In My Garden:
Reader Submissions 2020

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We love the images that our readers have been sharing with us! Below are a few selected images that we have included in our In My Garden: A Visual Diary email series.

Space and time unfortunately do not allow us to showcase all of the great photos that readers are submitting. The sampling below shows some of the highlights. We encourage everyone to share their photos on Instagram with #OpenDays25 or to submit them by email to [email protected].

In My Garden, November 3, 2020

Fall woodland at PowellsWood, Federal Way, WA

From the Pacific Northwest, Justin Henderson shares that PowellsWood, a 40-acre nature preserve in Federal Way, WA, 30 minutes from Seattle, will now be open throughout the year, Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. PowellsWood is a member of the Garden Conservancy Northwest Network, an association of gardens, parks, and horticultural organizations in the region.

Fall color of Pacific dogwood (Cornus nuttali) at Dawn Gardens, Grass Valley, CA

Barry Friesen reports that Dawn Gardens in Grass Valley, CA, will open to the public on November 7 to view the fall color. Visit dawnlandscaping.com for more information.

Above, clockwise from top left: three views of Cathy Kalenian's garden in Santa Fe—The pink flower is a desert willow, the millstones have been in her family for a long time and came from New England with her when she moved there, and a row of grassy plumes punctuate the distant horizon and contrast with a stone sphere.

In Santa Fe, NM, there are still flowers blooming and plenty of green leaves and sunny skies to enjoy. Cathy Kalenian shared several photographs of her garden (above), which was recently visited by the Santa Fe Garden Club.

Two very different autumn palettes at Bedrock Gardens, Hazle Township, PA

From Hazle Township, PA, Jill Nooney sent us seasonal views—one foggy and soft, one full of vibrant color—at Bedrock Gardens.

Low autumn light and a shaggy ink cap (Coprinus comatus) in Schodack Landing, NY

From Schodack Landing, NY, Dawn Gaschel shared a view of dramatic light raking across "not retired yet" raised beds and a shaggy mushroom.

In San Francisco, CA, Fritha Knudsen found a creative solution to a fountain (above) that could not be repaired. She reports, "I was ready to disassemble my fountain and dispose of it. Instead, I had a concrete pad poured in the center of a side garden and planted the fountain. The top level is filled with herbs and the bottom level has lettuces, with decorative plantings both outside and inside. It is a visual delight in the garden and makes harvest easy and keeps pests to a minimum."

And in Marblehead, MA, Susan Stelk made the most of the last of the season's flowers (above) from her summer garden. Susan comments, "having this photo will help me, during the dark days of winter, remember the joys of seeing blooms in all colors, knowing that they will return."

In My Garden, October 20, 2020

This week, we are sharing photos from some of our partner gardens around the country. Above: left, Aralia spinosa leaves are starting to turn at Untermyer Gardens, in Yonkers, NY (photo: Jessica Norman); right, "Monday Mandala" of autumn crocus, zinnia, beautyberry, aster, and fall leaves at Yew Dell Botanical Gardens, in Crestwood, KY. Below: left, early fall at Hollister House and Garden, Washington, CT; right, acorns from a bumper crop this year from the genus Quercus, including live oak, valley oak, pin oak, and the grand old English oak on the grounds of the Marin Art and Garden Center, in Ross, CA.

In My Garden, October 13, 2020

Who misses summer already? Member Susan Rotenstreich recently shared the beautiful images, above and below, of her ranch in Jackson Hole, WY. "I'd been meaning to send them since July, but only just got around to it this week," says Susan. That's OK - we'll take them!

"I don’t have a garden, just a few planters on my New York City terrace," says member Nancy Pasley, who submitted the photo below of a Monarch butterfly on her butterfly bush.

Open Days and Digging Deeper host Keeyla Meadows sent the images below from Berkeley, CA. Left: 'Heavenly Blue' morning glories planted in the troughs she put out on her deck to grow veggies in during the coronavirus pandemic; right: two of her "neighborhood" turkeys. "They roost up in a tree by the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) tracks, and they have really been multiplying lately," says Keeyla.

In My Garden, October 6, 2020

At Bellsflower Farm in Stockton, NJ, coleus, sedum, lamb's ears, and other perennials are providing lots of vivid fall color in the garden.

In Wilson Point, between South Norwalk and Rowayton, CT, Amy Tyson and her husband have created "a whimsical and wonderful woodland garden [photos below], installed a pool, a bocce court and have used natives, perennials, and lots of grasses in our landscape design." Amy explains, "We call our property 'Egret Landing', for the abundance of egrets, blue herons, cormorants, and other aquatic wildlife on the pond. On the first of September, I hosted a private garden tour for several groups of fellow gardeners and neighbors… even with masks on, I could see their smiles!"

From downtown Great Barrington, MA, Debbie Greene shared some of her favorite images of her perennial gardens this year, where she has created several perennial beds specifically "to attract wildlife and especially pollinators." And they are showing up! This summer, Debbie reports, she was "surprised and thrilled when a grey fox took over a backyard groundhog hole to raise her two pups. From our nearby deck, we watched them play together and grow up."

In California, Monica Perrone visited Livermore, "a special place with special oaks."

In My Garden, September 29, 2020

At Heritage Flower Farm in Mukwonago, WI, owner Betty Adelman says that "we created a garden to showcase the spectacular colors, textures, and feeling of fall." They are particularly dramatic in the low sunlight of the season; see the two photos below.

In Delhi, NY, in the middle of Delaware County, Mary Ayres gathered her gladiolas before the first frost of the year.

Several readers shared plant favorites. Below, from the left to right: from Wisconsin, Cole Griffin sent a portrait of the "final fireworks of the container season: Plumbago auriculata ‘Monott’, with Helichrysum and some fog from Lake Michigan in the background"; in California, Monica Perrone says that "variegated flax lily (Dianella tasmanica ‘Variegata’) is handsome as a mass planting"; and in Connecticut, Sleepy Cat Farm showed a Kirengeshoma palmata blooming in deep, dry shade and notes that it combines well with ferns, hostas, and toadlilies.

In My Garden, September 22, 2020

Debra Koenig, who, in partnership with Cheryl Brickman, is our Open Days regional ambassador for Milwaukee, WI, was busy harvesting this past weekend, together with her husband, Steve. Debra reports, "There’s no rest for the weary during harvest time! Saturday, we, along with a lot of generous friends wearing masks, harvested the Marquette grapes (first photo below) from half of our vineyard: 3,376 pounds in three hours from 250 vines, and double last year’s harvest. Next week, it’s the other half of the vineyard, with Frontenac and Frontenac Gris grapes. We also have a bumper honey crop (second photo) this year; Steve harvested half of it on Sunday."

In Turlock, CA, landscape architect Monica Perrone found a pumpkin "dressed for the season"—and safely socially distanced. See below:

It's also not too early to start planning for cold weather. In Oxford, CT, Richard Kaminski reports that the temperature dipped to 44 degrees overnight last week and "it won’t be long now before these [plants] (below, left) will need to be lifted and brought inside." Likewise, in Greenwich, CT, Sleepy Cat Farm posted on Instagram last Friday that its fall container with Begonia sutherlandii (below, right) will be placed into winter cold storage with lemons but "will return next year." Sleepy Cat Farm is saving seed of the begonia as well.

In My Garden, September 15, 2020

Last year, while shooting for our book #OpenDays25: A Quarter Century of America's Gardeners and Their Gardens, photographer Christine Ashburn had the good fortune of meeting some other interesting characters. Below, left, is the loving and incredibly photogenic family of Michael Judd at their home, Long Creek Homestead, in Frederick, MD. Below, right, is Bruce Gangawer having some fun with one of his rescued four-legged friends at his Paxson Hill Farm, in Bucks County, PA.

Below, left, is Dean Wiegert, head gardener at Afterglow Farm, in Milwaukee, WI; below, right is the lively crowd that greeted Christine when she showed up to photograph Jon Carloftis at his historic Botherum house and garden, in Lexington, KY.

In My Garden, September 8, 2020

The intricate and interesting photo below was sent to us by Beatrice Bowles, whose grandmother of the same name was also a gardener. The elder Beatrice knew Munro Leaf, author of The Story of Ferdinand, the children's classic book about Ferdinand the Bull. "Ferdinand refused to fight in the the bull ring; he only wanted to sit under a cork oak tree and smell the flowers," says Beatrice. "I often feel the same way! "

The images below were submitted by Sara Traberman, in Craryville, NY. Since 2012, this has been a weekend retreat for Sara, her husband, and their two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. As New York City residents, they have made it their full-time home during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The images below were sent to us from Debby Jones, who lives and gardens in Cornwall Bridge, CT. "Dutchman's pipe (left) is both a blessing and a curse," says Debby. "It is pretty on the arch but, unfortunately, it crops up all over the rest of the garden as well." On the right, a misty September morning in Cornwall Bridge.

In My Garden, September 1, 2020

In West Tilsbury, MA, Nancy Kilson reports that "This summer the lilies and daylilies were stars of the show. The hydrangeas were strong performers too!" Below are two daylilies, a small sampling of the many colorful flowers that Nancy shared.

In Falmouth, MA, on Cape Cod, Pam Goguen is enjoying "the abundance of color that emerges even in the midst of a memorably dry summer."

In Oxford, CT, Richard Kaminski reports that wildlife in his garden "doesn't seem to mind the lack of rain this summer as much as the plants do."

In My Garden, August 25, 2020

It's late August and many of the submissions this week revel in the hot colors of late summer. Cynthia Winter reports that she is enjoying her first time gardening in Santa Fe, NM. In Chicago, her primary home, she grows basil in her apartment. In Santa Fe this summer, she is tending a 20-year-old garden with a view of the Jemez mountains. She transplanted some volunteer sunflower seedlings and one has just begun blooming, with Russian sage behind it.

In Seekonk, MA, Andrew Grossman's hot-colored garden is at peak in late summer.

Tres McKinney makes three or four bouquets every week over the summer from flowers and herbs grown in her small garden in Santa Rosa, CA. Below are two recent examples. "There is nothing like fresh flowers to bring a room to life," she comments.

Foliage can be just as colorful as flowers. J. Byron Morris in Spartanburg, SC, sent us a photo of a dramatic pot of purple oxalis planted with coleus. He says this "will definitely be a pot combination in my garden from now on!"

Bellsflower Farm in Stockton, NJ, tells us that their favorite season in the garden is when the crape myrtles bloom (below, left). Kent Sokolow and Cheri VanHouten at KenCott Manor in West Pasadena, CA, enjoy a creative assemblage of bird houses, a stone bench, and artistic paving year-round in their historical terraced garden (below, center and right). The garden was designed by Katherine Bashford, one of the first women landscape architects in the region.

And in Eileen Saroff's late summer garden in Great Neck, NY, flowery pillows invite one to pause, sit, and enjoy a peaceful garden retreat.

In My Garden, August 18, 2020

This week we have reader submissions from all around the country! Mrs. Sterling Lauer sent a stunning image of a pot of blue plumbago (above, left) in her garden in Fort Worth, TX; Helen Maher, from Greenwich, CT, snapped a photo of her garden before Hurricane Isaias came through and reports that "Aside from a lot of branches down, this area of our property survived quite well (above, right)."

Jeff Hopkins submitted photos of succulents in his garden in San Anselmo, CA (above, and below, right). Brian Jones, who has designed our Open Days Directory for the last several years and was one of the photographers for our just-published #OpenDays25 book, shared his gorgeous Hibiscus moscheutos (below, left) in his garden in Exeter, RI.

Actress, Broadway star, and Open Days fan Carole Demas sent us a link to a short music video that she and her husband, Stuart Allyn, made using images from their garden in Irvington, NY. Carole says that "visiting gardens through Open Days has been a great joy and enormous inspiration for us. We still have forget-me-nots every year, descendants of some that Henriette Suhr gave me."

In My Garden, August 11, 2020

This week's submission comes from Robin Turnbaugh, who sent us the photos of her garden in Chesterfield, NH, below.

In My Garden, August 4, 2020

This week, our reader submissions come from Garden Conservancy Open Days Program Manager, Christopher Gow, who celebrated a birthday this week! "Last year’s project was replacing some of the lawn with a native flower meadow where the coreopsis flowers have given way to the black eyed Susans in my Tuxedo Park, NY garden," says Christopher. "This year, I am continuing to rip out the 100 or so invasive Japanese barberry bushes, doubly rewarding as forgotten architectural garden elements are being unearthed!"

In My Garden, July 28, 2020

From Rydal, PA, Craig Wakefield reports that he is looking forward to sharing Frog Hollow Hill Garden (see the two photos below) on an Open Day next year. "This year would have been my first time. Getting ready, both the woodland garden and the dry rock garden were installed in the spring of this year."

In My Garden, July 21, 2020

The garden of Sharon and Joseph Pryse in Knoxville, TN, was recently featured in a Finch Photospread in VIP magazine. Below is an aerial photo taken by a drone; the full spread can be viewed online. Sharon was elected to the Garden Conservancy board of directors in June.

Garden Conservancy member Joe Grusczynski submitted the gorgeous photos below from his garden in Little Falls, NJ.

It is high summer at Treetop, the garden of longtime Open Days host Roxana Robinson, in West Cornwall, CT. Roxana submitted the photo of sweet potato vine in a pot from Campo De Fiori, below.

In My Garden, July 14, 2020

Longtime Open Days host George Trecina sent the beautiful photos below from his garden in Meriden, CT. George was scheduled to open his garden on New Haven County Open Days on August 15 and September 19, which have been canceled because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In My Garden, July 7, 2020

This week, we bring you a few of the many lovely photos we received from around the country.

Barbara Paul Robinson, Garden Conservancy director emerita and longtime Open Days host, reports that Saturday, June 27, was to be her Open Day in Washington, CT, for the 25th (!) year in a row. She says, "The roses were putting on their show here at Brush Hill just in time for today’s scheduled Open Day. The garden was open for the very first year of the Open Days program and has been open at least once, and often twice, a year ever since. Sad to think it had to be canceled this year like so many others. But I'm hoping to share it this way with some of the visitors I have to miss this June and I look forward to better times when we can be open again. Bravo to the Garden Conservancy and this 25th anniversary of the Open Days program."

Sunday, June 28, was to be the date of their Open Day and Digging Deeper program on unusual edibles this year at Allyson Levy and Scott Serrano's Hortus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens in Stone Ridge, NY, in the Catskill Mountains.

Allyson and Scott's photos include closeups (above) of Magnolia macrophylla, M. sieboldii, M. macrophylla, and M. virginiana in their South Garden and medlar fruits (below) starting to form.

In Petersham, MA, Bruce Lockhart worked with Helen O’Donnell to redesign his willow garden, with, he explains, "the aim of creating a meadow-like mix of pollinator-friendly plants. There were over 100 new additions, a mix of plants from issima nursery (Little Compton, RI), Helen's Bunker Farm (Dummerston, VT), and my own greenhouse. Throwing plants around with Helen was the highlight of the day.” Below is a view of Bruce's redesigned willow garden during the week of May 25. Bruce and Helen, a garden designer and grower based in Dummerston, co-hosted a Digging Deeper in June 2019 on their work together to make a meadow garden.

In Ridgefield, CT, Julia Cencebaugh Kloth was scheduled to host an Open Day and Digging Deeper program at her garden this year on July 18 and shared some photos instead. Julia describes her overall goal to create a garden that's "purposeful yet wild enough to invoke a certain magic."

Julia says pastel shades and fragrant flowers are hallmarks of her garden. In the Patterned Garden (below) behind the house, she created "a simple, geometric design. A low boxwood hedge lines a patterned walkway and creates planting areas for fragrant repeat bloomers, such as lilacs and roses, which flower freely for an exceptionally long season."

In San Marino, CA, Suzanne Torgeson reports that her small garden "has given me a lot of peace and joy while sheltering in place." The garden (left) consists mostly of a pool surrounded by planters with a beautiful juniper and pots with succulents.

In My Garden, June 30, 2020

This week, we bring you late spring color, from Pondfield, in York, ME. Submitted by Open Days garden host David Chase.

Dianne Benson, who had been scheduled to share her garden in East Hampton, NY, on Eastern Long Island, NY Open Day on June 13, recently shared some stunning shots from her garden.

Arisaema sikokianum (Japanese Jack-in-the-pulpit), above, left; German Iris 'Classic Wine', above, right; Anemone coronaria (Poppy Anemone), below.

In My Garden, June 23, 2020

This week, we share a few of the fantastic images that have been submitted by readers of our In My Garden series. The photo below is from Judith Tankard in Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard, MA. This garden was designed by Nan Sinton in 2006 to complement Judith's 18th-century home and includes ornamental trees, shrubs, and perennials. Judith is also the organizer of the Martha's Vineyard Open Day, which was canceled this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The photo below is from Uptop—Garden of Fred Bland in Stony Creek, CT, "as Spring sprung," with Camassia leichtlinii ‘Blue Danube’ in the foreground.

This garden, Terry Karpen's Queen of Spades in Redding, CT, was part of our 2011 Open Days season.

In My Garden, June 16, 2020

The photo below is from Barbara Valicenti, of Greenville, NY, who says "Thirty years ago I purchased this property and moved in with my ten-year-old sun-loving perennials. As the years went by and the trees grew taller, the sun-lovers faded away and were gradually replaced by the hosta, ferns, foxglove, iris, and astilbe you see today."

Susan Sargent, of South Dartmouth, MA, shared the photo below, left, of a beautiful clematis 'Guernsey Cream', which she bought at Polly Hill Arboretum some years ago, with a crabapple and a tree peony. Below, right, are golden hops and the same variety of clematis framing a gateway at the Gardens at Clock Barn in Carlisle, MA, sent by Open Days host and Garden Conservancy Society of Fellows member Maureen Ruettgers.

In My Garden, June 9, 2020

Below is a view of Anne Spiegel’s rock garden in Wappingers Falls, NY, looking lush and floriferous on May 9, the day that she was scheduled to host an Open Day this year.