Years ago I traveled to Ohio to photograph Tim Vojt's front garden for an article. It's one of my very favorites, but when I walked behind the house, I found a sweet little garden that charmed the socks off of me. Um, I might have taken even more photos of that garden than the one we eventually published... Happily, Tim sent in his photos to share with you! He says, "Attached are pictures of my gravel garden through the ages. I thought I'd start this sad story at the beginning. In 2008, I turned what was formerly a 10-inch deep gravel driveway, grown over with decades of grassy accumulation, into a gravel garden. Inspired by Beth Chatto's gravel garden and my love of all art Japanese, I stripped off the weedy sod, loosened the top layer of dirty gravel, and got to work. I planted sun-loving, drought-tolerant, hardy plants like thyme, muhlenbeckia, sedum, dianthus, festuca, Marrubium rotundifolium, and my beloved agaves: A. parryi, A. neomexicana, and A. havardiana. A. havaradiana bit the dust the first winter; A. neomexicana lived on and on but hardly grew; A. parryi thrived and pupped until, sadly, it froze the winter of 2013-2014. I tried and killed several new plants 2014-2015. This year I'm trying more new plants in their place. The garden has also gotten a bit overgrown, so I am in the process of pulling up a lot of the thyme to get a bit more gravel showing again. Thyme does not pull up easily!!" So, so sweet, Tim! Jeesh I love this garden.
Tomorrow we'll get a closer look at some of the fascinating plants in this garden! Stay tuned. And...send photos! michelle@gardenygoodness.com. Thanks!
