Joy in the Garden 🌸 Summer Garden Talk & Tour with Joyce Ludlow

Hey everyone, today we're here with Joyce Ledlow and her beautiful garden in Norwalk, Iowa. Joyce, thanks so much for having us. You're welcome. I was just admiring your lamb's ear and which one is this again? This is the Helen von Stein. That is gorgeous. This is only its second year and that is a first year lamb's ear, so they will grow that much. That is an yeah, that's beautiful. I love the broad leaves like broader than the species. Yeah, very nice. I love it. I love it. Yeah, nice and great here next to the driveway and the sidewalk. And the over, I think, I love the overlapping on the sidewalk and it brings kind of a silvery gray that a lot of things don't bring year after year anyway. Yeah, for sure. And what's the allium that you have growing with it? So actually in this little spot here we have three different alliums. This is the millennium, which is quite popular. You notice it's a little shorter. It's blooming a little early this year here in Iowa, but that is a darker bloom. This is bubblebath, which is taller and it has, you know, the bigger bloom. Yeah, nice. And it blooms earlier and then this is a summer beauty right here. OK, and that one is about it. It gets about as high as that millennium. Similar color as the bubblebath. Yeah. So just and I think earlier. Yeah. And I have more of them in fact that are lavender bubbles. Oh, nice. Yes. And they bloom after the millennium. Great. You have like a real range. I'm trying. I'm trying because it's the easiest perennial. Yeah, it is. Once you discover allium, you'll never go back. Yeah. Now, how long have you been here in your garden? We moved here 13 years ago and we started the gardens about 12 years ago. So the summer 12 years ago. And we had some hardscaping done by a professional. You'll understand when we get to the back why we needed a professional. And then 12 years ago, the only thing that remains from 12 years ago, these three green velvet boxwoods. Oh, that's all up here. They look great. Nothing else was actually here. There's a few things in the back, the trees. And I have some summer substance classes that have been here from the very beginning. But otherwise, things have just changed a lot. They're like an old reliable. They are like an old reliable. I know people should talk about them more. Yeah. Yeah. Now, do you have to prune your boxwoods? I do prune them. I prune them in the spring. I will be honest, I didn't prune these for six, seven years. And then I decided I wanted to make sure they didn't get any bigger. But they are at their full size. In fact, I have some boxwoods right on the corner there. They're about this size. And I planted them only six years ago. Oh, wow. So I know they're at their size. And ones in the back. I have a lot of boxwood. I do trim those a little smaller. So I didn't know that I could. I didn't really know that. Right. Good. We learn. Yeah. Well, let's look a little bit more at your foundation planting here. OK, so this is the landscaping that you had installed, right? Yes. We have this hardscaping here put in the summer like 12 years ago because, you know, it does slope a little bit. So we wanted to make sure that that was built up appropriately there. And then how is the planting changed? Completely. So I used to have knockout roses here. Oh, OK. And they were very popular knockout roses. I had them for quite a few years. And you get Japanese beetles everywhere. Not just the rose, but I had them on this side and this side and anything I put in between here. So this is probably the fourth thing I've had here because of those Japanese beetles. So, you know, the roses are beautiful and blooming. Yes. So it's hard to rip them off. Yeah. But I ripped them off. Really one of the harder things. I just arose for the first time this year back again after like four or five years of I'm not doing it. Japanese beetles are winning. I'm not going to fight that battle. So I actually then added the hydrangeas. OK, so I added a couple bobo hydrangeas here and over there. They look good. And this is in full sun. OK, so they are loving life this year because we've gotten a lot of them. So they're loving life. And at the same time, I added this limelight. Oh, that looks gorgeous. It's doing well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then I slowly just, you know, I've got some sedum and peonies. I have four peonies in here. I can't hardly notice them because you can really tuck those in. Yeah. And then kind of filling it in with annuals. But over time, I'm I'm trying to get a little less annual so that we have more of a year that we don't get as much rain. Oh, yeah. I don't have drip. So I don't want to be out here every day. And I want things to thrive. Yeah. Whether you have a great year like this year with rain. Yes. Or you have a year that it's not so great. Yeah. Like the last couple of years. Yes. Yeah. They've been pretty tough. They were tough. Yeah. Well, that salvia is looking fabulous. Yes, this is. So I plant this meteor showers in there like every year because I love it. So that's a verbena. Verbena. This is new to me. I wanted to put a salvia up here to attract the hummingbirds because I used to put some over there and they got a lot taller. And I wanted to try some salvia. Oh, yeah. So I'd love these. I had no idea that they were going to be quite as beautiful. Yeah. What do you usually use for color up here? I actually, well, I discovered last year that this particular potato vine. Yes. Gets kind of tall. So here I was, I was planting things lower to the ground like petunias, verbena to the ground. Yeah. It was kind of getting heavy. So I, I have done the meteor showers here. But again, I added some sedum and peonies. So last year, this was kind of like a sea of purple, but you couldn't really necessarily see it because some of these aloams are a bit bigger. So these are going to be repeats. Yeah. Next year. And I like the combination of the pink and the purple. Do you remember the variety? This is called skyscraper pink. Nice. It's a nice big flower. Yeah. Yeah. And I actually found a photo that I had taken like two years ago. Oh, I should have that. And so this year I did. Good deal. Glad it worked out. Yeah. So cool. And then let's, what's around the corner here? I see some other salvia maybe here. Yes. So you have a couple of barberries here. They go really nice with your color scheme. Yeah. Which variety is that? This is the concord variety. I actually had these for quite a few years. They're at full, that's their full size. And that concord variety does not produce seed. Great. So it's not considered invasive. That color is really hard to get in anything. I mean, there's some regellas and stuff like that. But it's a beautiful, beautiful color. And so I do in the spring have ambassador allium that gets higher than that. They're gorgeous, gorgeous. But this is the Senorita Rosalita Cleome. And I do love this. This is my second year with this. They love the hot. And we get, believe it or not, in Iowa, right? We get very hot. We do. In July and August. Yeah. So they really, they really up when it gets hot and they go long into fall. They don't kind of like some perennials. Yeah. They say kind of dwarf too, right? They're not like really. I think they're a little bit taller. If I remember from last year, they're like maybe just taller than that. But the limelight's grown too. So I've got to remember, you know, that in it. It looks very happy there. Both of them do. And this is just, is this just a regular like a Victoria blue or salvia? It's right here. Yeah, it is like a Victoria blue. I tried to get a little bit shorter this year. I've done some really tall ones. I have a lot of stuff going in here at the dahlias and stuff still coming. So I've learned a little bit more about that. Yeah. But those, yeah, you don't have to water these. You don't have to do anything to them. We should all plant more of that. I love salvia. It's great. And long blooming. Everything in here seems very, you'll have color for quite a while. Yes. That's great. Yeah. Yeah. I kind of, I do love petunias, especially the mini vista petunia, but I try not to do as many as I used to. You do have to look out for worms and, you know, they do need watering. I'm not that that's horrible, but. Yeah, but it's when we have like. These guys will just shine, you know, regardless. Yeah. Great. Well, let's walk around to the, see the, the other, there was another bed over here at the front of the. Yes. Near the driveway. Okay. So I noticed this bed as we pulled in, I see it's right next to the driveway, kind of on the way to the backyard. Yes. Yeah. So I started this bed about nine years ago. And I added our providers here, honestly, just a little bit of privacy as well. I had this vision for a long time before I planted it. And then slowly just added some things. And then my, my, my dad passed away. And so it was just timing was perfect. I found this bench and I thought, well, he's just going to come and sit there and. Oh, that's nice. Yeah. Watch my son play basketball. And, you know, it was, it was kind of a little bit of a breathing process for me. Yeah. Added the angel, the alliums again, this millennium allium, just they're popped everywhere. This is actually a very heavy spring garden though. And he passed away in April. So this probably has about, I don't know, 50, 60 daffodils. Oh, gosh. I know this is about 90. I have had this spring flocks right here for way over 10 years. Oh, wow. It's a bright pink. So, you know, the bright, that bright pink with that and some of the pomegranates and stuff bloom at that time. And we have quite a few hardy geraniums. So this puts on more of a show earlier in the season. And then as the millennials, you know, start, millenniums start to bloom, you know, get another little show. Yeah. Excellent. Yes. That's great. Well, you have summer over here and spring over here. That's right. And I try not to plant too many annuals here, except for like that Truffula, which can take a lot. Yeah. For whatever reason, this is a very dry bed. The trees and arborvitaes, I think, really take a lot of water. Oh, OK. So anything I plant doesn't grow really fast because I think it's fighting for root space. It's fighting for water. So this is this is my most drought tolerant. Oh, cool. Yeah. That makes sense. You get sedum. And I must plant more of these. This is the Calumet. Oh, yeah. I just discovered that. That's sweet. OK. They do great in this bed. Yeah. I should add more. Yeah. Great. Yeah. It's kind of trial and error, isn't it? A lot of gardening. I guess I'm guessing this fall I will move some things here to other beds and they will be three times bigger next year. Oh, yeah. So, you know, we've got to find what works. Yeah. For you guys. I like it. Yeah. Well, maybe we can wander to the backyard and take a look. Joyce, I couldn't help but notice this beautiful smoke bush that you have right on the corner. Yeah. How do you keep it looking so nice? Well, this is probably about, I'd say, eight years old. And I it took me a few years to learn how this is very, very tall right now. But pretty soon I will come in here. It's it's smoke blooms are kind of gone for this. I mean, they're here. Right. But they were more brilliant colors. And I will come in here and I will trim this down and it will only be about this tall. Okay. Done. Go way down there. And a few years ago, I started cutting down here at the bottom. Honestly, because if you have a smoke bush, you know, they can go a little crazy if they want to. Right. Regardless of the variety. So I was struggling kind of trimming down there every year. So I just started chopping it down and really kind of creating more of a branching structure up there, which allows me to put some things, plants and stuff underneath. Yeah. And just keep it more in control. It looks really nice with the being able to see the stems down there. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if I were to be honest, I didn't know it would turn out so. You know, we try, we learn. Exactly. And the one thing with the smoke bush is I don't think you can screw up. Yeah. You cut it off and it'll come back. I'm not kidding. I think the next week it starts growing back. They are pretty tough. They are pretty vigorous and tough. Yes. Yes. But it's definitely been one of my favorites. In the evening, these tips are bright red. Oh. Because the sun comes from behind and it's really pleasant. Yeah. It's a good looking plant. Yeah. And then you have these lovely hydrangeas. Do you know which ones these are? Yes. This is Bobo. Now, interestingly, if you compare it to the ones we just looked at in front, back here, the Bobos are a little bit of a looser look because they get more shade. This gets a morning sun, afternoon shade. And this is a Pinky Winky, which really needs a lot of sun, but it's doing just fine back there. So these blooms are looking really great. Nice and big. I think. This is the area I lovingly call the clay garden. Okay. So when we first moved here, this was just, I had never seen this kind of clay before in my life. I didn't know there was such a thing. And this has been here probably for eight, nine years. And the first probably three, four years that I had this Bobo here, it would get ferocious. So, you know, hydrangeas can grow in clay soil, but you do sometimes have to do something. They turn yellow. Notice this year, this is the best it's ever looked. Yeah. And so every fall I have added compost here. I even did, I even put a cardboard down with compost over top, even though I wasn't creating a new bed. I just thought that's just more stuff to really help. Oh yeah, to sort of decompose and add some nutrients. I got to stop calling it the clay garden because it's starting to come out of it. Oh, that's good. I'll continue to do that every fall. We have wet, pretty wet winters. So I do it in the fall because that allows it to kind of seep through in there. I need more time in the fall than I do in spring. That makes sense. So why not? Spring is a busy time, isn't it? That's right. It is. So when you moved in, what did you have here? Not much. This was actually half the bed. So when they did the hardscaping, there was, and I had my husband come and pull it out more because of course I wanted more plants. Of course, yeah. The only thing that was original is this, the sullen substance. Oh, there's some, yeah. He survives. I had three of them there. I've divided one over there. I gave one to a nephew. So I will, I have, there's something very special to me about sullen substance because before I knew gardening, I knew sullen substance. So that's a great, great hosta. It is a very nice hosta. They talk about the large hostas coming out today. I don't know how old that one is. It's been around a long time. That's great. And it's a beauty. I love, yeah, I love those plants that you can have for years and years. Right, yeah. Very nice. So, and I, you have some other like hardscaping here. Maybe we can take a look at those. Take a look at that. Absolutely. So you've got these lovely patios. How did they come about? What was the story with those? Yes. So when we first moved in here, this was all, all of this was trees and brush. Oh, yeah. And once they built the house and everything, we realized how much of a hill we had back here. And so they actually brought in dirt to kind of create this as much as, you know, put this out as far as we could. However, at the time we had little kids and we did not, all I could imagine was me having to run down the hill and get the ball. So we, we actually put, because it's steepest on this end. So we actually decided to have hardscaping put in here. So we moved in the November and that winter was my little planning time. And I looked at magazines before the online world was the online world. Good old fashioned magazines still have many of them. And I kind of laid this out and found a landscaper and got it going. I think the only plant that was here, the trees. The trees were here. That was one of the things that we did have him plant. And then I, I planted this little lime hydrangea. Yeah. Outside of that, I think everything else sort of was added and changed. That's the fun part of gardening. Yeah, it is. It's the journey. Yes, exactly. And this seems like a lot more shade than up front. Yes. So this, yeah, these chairs right here, those are my chairs. And I love it when anybody in my family comes down and joins me, right. But this is peaceful, calm. I love it. I've slowly changed a lot of this because the tree's that larger and it has more shade. And I'll be, I'm one of the people that I want more shade. Yeah. People want more sun that have too much shade. But I really have gotten an appreciation for the shade plants and the foliage and what you can do without water. It's a lot. And I didn't want to be back here watering all the time. I want it. So there's definitely more shrubs, perennial. You'll see, you know, begonia stuck in here and there, but that's because begonia can live through anything. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, I know. So they are very tough. Yeah. Great. Yeah. Yeah. And you've got some hydrangea microphyllas, I noticed that, which those are kind of tough here in the Midwest. They are tough. So I actually had that old back here. These are Bobo hydrangeas, but I had little endless summer. Oh, yeah. They're beautiful, beautiful blue. Yeah. About every three years. And yeah, you know, all this will make you cry when they just wouldn't come. Oh, yeah. And so, to be honest, during the pandemic, I babied those things. I covered them. I thought if there's any, every time I'm going to get these beautiful blooms out of endless summer, it's going to be now. I didn't get them. So I fired them. I'm like, we're out of here. I dug them off. So these are really only like three years old. Oh, that's impressive. Yeah. They look great. And notice again, they have a looser habit. Yeah. And even the one on the end, because of the tree, doesn't get quite as much sun. So I need to get, I tried to trim it myself, but I need a handier person. Yeah. Open that up just a little bit more so that it's almost nice. Yeah. Yeah. Never looked back once I added all those. Never looked back. But you've got a couple left over here, I see. I do. So I do have, these are, I put them in the same time. I think they're the old Let's Dance Starlight. Not available. Not available because they improve them so much. Yeah. But that was a nice one. Yeah. And they maybe get a bloom a season. Oh, okay. But I kind of like the green. I feel like sometimes we have so much going on here, I need to rest. Yes. And I thought about removing them. And then I thought about physically removing them. That kind of turns you off a little bit, right? Because they've been here a long time. But I love their shape. The beautiful things, they're very round. Yeah. And it's a really pretty bloom. You know when you're going like color, color, color, color, sometimes the eye just needs to stop. Yeah. And they look super healthy and they just look really nice. Yeah. So they're going to stay with me. Good deal. When I get a bloom, I cut the bloom because I don't, yeah, just one. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. So you got a lot of hostas it looks like. A lot of hostas, a lot of corbels. And I have lambs here, which is a full sun plant. Yeah. But I do have it popped around here because it grows. It spreads. I don't want it to spread too much. But it also brings kind of that silvery. And this does get, this gets afternoon sun. So although there's a lot of shade, you know, even these hostas and stuff, it does get some harsh sun. But over there, that is mostly dappled sun. Yeah. And those lambs here are very happy. And I like to continue. Yeah. From garden bed to garden bed. Yeah. It gives sort of a little bit of unity. Yeah. Yeah. It does. Yeah. Now, do you have like, do you stick with a color palette when you're planting? Usually. Yes. Usually. In fact, it kind of bothers me if I don't. But I think I really figured out my color palette in the front. And I was never really a red, orange person. But then I discovered Coral Bells and they started growing quite well for me. Ironically, I think I tried like 10 years ago. I don't know what I was doing, but not doing it right. Yeah. So I do have a lot of Coral Bells. And you have Coral Bells have more of that orangey red. Yeah. Sure. And so then I started changing my containers to just have more red. And I started to really like it. Yeah. So it kind of allows me to have something completely different from what's up front. Yeah. And so this palette back here, I think, is definitely warmer tone, which it's more shade back there during the day. So when it's hot, the reason I didn't always have warmer tones, it made me feel hot. Yeah. Cooler tones. But in the back, when it's more shaded, you know, you don't feel hot when it's July 30th. Yes. And we have very 90 degree weather. It's so kind of shady. And those tones, I love them. Yeah. I love them. Now, I allowed myself to go crazy in my new garden bag with all the colors. Oh, OK. I'm not sure how I'll handle that long term. Yeah. Excellent. Well, I see there's a little path there. Maybe we can walk around and see what's next. Yes. I noticed your arbor and the path coming in. It just looks really picturesque. What do you have on the arbor? On the arbor, I have a variety of cleminis. So on this side over here, I have sweet autumn cleminis, which is it is an aggressive vine, but it's not invasive. I love it. I do tend to keep it trimmed back until maybe mid-June, but it is already kind of coming up here. And in the fall, it'll be full of beautiful white blooms. On this side, I have another, I have a couple, but cleminis here that is the Jackman Superbia. There's so many different Jackman. Yeah. And so this is already done blooming. You know, I like, I like this vine when it's not blooming, just a soft entrance. I think the green is so pretty. I love having, you know, that kind of comes down. And I won't lie, I'm a clipper person. So I will constantly try to make sure that this isn't getting out of control or that's not getting out of control. Yeah, that's good. It makes a more welcoming entrance. Yes. Got some control. And what else have you got going on in this? But this seems like a really shady spot. Yeah. And for a long time, this was kind of my only shady spot. So I tried everything out. Probably my favorite here. These are the Smooth Limetta. I have three of them here. Really one of my favorite hydrangeas. Now, it's hard to compete with Bobo, but yeah, I mean, just because it's so reliable and I would never put this in full sun in Iowa. But, and I'm surprised they do so well, because this is more shade than it is sun back here. Okay. They've turned, they've been white already. Now they're that beautiful chartreuse. And they stay that way all through October. They don't brown. Oh, that's nice. I have some wee whites over there that I love. But there will be a little browning and then I'll cut that back and it'll bloom again. Oh, nice. I just let them. And they are, they are wonderful. I am going to create this summer. This summer. We are in summer. This fall, I'm going to add a garden bed on this side and then kind of up there along the house, just to kind of create a little cozier feel. Kind of like I like it to feel cozy back there. And there is some uneven ground here. As I get older, I don't want uneven ground. Right. I want to be able to come over here and have, I want to put some stone here that really keeps it. I want to garden for a long time. Yeah. Gardening, I think, is the healthiest for your attitude, physically, mentally, everything. So it's been a game changer, you know, kind of in my life to have that. So I want to garden until I'm a ripe old age. Yeah, I think I like your idea. At this house, to be honest with you. Right. So I want to, now's the time to prepare and have, as I'm adding things, changing things, make sure I can garden. Sure. Not have an injury. Yes. Exactly. Exactly. I understand. Yeah. No, I agree. That's great. Great thinking. And this is one of my favorite trees. This is a redbud. Oh. Very pretty. Really, really beautiful. Beautiful in the spring, but beautiful the way it. The shade. Canopy. Yeah. Really, really pretty. Yeah. Beautiful. There's so many beautiful things here. Thank you. Thank you so much for having us. Yes. It was great. It was very fun. We have so much to share. I really appreciate you doing that. Well, thank you. Thank you. It is kind of my passion. Yeah. It was a hobby for most of my life, and I think it was just the best de-stressor. Yes. If you need a de-stressor, go to the garden. Yes. I'm with you there.