In My Garden: Reader Submissions 2021
We love the images that our readers have been sharing with us! Below are a few selected images that we have included in our In My Garden: A Visual Diary email series.
Space and time unfortunately do not allow us to showcase all of the great photos that readers are submitting. The sampling below shows some of the highlights. We encourage you to share photos of what's currently going on in your garden! Please include a short description and the location of the photo(s). Email photos to info@gardenconservancy.org.
In My Garden, November 9, 2021
Above: Children at a Bethel, CT, school celebrate a fall harvest of carrots from the student garden; photo submitted by member Sandra Nichols.
Above: Member and garden photographer Lisa Cassell-Arms shares shots from her Shelburne, VT, garden on the shores of Lake Champlain. "We've kept all our large trees (Oak, Hickory, Ash, and Elm) so our site is quite shady (and windy), which can be a challenge," she says. "I've brought in boulders for structure and have planted native, woodland inspired beds that thrive in dappled sunlight and glitter with dew in the early morning light. I also love to plant containers to take full advantage of any sunny spot I can find!"
Above: Open Days host Fred Bland shares scenes from his lush north and south borders at Uptop, his garden in Stony Creek, CT.
Above, left: "Each morning my husband and I hop out of bed to see how many blossoms have bloomed...each day is different in that flowers only last one day!" says member Nancy Parker of the morning glories blooming in her Orinda, CA, garden. Above, right: "I grow nasturtiums from seed every year," says member Abby Westlake in Ancramdale, NY. "This year, with a long growing season, they have climbed over the hedge and will soon be knocking at the door."
In My Garden, October 26, 2021
Below, left, are marigolds from the garden of our President and CEO, James Brayton Hall, in Providence, RI. Below, right: Late afternoon in the garden of member Greg Greene, in Niskayuna, NY.
Member Robin Turnbaugh submitted the gorgeous images below, all of which were taken at her garden in Chesterfield, NH.
In My Garden, October 12, 2021
The images below were submitted by member Maria Gillespie, whose flower garden in Ontario, Canada, is abuzz with color and happy pollinators benefiting from her brightly colored dahlias and asters.
In My Garden, September 14, 2021
Below, left, is a photo of Open Days host and regional ambassador Linda Skylar's garden on Bainbridge Island, WA. "It has been a beautiful summer with more sunshine than I can ever remember. Every plant in the garden is smiling and the gardens are bursting with delight," she says. Below right: eighteen varieties of flowers are blooming to bid farewell to summer in the garden of members Myint and Jay Gillespie, in Toronto, Canada. The flowers are black snakeroot, black-eyed Susan, butterfly bush, Caryopertis, columbine, Echinacea, hibiscus, hosta, Japanese anemone, perennial sunflower, sage, Sanguisorba, sedum, Shasta daisy, phlox, rose, and rose of Sharon.
Member Deborah Getter, from Charleston, SC, submitted the photo below, left, of evergreen autumn clematis (Clematis armandii), fig tree, boxwood, agapanthus, mondo grass, and kangaroo fern at a tranquil sitting area in her garden. Below, right: Up north, sweet autumn clematis (Clematis terniflora) climbs a rustic swing arbor in front of member Deb Favero's house. Deb gardens on a small cattle farm in rural central Illinois.
In My Garden, August 31, 2021
Below are a few images that we received from one of our readers, Chad Proudfoot, a Garden Conservancy member in West Virginia who works with the Virginia 4-H program. Chad sent in several recent images from a couple of 4-H camps in Virginia, the Jamestown 4-H Educational Center in Williamsburg, VA, and the Airfield 4-H Educational Center near Wakefield, VA. He notes that "these are not gardens in the traditional sense," but they show the beauty of the James River, with its grasses and pine trees, and, at Airfield, the beauty of a protected wetland with lily pads and beautiful still water.
Both camps also demonstrate some of the many ways that people and nature interact and, in the process, create "locations to reflect and recharge...something especially important during these troubled times," as per Chad.
In My Garden, August 17, 2021
Above and below are colorful images sent in by member Lisa Lemoin, from Campbell, CA. "My modest little garden is about a quarter of an acre and I've struggled over the years with drought tolerance in my plantings. It's been a challenge, but I've found some amazingly hearty plants that satisfy the desire for a 'cottage garden' look without many of the traditional plants. It's a busy garden, due to all the sampling and testing, moving and adjusting. But now, with further water reductions, it's still thriving!"
Member Mélie Spofford, who lives on Fishers Island, NY, sent in the two images of her garden, below.
In My Garden, August 3, 2021
I live in a townhouse with very little space for gardening," says member Diana Ferris, from Red Hook, NY. "This is my attempt (above, left) at having a garden." Above, right, and below are images of the container gardens at the Garden Conservancy's Winter Hill headquarters in New York State's Hudson Valley.
In My Garden, July 20, 2021
Above: In Warrenville, IL, Garden Conservancy member Cheryl McGarrity captured "morning light on our 'mini creek' fashioned from our sump pump run-off, which birds and creatures of many types enjoy!" 
And from Texas, member Marianne Jones reports on recovery from this winter's ravages. "Houston suffered a highly unusual and long freeze in February. I’ve been gratified to see that nearly all the plants in our back garden survived and are flourishing with all the recent rains. We did lose our citrus trees and some gardenias. The photos above are of our border bed, which runs parallel to the pool."
In My Garden, July 6, 2021
Master rosarian Dan Bifano sent a photo (above) of a small portion of parkway in front of his home in Santa Barbara, CA. Dan says his planting of Carding Mill Austin roses, along with dianthus, snapdragon, perennial petunia, and catmint, is repeated more than six times. He changes most of the plant material each spring.
Member Lisa Remby shared some photos from "a beautiful day" at our Digging Deeper program, "A Small Space with a Big Feel," on June 26 with George and Marcia Chapman at the Chapman Garden in East Falmouth, MA (above, left and middle) and from the Goguen-Conzett Garden (above, right), which opened that same day as part of our Open Day in Barnstable County, MA.
In Great Barrington, MA, member Deborah Greene's garden attracted other types of visitors (above). Deborah reports, "So far, Mrs. Groundhog has eaten very few of my favorite flowers, even as she raised four fat babies! She loves bishop weed (you go, girl!), violets, wood poppy, and garden phlox (sigh…) but not much else."
In My Garden, June 22, 2021
Garden Conservancy member Keith Geller recently sent us photos, above, of his lush garden in Seattle, WA. Former Open Days host Dorothy P. Fischer, from Albany, NY, submitted a photo of her yellow Itoh peonies, below. 
In My Garden, June 8, 2021
"There are many varieties of flowers blooming right now in our Toronto garden," says member Myint Gillespie. "I pick a few of each of about fifteen varieties and put them in a vase (above, left). My husband, Jay, and I wish that we could enjoy the openings of the wonderfully beautiful gardens in the US!" Above, right, are peonies and wisteria from the garden of Open Days host and regional ambassador Cynthia Hosmer, in York, ME.
"Thirteen blossoms at once," exclaims Open Days host Roxana Robinson, from West Cornwall, CT. "I once saw a tree peony in the wild, while bushwhacking through the woods in Mongolia. Now I will never be without one." Nicholas Lemus, a new member from Mequon, WI, sent the photo above, right, which was taken "last July at the peak of my perennial garden, which sits on the shore of Lake Michigan, just after a rainstorm. I consider this my backyard."
In My Garden, May 25, 2021
Member Liz Hall sent the photos above: on the left, an aerial view of her garden in Saratoga Springs, NY; on the right, a photo of "what we look forward to the most in the fall."
Above, left, azaleas in the garden of George and Elaine Dapra, in Highland Falls, NY; above, right, early spring flowers in "my tiny in-town yard in Great Barrington, MA," sent by Deborah Greene.