"Walk"way

You probably already know about my walkway garden, how I created it a couple of years ago, and just expanded one of the beds this spring.

The thing is, it's more garden than walkway right now.

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I have two problems with pathways, the spaces that should be left clear for walking. The first is that it's so difficult to remember in the spring how big the plants are going to get, so I overplant and also put them too close to the edge.

The second problem is I just have the hardest time getting rid of volunteers, no matter where they're growing!

How much room do you see for walking here?

That's the view straight down the walkway from the front door. Hope you like to zig-zag and contort, because that's what you'll need to do when you visit me!

Here's what it looks like when you're approaching the door instead:

Feverfew is not supposed to be a crack filler!

There are even more coming next year if I don't start some deadheading...

I may sprinkle these all around the neighborhood...

Verbena bonariensis is one of my favorite plants, and I'll let it reseed anywhere...

...but I think I should pull the seedlings out of the walkway cracks before they get this big! (Some of them are 2' tall and blooming)

The red-whisker clammyweed (the tall, white flowers)  is still going strong, but getting leggy and dropping seeds:

I think I need to go against my nature and pull most of these out, or at least prune them away from the path. Pulling them out means I need to add more filler plants though... but I think I have plenty of those anyway.

It's not all bad though -- there are some good spots here, like the Agastache foeniculum:

This plant has at least six different bee species on it at one time whenever I look. I have this everywhere in my yard, so my neighbor who grows a few tomato and cucumber plants every year may have a point when he says that I've got all of the bees in the neighborhood. (I've given him this plant before, but he just doesn't have enough sun over there!)

This vignette is quite nice too:

Lamb's ear, some chartreuse Talinum (Jewels of Opar), and some in-the-cracks-but-still-managed-to-bloom feverfew.

This too is nice, the entire south side:

The only issue here is that I need some larger leaves -- there's too much fine texture. From foreground to back there's Persicaria 'Painter's Palette', chocolate mint (spilling out of and hiding its container), a tall marigold that will start blooming any day now, Caryopteris just starting to flower, Iris pseudacorus, then the rose mallow (Hibiscus lasiocarpus I believe).

Everything doing so well even though I have to keep watering. We've only had one decent rain (3/4") in the last six weeks or so. Believe me, the plants are appreciating the cooler temperatures! (He says as the forecast predicts 97ºF / 36ºC for Saturday)

I really love the walkway and the surrounding planting beds, but I really do need to remember that people might need to walk here sometime!

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