A Secret Garden: Spring Comes to Connecticut - Gardenista
Photography courtesy of Michael Leva. Spring seems like a distant daydream. Luckily Michael Leva, a reader who gardens in Connecticut’s Litchfield County, sent us some photos to remind us of what’s ahead (in four months or so: stay strong). The kitchen door on the side of the house is “the entrance,” says Leva. There is another side door, which was a funeral door–they had ‘showings’ in the 1700s and couldn’t meander in and out of hallways with caskets, so that door goes directly into the parlor. The back patio outside the kitchen. Want to see another amazing garden? Leva inherited the blue spruce (R) when he bought the property. In the border: Joe Pye weed, phlox, echinacea, artemesia, heuchera, smoke bush and “tons of hydrangeas,” says Leva. An intimate view of the Long Border: black cosmos, Queen Anne’s Lace (or ammi flower), euphorbia, and white coreopsis. Through the rustic gate is a mown path that cuts across a wildflower field of Queen Anne’s Lace and yarrow and goldenrod and wild sunflowers. When Leva bought the property, the cedar fence surrounding the pool was bare. Now he keeps the vines–a jumble of climbing hydrangeas, kiwi, grapes, and clematis–pruned into curvy shapes. The bottom of the pool is “intensely painted to look like a pond, with about nine different colors of paint,” says Leva. ” Connecticut is not an easy place to garden, says Leva. He choose plants–such as Lamb’s ear and artemisia–that don’t need a lot of water. An allee of PeeGee hydrangea standards bordered by a privet hedge. A view of the Litchfield hills–and a real cornfield–at the edge of the property.