Creating a Dollhouse Garden Part 2

A few days later, and the garden is starting to fill in. The left side has a mauve petunia plant, and in front of the hollyhocks are day lilies. Below them are pinks and pansies, and next to them peonies. Then there are the gaillardias, some blue and some white delphiniums with purple hearts, and a medium-size hosta with a stalk of blooms.

The side of the garden nearest the fence needs shade-loving plants. I have a mauve astilbe ready to plant, but need to come up with something the height of the delphiniums before planting them. I'd also like to add a miniature version of the very large, blue-grey hosta in my Real Life garden. And my mind is trying to create bergamot or ragged robin, as well as some very low-growing edging plants for the very front of the garden, like purple ageratum and white Artemisia. (For some reason, that word capitalized itself!)

The hollyhocks at the edge of the garden need some more leaves, so I have to pick up a geranium-type leaf punch a size bigger than the one I've already used. I'd also like to try some dusty miller plants, as I have two sizes of punches for them; the challenge will be in creating the right shade of dusty gray foliage.

The foliage for the day lilies was made with dollar store plastic grass, cut to a point and the ends curled over. It works very well for this type of foliage. I used to use painted green paper twist ties, but those are now scarcer than hen's teeth! I have a few left, and some red ones, and am saving those for plants where plastic foliage just can't be used. Fortunately, the plastic grass comes in three colours, and I still have two darker, unused ones as well as the remainder of what I used for the day lilies.

To allow Real Life to intrude for a bit, I went river tubing today with my husband and daughter. The rivers here are running quite high, due to all the rain, so it was a lovely drift through a mostly rural countryside. I'd hoped to see some kingfishers (my daughter had seen them on the same trip two years ago), but they weren't out. However, the fly fishermen were - the river is salmon habitat and also supports trout. Lovely day! Next on my bucket list of things to do is zip-lining a short drive away from here - at one point you fly over an inlet of the Saint John River. Just have to hope for more sunny weather....