My discovery in her small yet elegant backyard

Hi folks, we are at an open garden in south Buffalo. This is Sharon's garden and which opens every Friday later in the day. So with the permission of the gardener Sharon here let me take you on a walkabout and walk with Sharon. So this is the front yard we see we have a hydrangea tree and as well as a shrub hydrangea some of the muteweed as well. I believe this is a service berry right yeah and they do get the berry but it's very hard to compete with the birds they get the berry I mean they would go nuts for the for the service berry and I actually tried some of those they taste just like blueberry So it has some very nice estuary in different shades of pink and different heights complement each other very well. Sharon likes to use containers as part of her mixed border so this would add a different dimension of height as well as color and texture provided by the container itself as well as the planting in the container. So I believe the plant in the center is a type of savia or sage yeah what about the yellow flower oh that's by this by this okay that's something new to me very lovely and the first thing as we the first thing we notice as we enter the backyard gardens or driveway are the arbor for the grape which the grapes buy now you will see there are many grapes about the fruit now this is very nice not only provide the shade you get the you get the fruit you can harvest your own grape how nice is that so now we are entering the backyard garden Sharon loves lilies in particular and I wish you can be here to smell the fragrance it's just incredible lily has such a powdery but very clean refreshing sweet scent and I want to point out this very special container if you're crazy enough when you travel to Europe you will buy a container and get them back to your home and use them in your garden so this is a very special uh it's it's ceramic right yeah ceramic container Sharon brought back from her from Capri Italy and she to try to use a blue color anion to complement the yellow uh from the container it's so nice the fragrance from the lily is just so amazing so this little path on both side of paths we have different types of lily day lilies they have different color different height and they just mingle with each other and create this such a lovely lovely view so this shrub with this dark red large flower is a sweet shrub and it is a I mean is this a native shrub no okay this is Aphrodite Aphrodite yeah look at the flower and the flower for a long period yeah how lovely but uh you have to give it enough space it can grow into a quite substantial size shrub let me show the pathway from this side we have some lucifer plant lucifer flower more canna lily in containers and also the I believe this is the which has this very vertical tall slender silhouette this is also a rue meadow this is a bigger taller variety has this very delicate and dainty little flowers now let's explore more of Sharon's garden this is a trumpet flower vine and it's a very vigorous grower and but when they flower it can be quite magnificent look at the flower at the far end of the backyard garden we have the climbing hydrangea covering the fence so climbing hydrangea is a very slow growing climber but uh but they can once they get going once they get established they can be quite uh quite impressive and this is a very very special vignette in Sharon's garden but she placed a mirror at a corner of the garden it just reflect image and give you an illusion there's a more there are more space on the other side of the frame of the mirror which is very intriguing so this will be uh the most shady part of the garden so we have a lot of shade loving plants, bannera, hosta, some of the hewpraw, stlb those are european ginger right european ginger with the glossy leaf with the glossy leaf those are european ginger and some of the solomon's seal with the lighter color on the edge of the leaves also you have those are lily of the valley they can tolerate dry shade very well this is a very peaceful garden and Sharon use use a huge variety of different plants but she used them in such a clever way and they look so in harmony here more they are more of the canna lilies even before they flower the variegation on the leaves it's just stunning look at the contrast now i will give you a full view of the sweet shrub bush isn't this magnificent so many dark maroon color flower the so the flower holds their shape pretty well so that's one of the unique thing a lot of the flowering shrubs when they first flower they look very nice once we have some rain they can look quite unsightly yeah for example the magnolia will be an example yeah but this will be very different i believe this is a black lace elderberry yeah so people pay attention to the size this is at least 12 feet high so they can get huge even though you may think it's a small shrub when you buy them but they can get into like the size of a small cottage over time so the mixed border continues very nicely and we have camatas right next to the dogwood Sharon tell me what this is it's a yellow flower oh okay so so it's a very tall variety yeah look at the height it's it's taller than six feet i mean about when they when they're in full bloom it's kind of a stunning right you mean the one in the container or this one here okay you don't really see this very often yeah and it actually starts off the leaves are burgundy and then throughout the summer they're green and then they turn burgundy again just like the color of the flower and i should mention Sharon is a master gardener in Erie counties yeah so she's very knowledgeable about the garden and also the plants so i always learn something new whenever i visit her garden here let me show you one of my favorite spots in her garden is the statuary with the golden smoke bush with the bells bridges so this is how you use a statuary in your garden to add a little bit of a story to your garden make it so charming so the smoke bush this variety is different than your typical a purple leaf smoke bush the leaves stay in the chartreuse green yellow color and in the autumn it's going to turn to different shades of orange and the flower is not as how do i say this i mean the flower is not as showy as the purple variety but just the color of the foliage alone it's just totally worth it and this golden smoke bush will stay smaller than the regular purple smoke bush this i would say it wouldn't get taller than eight or ten feet even at maturity i received this from my family so i tell people i'm a plant pusher yeah so there was a very huge magnolia tree at this spot it kind of blocked the view and also the sunlight for a large part of the garden so Sharon decided to remove the magnolia and use something has a more like a see-through structure and with the right pruning technique i can provide some shape without blocking the view and sunlight for other plants look at the final result it's just so don't have don't be afraid to try something new if the result does not go along with your vision and just change it make some changes in your garden can we show people the patio we have some very nice container around the patio and also some very nice jazz music yeah it's a very enjoyable garden so again we are at Sharon's garden in south buffalo it is part of the open gardens program this garden opens on fridays if you have time come and visit this garden you will enjoy it thank you