"The Folly" and fringe tree in bloom

A couple of years ago, a friend gave me an old wrought iron gate that she found in the garage when she moved to an old house.  I put it at the end of the side pathway between our house and the house next door because it seemed like a nice idea to mark the entrance to the back garden, and because the fringe tree hangs so beautifully and frames it.  My husband thinks this is the silliest idea ever -- "but it doesn't keep anything in .... or out" so it has become "The Folly", and I think every garden should have at least one.  The idea of passing from one space to another is completely lost on him, but I love The Folly and have allowed the native ferns to grow up around the posts.  There is a clematis jackmannii that is very happy there now -- it grows through a white azalea and then up an old trellis, and its purple blooms coincide happily with the azalea.   

I have been working on the side garden for years now -- there is an old flagstone walk which is very weedy, and it is a lot of work to keep it looking good.  About two years ago I transplanted a lot of hostas to there, and they have settled in very well -- a bit too successfully, in fact, because they are presently crowding out a couple of small camellias and will have to be disciplined severely.  The neighbours' house is very close at this point, and the small strip of land which belongs to them is quite a problem because it is a weed farm and is never mowed unless I get out there with the weed whacker.  I am going to ask them if they mind (hah!  they'd never notice!) if I plant something like ajuga or mazus reptans there.   The mazus is beginning to fill in between the flagstones in places, so it might be a good choice.  I think I will mix ajuga, mazus, and the golden creeping plant whose name is lurking at the edge of my brain right now, and see which of them wins out.  Couldn't look any worse than it does now.

On the other hand, my large corylopsis is doing very well -- it is outside the east window of the living room, so that I can see its lovely catkins in late winter and enjoy them from inside.    Also, camellias appear to like the place and I have several which are doing quite well, including a wonderful c. sasanqua, "Snow Flurry", which covers itself in white fluffy blooms in November -- or, it would if the hostas would stop leaning on it till it gets a bit bigger.