of a Helenium after a long day of pollination, resting atop rich coppery-orange petals.
I don't know why, but when I look at this rose I feel a sense of romance and elegance. Olivia is on her second bloom flush this season, opening soft pink shallow cups among fresh rounded buds, the ruffled petals densely packed into full rosettes. So dense against the healthy dark green foliage, and still that classic English rose look. I picture this pairing very well with dark purple salvia.
Collected a few flowers from the garden and made a bouquet for the house. Golden-orange black-eyed Susans with tall dark cones, crimson zinnias showing their yellow disc florets, a blush-pink double dahlia, and one cupped, golden-yellow English rose. I could probably take a course to get better at this. Maybe another time. For now I am just enjoying having them in the house.
Garden
1
Shao’s Garden · No. 10
August
12 moments · 7 days · 18 of 24 in bloom
August 30
One moment
Did the phase 1 work replanting the east garden. Replaced two hydrangeas with David Austin roses. Added two bags of compost to improve the soil condition in the bed. Planted more stargazer lilies beside the Pinky Winky tree, which is loaded with large conical panicles shifting from white to deep rose pink.
Preparing the east garden bed for next year June wedding.
August 21
One moment
Harvesting some flowers for the house, bringing in tightly layered coral-pink ball dahlias, bi-color mahogany and bright yellow rudbeckia, and soft pink lisianthus with a stem of silvery eucalyptus. As the summer getting shorter and shorter, the garden itself is getting more sad. I am happy that I had a successful garden and just sad seeing it coming to an end. Enjoy it while it last.
Garden
August 10
One moment
Love the dahlias in the garden, with their fully double, tightly layered peach-pink blooms opening alongside round green buds above deep foliage.
August 4
One moment
I've been thinking about improving the area between the East Garden and the Southeast Garden. Right now it's just a patch of dry soil under two trees where nothing grows, and it's been bothering me lately. So today on a busy day I decided to do something about it and picked up some black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia 'Viette's Little Suzy') to plant there. I really want a pop of color in that corner so when I see it, it looks beautiful. The spot gets maybe three hours maximum of direct sunlight but gets lots of bright indirect light. These compact mounding plants in their black nursery pots have healthy green foliage and grow to about 30 to 40 cm tall and 18 inches across, which is perfect for the front border. I'm leaving the mid-border empty right now because it's even shadier and I need to think about what plant to put there. Feeling very accomplished today, and took some photos to upload.
August 3
Two moments
I always like the look of coneflowers, and this lightly fragrant one with its vivid pink ray florets and fiery orange central cone particularly adds pop in the garden. Also, purple coneflower is classic cottage garden.
Planted this back in 2024 when I first designed the west garden. Tiger lilies just have that wild flower garden look that I like, with their strongly recurved, dark-spotted orange petals and long hanging stamens flared wide open.
August 2
Two moments
Looking forward to have my own hydrangea border in a few years, with these heavy white bloom heads holding sturdy as they shift toward lime green.
Adding trellies for the celematics to climb as the tower in the back of the south garden.
August 1
Four moments
After a year I finally grew Dahlia in ground, with the soft blush and pale peach blooms opening fully now. I was told this can be a perennial in Vancouver now because we are Zone 9A.
Harvesting the dense, pale lime panicles from the Little Lime hydrangea, packed with tight chartreuse florets on stiff woody stems, and pruning it back for next year's new growth. This bouquet would look good in the house.
The rain in past few weeks have making it flopping
Really like the bouquet. The smoky amber glass vase pairing with the pale chartreuse panicles of Little Lime hydrangea. Vintage meets modern. Looks great in the house.
First year in the pot for the Puffer Fish, holding dense, puffed panicles of cream and pale lime.