Boundless gardening

bound·less (bound'l's) adj. Being without boundaries or limits; infinite.

I'm not really sure if my lawn is invading the garden blooms or if my garden is spreading amongst the grass? Either way my perennial garden beds have been without boarders for quite sometime. Call it the lazy gardener in me, but I love the look of a free moving, cottage garden. Everything is intermingling and living happily together taking a path all of its own. I love watching the growing plants decide where the garden edge shall be. I love that my garden is taking an organic form spilling out into the lawn however and where-ever it feels.

My back fence garden, the plants are loving the room to grow. By allowing the plants to roam, I am also decreasing my lawn space by up to a foot every year. Gone are the straight lines, replaced with curves decided by the plants.

When we first purchased this house, (I wish I had some before photos of the garden) the garden beds were meticulous, all trimmed and perfect, straight lines everywhere and spacing you could measure by. Most of the plants were shaped and constrained to take an un-natural shape. Don't get me wrong, I love manicured gardens, but honestly that is too much work for me...lol! And as I soon found out, this garden wasn't digging the formal look, it had a life of its own. It wanted to grow and explore, who was I to stifle a growing garden from its own freedom of movement.
So with loving pruning and nurturing soil, I let it do its thing....

 Here I have English ivy, candy tufts and box hedge all living harmoniously together, spilling out over the sidewalk in an a natural flow.

Here in Seattle, we really haven't seen much sun yet this year. But there is no doubt about all the rain, it sure makes everything grow! The grass grew so long in a week we had to set the mower to 4 so not to cut off over a 3rd. This was also a great time to get out there and pull the weeds from the sodden ground, makes for easy weed pulling. It was also an eye opener to see just how much my garden had spread out into my lawn, at least a foot maybe more since last year, lots of grass was pulled from the beds. I am excited to see how much everything has grown and that my lawn footprint is reducing every year.

I love seeing the different foliage's intertwine like this. On the left I have the prickles of a heather against the variegated leaf (Anyone know what its called?) mixed with the maple shape of this gorgeous perennial that graces the garden with its big broad leaves and sweet long-stemmed blooms.

On the right, growing at the base of my cherry tree a hydrangea and a peony enjoying close quarters. Can't wait to see the blooms and I love how the Hydrangea is helping support the Peony.