Ken Walker's Garden

I've been interested in growing plants since I was a child. We had flower gardens around the farm house where I grew up in Vermont, but for many years as an adult I settled for growing house plants, which I still do. I didn't have a garden of my own until I bought my first house in 1994 when I was nearly 40. My home is in Concord, California. It has a very different climate from Vermont and it took me a while to adjust my gardening style to a climate with cool wet winters and dry, rainless summers. It's been a fun learning exerience.

I'm more of a plant collector than a landscape designer, but, at least in the front yard, I try to arrange my collections into a garden that looks interesting. I have a succulent garden along the street which provides textures and innumerable shades of green throughout the year. Here is a picture taken in late summer in 2003.

My tall bearded iris bed is also near the street. It provides a center of focus while it blooms in April and into May. 1999 was a particularly nice year for blossoms, as the following photo shows.

I have a specimen of Paul's Himalayan Musk Rose that fills the lower part of my sycamore tree. It dominates the front yard for several weeks in May. This photo was taken in the spring of 2010.

I view my backyard as a playground for gowing things with plants arranged more for practicality than beauty, but I do have a raised cactus garden that is a bit showy. This photo was taken in the spring of 2004.

I've created photo galleries of the iris that I grow or have grown in the past.

Aril & Arilbred	Bearded	Crested	Pacific Coast
Siberian	Spring Bulbs	Suria	Other

I've also created galleries of the roses I grow.

Single-flowered
Species Roses

Old Gaden
Roses

Modern
Roses

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