Two of the new gardens are about ready to plant – the canoe garden and the one on the near side of the new path. There is a third new garden you can’t see in this picture. It’s tucked back in behind the stern of the canoe between the peonies and the driveway. I still want to enhance the soil in that one some before planting.
These new gardens are all partially shaded by a locust tree located on the lawn. A surprising amount of sun sneaks into the canoe and peony area and less to the garden on the tree side of the path. The canoe area is sunny enough that the peonies in there do great. They start blooming a few days later than some in sunnier locations but once they show, they’re beautiful.
Tuffy P and I will now talk about what to plant in the new gardens. The bow and the stern areas of the canoe garden are going to be for annuals, with perennials in the middle two sections. I bought a couple nice grasses that can handle part shade on sale at my local home improvement centre. I think those are going to go in the garden on the right in the picture. If you have any suggestions for perennials in the canoe or any other plants for the new gardens, I’d love to hear what you think.
27th Street 
Back at the old Anchovy World Headquarters, I had a little water element. The local raccoons took great joy in going in for a dip, fishing out the pump, chewing up the pump hose and leaving it to die on dry land. Either I was going to go to war with the raccoons or admit defeat. I dug up the water element.
Sages are an interesting idea. Are there varieties that are ok in part shade?
Awww man that garden across from the canoe just screams to be a water element. But if you just have to have dirt think sages. A big honkin mass of sage. Humber Nurseries generally has an excellent selection of different heights and different shades of blue. Hardy, neat, attractive, and disease and bug free. You can work some greenery in among the sages if you like but the effect of a blue garden will really be sharp without looking like a clown’s pants. You will need something a bit low so you dont hide the canoe and sage fits the bill, although the canoe will be plenty visible once you paint it red. Canoes are red arent they?
http://gardenmaking.com/%E2%80%98caradonna%E2%80%99-perennial-sage/
http://www.northcreeknurseries.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/plants.plantDetail/plant_id/262/index.htm