Tour of my 2025 Garden, Part Two

On Wednesday we time traveled back to early September for a walk around the front garden, today we'll take a look at the back. These annual tours are a great tool to track changes and check my memory. If you don't do something similar with your own garden, I highly suggest starting.

Walking through the agave-gate this is the scene that greets you, we're looking roughly northwest.

Now I've walked over to where the chair is in the above photo and we're looking southwest. We'll tour the upper garden first, then step down to the patio level and finally take a look around the shade pavilion and south fence. There are 51 photos to scroll through, it's gonna be a long one...

The basket of bromeliads ended up acting as a wayfinding device in these first few images. 

It was a impulse addition during the summer of '24, I ended up liking it so much it returned for summer '25. I suspect many visitors to the garden think it's rather odd... but since I'm not gardening for them I don't care.

The cement-fiber bowl filled with water attracted so many different birds, sometimes they were lined up waiting their turn. The raccoons visited at night, and quickly made a mess of any floating plants I tried to grow in there. 

Turning clockwise and looking northeast... the chocolate mimosa (Albizia julibrissin 'Summer Chocolate') was cut back hard in late August due to a gross insect infestation (covered here), but I managed to hide the ugly chop by aiming this photo low. 

I'd remove it altogether, but it's where two of my staghorn ferns hang. I'd miss them if the tree was gone. I mean I'd miss the tree too, with that fabulous dark foliage, but I think I appreciate it's strong arms most of all.

If you've been reading my blog for any length of time you've probably figured out that plants hanging from other plants is a major part of my garden style, at least in the back garden. I love that it creates a feeling of immersion—the plants surround you. This one is an Aglaomorpha coronans (aka Drynaria coronans). And yep, there are Pyrrosia linqua and Asplenium trichomanes tucked into the palm's trunk.

Looking south now, at the side of our garage. The entrance to the back garden is on the left. Here you see a deep-dive into hanging plants, I count six of them hanging in the Schefflera delavayi and Metapanax delavayi. Plus there are several tillandsia in the mix and a large Pyrrosia lingua tucked low in the Metapanax trunk.

On the other side of the Metapanax delavayi are a couple of metal trellises, they were put in place for a Clematis tibetana var. vernayi but that's long gone. Now the trellis are covered with Orchids, Bromeliads, and Nepenthes over the warm months.

Dish planters with different Pyrrosia. Clockwise from the back; P. sheareri, P. sp. SEH#15113 and P. sp. SEH#12547 (the last two are Steve Hootman collections purchased at the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden).

More Pyrrosia on the side of the garage, P. lingua and P. lingua 'Ogon Nishiki'.

Moving past the end of the garage you get a view over to the shade pavilion, but we aren't going over there quite yet.

Instead we're turning back to take the steps down to the patio, and looking at the planting area to the right of the steps... and that bromeliad basket again!

Another view.

A close up of the raised fern plantings and a few mossy (deteriorating) logs. The ferny fern shape is a Dryopteris cycadina.

Looking right (northwest) down to the patio. 

And left (southwest)...

Down on the patio level now.

I tried something different last year with a hunk of wood (a large cutting board we didn't have room for inside the house) and various members of the bromeliad family.

It was fun, but I don't think I'll repeat it.

Turning towards the north and a table top planting on a stock tank base, a tank which was once a filled with water and aquatic plants. This planting I adore! On the patio in front if it are various containers and a short table which was new this year, made from a galvanized drum base and a steel top picked up at a metal salvage yard.

Wider view...

Looking due east, the tall Yucca rostrata (Sammy, to those of you keeping track) is our oldest, we bought it back in 2008.

A sunny moment on the wall that edges the patio.

If you look at the trunk of the Yucca rostrata and then to the bright spot behind it, to the right, that's the entrance to the back garden.

Turning to look at the north end of the patio and the fence that borders that area.

This vignette is visible in the photo above, it's to the left of the Nolina 'La Siberica', the floppy, strappy leaved plant at lower center. 

In the spring a trio of Acanthus syriacus—with their super spiky leaves—emerge here, but as summer wears on they flop and turn yellow. I need to move them, they deserve better. A garden tour group came through after the acanthus had disappeared (gone dormant), I plopped a planter and two plant-filled pipes in to fill the empty space. I liked it so much I might just make it a permanent feature.

The container grouping at the northwest corner of the patio.

Moving to the south.

Looking up at the Tetrapanax papyrifer leaves in the sky, that trunk in the above photo is where the plant starts.

Working our way towards the shade pavilion. This is the southwest corner of the patio.

I moved the vintage concrete chimney piece (purchased at a salvage shop back in 2024) down to the patio and really like it here, it anchors the side of the step.

Working on this post now, in January, has my heart skipping a beat every now and then when I page down and see a photo that has me remembering how much I love my garden, and how different it looks right now. This photo makes me so happy...

This one even more. I love that the shade pavilion protects my container plants in the winter (see the transition here), but this is the view I live for...

Plants, plants, and more plants!

Looking southeast, at the back of the garage.

The container grouping on the east side of the step.

Looking up at the back of the garage, from the patio.

You saw this same photo earlier, while touring the upper garden, but I thought I'd insert it here, to help orient where we're headed next. Following that pathway between the green...

... we end up here, behind the garage.

Looking up towards the fence (which borders the south side of our property).

Ferns in the chartreuse Leo planter, I left these right there on the wall until we hit 29F with crazy strong wind just a few days nights ago. Now they're in the shade pavilion greenhouse until things calm down. The other plants on the wall went indoors late last fall.

Looking west along the wall.

And back down at the patio.

And back at the fence and shade pavilion.

Phlebodium aureum

It feels like I'm getting repetitive, but I'm trying to hit all the angles.

Back towards the upper back garden, looking northeast.

And the last photo, down at the patio and the stock tanks full of bamboo that hide the fence at the back (west end) of the garden. That's it for the 2025 garden!

The Bit at the End

Last August I did a 20-year "then and now" look at the garden to mark our 20th anniversary at this address (2005 to 2025). Since I've done an annual garden tour post most years I thought it would be fun to link to the 2015 version of the garden. A half way point between the beginning in 2005 and the now. Here's the link to the tour of the front garden, I am shocked at how much gravel was visible, the juniper has gone crazy in the last 10 years. Then to the back garden which is still so open to the sky! I craved enclosure, and now I've got it. I wish the lawn still looked as good as it did back then.

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All material © 2009-2026 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.