Today we’re visiting with Katie Kagler in Hudson, Ohio:
My garden was first featured on the GPOD in 2013 (Katie’s Garden in Ohio). In 2019, we put an addition on our house which resulted in having to transplant a large portion of our main perennial garden into the vegetable garden for an entire season while the house was under construction.
As you can see in this photo from the old garden, our four clematis vines were previously trellised directly on to the garage wall, so we needed a new solution for those.
We decided to add four tuteurs to support the clematis. However, the first season I was very unhappy with the overall results of the new garden. I ended up having a deeper space making planting trickier and the clematis were barely filling the new structures. I asked my neighbor, who is a fabulous gardener, to come over and help me redesign the garden yet again. She suggested putting in a row of boxwoods to not only frame the patio, but take up some of that extra space.
She also suggested acquiring a few more clematis varieties that would grow over the tuteurs more aggressively. This new Clematis ‘Jackmanii’ (Zone 4 – 8) covered one tuteur nicely in the first year. I made a complete plan of the garden on paper and then executed the new design.
We also removed our old-fashioned pond with a pump and plastic liner and replaced it with a new waterfall.
There is always something in bloom in the garden from May to September. Between each of the tuteur’s are hardy dinner plate pink hibiscus (Hibiscus hybrids, Zone 5 – 9) which do not come into their full size and bloom until August, when many of the other perennials are finished.
The new boxwoods frame the front of the new bed beautifully.
A hanging basket of pink petunias (Petunia hybrid, Zone 9 – 11 or as annual) add color to the blooming perennials.
The new garden design is a success!
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