Written by Margaret Carreiro, President of Wild Ones Louisville
This summer continues to be ungodly hot, but Wild Ones Louisville still had a terrific showing for Fran Ewing’s native plant garden tour. And that was even before we knew what a lovely spread of treats she and her sister had prepared for us… But I am getting ahead of myself!
We gathered for a while inside her air-conditioned home while waiting for most of the crowd to arrive. Then we streamed out the front door to begin the tour. Fran lives in a HOA neighborhood with a maple tree supplying welcome shade, and grass neatly mowed. Fran did a terrific job using natives as foundation plantings. These included Shrubby St. John’s Wort, Hydrangeas, Dropseed clump grass and others that were cheerful, fed pollinators and were easy to manage in ways that would be acceptable to landscaping-conservative neighbors.
But as soon as we passed through the wooden gate to her back yard and tall blooming cup plants greeted us, we knew we had entered another “kingdom” where Fran’s talent for choosing a diversity of native plants and placing them in the best spots really shone- much to our collective delight.
It is a yard with different “rooms” meant to be explored. At first, we saw and appreciated the plants that were still hugging the side of a building- vines and Purple Coneflowers and others. A shady corner was snugly filled with ferns.
A long stretch of back fence showed off or supported the growth of plants differing in height and bloom times. But she broke up that uniformity with an arbor densely covered by a thriving Trumpet Honeysuckle vine that extended out into the grass. the back fence Joe-Pye Weed rose up tall as it is wont to do, then came tree saplings! She has a mini-orchard and is not afraid to try different species, among them American Plum and Pawpaw that share the garden with a peach tree and Elderberry shrubs. Planter boxes for growing vegetables were tucked in, too. But for some reason nothing seemed overcrowded. It did the heart good to see so many lush and healthy plants!
But little did we know that Fran had saved the best for last. While we were busy looking at her diverse plantings in the first half of the backyard, we eventually turned right and there it was– what I call Fran’s “Secret” Garden– because I sure didn’t see it until it seemed to suddenly appear almost out of nowhere- although it may seem inconceivable that we hadn’t seen it sooner.
The gravel path beckoned one to explore every bit of it and we did. Name a native sun-loving wildflower. It was probably growing there. The deep red Cardinal flowers and lavender Blazing Stars complemented each other. Culver Root and Wild Petunias bloomed with Purple Coneflower and deep red Royal Catchfly and all manner of yellow composites. The Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly would find a nursery here for her caterpillar young and Hummingbirds would be thrilled to find Fran’s garden. And such thoughtful placement for these plants! – wildflowers with complementary colors simultaneously bloomed in eye-catching locations. This is the garden I wish I had! LOL.
After filling our eyes with all the lovely garden sights, we cooled off a bit in Fran’s screened back porch. Then we decided it was high time to sample the many delightful foods that Fran and her sister made (including those delicious cheesecake cupcakes) and finger foods that some of us brought as well (Thanks for your now “signature” deviled eggs, Hart!). It makes me happy to know we are all such a lovely sharing group of folks. We had a lot to talk about after that tour and spent a long while visiting before leaving to face the heat again. THANK YOU SO MUCH, FRAN, FOR HOSTING SUCH A WELCOMING TOUR! WE ALL LOVED SEEING AND LEARNING FROM YOU and YOUR GARDEN.
