New garden pics

smkie

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A very happy place thank you . : )




Baylee found all the flowers, but these she thought smelled the best.


We had a grand time out there for a few hours yesterday.




everybody has their favorite spot. THis is Ressie's lookout.
I knew that log was drug up from the woods for a reason.


IT's meant for him.
 
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Barb04

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I wish I could take sections of the fence with your drawings to hang in my house!

Someone on facebook paints animals on shutters and sells them.

If only you could send me your fence!
 

smkie

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Oh how they have grown in 3 years time, but they still love the swing in my garden, and they still have their own unique styles. I know I couldn't do this, I don't know how he does. I need another cotton rope and another soft swing seat, there is a limb just far enough parallel from this one, and another rubber runner too. IT's on my garden wish list, hopefully by next spring. I need one seat higher for the growing boys, and lower for Miss Baylee, tho she is getting leggy too. Jory is here for a week's visit. He has tasted strawberries, helped catch Japanese beetles, searched for skinks and toads, watched birds, found a caterpillar pet that he has checked on regularly, moved a slug from where he shouldn't be to where he could be, drawn critters on the fence and more. It is as much their garden as it is mine.
For that I am profoundly grateful.
vid
 

Doberluv

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What a beautiful and peaceful garden you have Smkie. I haven't gone through this whole thread yet but my goodness...really glorious. Some of the flowers you mention, I love too. Plox...I have the tall kind, the mounded type and creeping Plox. It's neat that it comes in these different forms. I have no woodsy place at this house and have done some big changes from when I bought it a couple years ago. It's a suburban development where the builder puts in sod and a couple of shrubs. So, I'll show before and after pics: (the back yard is pretty much the same idea as the front...don't have photos of the original look)

Front before




Now










Back yard



That's a dogwood tree not in bloom. Lots of different ground covers. I'm really into ground covers.



One of my gardening helpers





Everything isn't pictured but I have and love Lupine in the front and back, but it is prone to mildew. There are all kinds of perennials and some annuals I put in in the summer. I planted roses last summer. And lots of bulbs for springtime.
 

Doberluv

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Thanks Smkie,
What's the little fella there holding? I can't quite see. Your garden is so interesting and meandering. I really like that. My yard is tiny, but then again, pretty easy to maintain which is what I wanted. Lupine are lovely and big but oh my...so hard to keep the mildew at bay in this climate....almost not worth having sometimes. I think my favs are the Delphinium. I really love Delphinium. And the perennial Salvia is so pretty and lasts a long time. There is Penstemon, holly hocks and some sweet peas, roses and some other annuals. There's English and Russian Lavender...so pretty and brings tons of bees. Love Cosmos and petunias, fuschias and a few other neat little things. There are a few Rhododendrons, evergreen and deciduous azaleas, a lilac which looks really spindly and sparse, a couple camellias and hydrangeas. It's amazing what all you can fit into a small yard. And for trees, a couple of dwarf Alberta Spruce, a pine tree which when I'm long gone will probably need to be cut down, two Japanese maples, one red, one green and the dog wood. No trees to speak of in the front. Even herbs like various types of Thyme are such a pretty thing. Love that creeping Thyme between stepping stones. And those pretty mosses...Irish and Scottish.

Anyhow, I wanted sort of an English cottage type garden, even though my house isn't really a cottage. I just love that style...a little messy but a mostly planned mess. lol.

There are two big pots with big geraniums and some lobelia. I wintered the geraniums over in the garage and they don't die. They just get bigger and thicker. I put some bubble plastic around the pot and watered it maybe once or twice. (You're suppose to water more often but I don't ever get around to it.) They look almost dead but when cut back in spring, they burst forth with a little sunshine and fertilizer.



This is the ugly gravel area where all the water, power, cable stuff goes. There are 3 big pots behind this area. One has some Rosemary, chives, sage. (have parsley and different Thymes in garden) and one big pot houses two cherry tomato plants. There's loads of sun there...the front is on the southern exposure. I put in some Zinnias and a few other things in here.



So that's my garden. If I can remember to keep the slug bait out and keep well stocked with fungicide, I'll maybe make it to the end of summer. lol. Then in fall...there is lots of work, isn't there...taking down things that are over, cleaning up everything, mulching where needed. Lots of work in fall.

In the back in the shade are Hostas, Begonias, impatiens, bleeding heart, and more ground cover with yellow flowers and then earlier is pink flowered ground cover. This is from last year though.



 

smkie

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I love your containers..Not much room for that here. I don't have a whole lot to begin with, less than most people's front yard. Am please however with the strip by the sidewalk. I was thinking to day, that hollow log really filled in between the flat and the tall, given a good balance. My son was here earlier and we deided that at least one sunflower is a story high. They have never been this tall before. Last year one was close. I planted several different kinds a week or so apart so hopefully the blooms will last, tho I did shade one tomato..oops. And I don't want to rip it out in order to give more sun, hopefully it can catch up when the sunflower is over with and removed.

The ever elusive, boy howdy butterflies don't hold still.


THis one must be minty new. I tried to get an in flight, but I guess I should be grateful for one.
 
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Doberluv and Smkie, I am so jealous of your beautiful flowers!

And THAT SUNFLOWER. :eek:

I am the queen at failing to successfully grow sunflowers. I try every year, and every year, I get squat. I have tried so many different varieties, different locations, different soils, different lighting...and not so much as one flower.

Wait, I lied. One year, I did have one little runt sunflower that managed to bloom. It was seed that the birds knocked out of the bird feeder and it managed to sprout and grow on it's own. So there you go...I made zero effort and got a bloom. I make tons of effort and I have nothing to show for it. Sigh, lol.

Your yards are amazing.
 

smkie

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I am sorry you haven't had luck with them, my sunflowers have pleased me to no end ever since I was little enough to stick in a seed. Mom said she remembered when I was so upset not because of something she thought it was, but because the "boys" had knocked mine down, so I had to be pretty little.

I have lost them to a pointer that went down the line nibbling up the seedlings. I have had an impatient squirrel tear the flowers up before they opened. A rabbit too, so maybe something like that is your culprit.

you can tell from where I have mine planted, some sun, even a lot of sun, is not enough, it has to be full on fry an egg spot to make them happy. Not too much water, in fact, unless there is a drought, they don't need much. The less sun the smaller the stalk and the smaller the flower.

This year they have reached a whole new height. Don't know why, same soil as last year. So it has to be something else. Different seeds so it isn't the seed type either. All I know is I love my giants and miss them when they are gone, and can't wait all winter until I can put them in and watch them grow. Hyia wrote in her diary, Nana's sunflowers are tall this year.

:):):):):) I am glad we have them to share together. No matter how hard the day, when you turn the corner and step into the garden, it just makes things so much better for me and for her. The best part is the gold finches that come. I was within 5 ft of a pair that were checking if the seeds were ready yet. I hope one day the right spot will be there for you. Soil doesn't seem to make much difference. I have both poor and a bit richer, you can tell from the nasturtiums. The ones next to the building are in crap soil, and the queen of them all that survived the microburst is in a bit richer.
That one lost a lot of leaves in the high wind, which is a shame, but I have my fingers crossed that the holly lock will fill in the space. Either way, it will be done in a month's time and removed.

THe neighbor's dog thought he was going to step over the fallen fence and urinate on ever bed, from every angle. I hope I have him foiled with a metal bedframe I put up. His owner said sorry (as I came out to see him with his leg hiked on the strawberry patch....but kept letting the dog out by himself anyway. Since I doubt the owner will replace the fence I am going to have to think of something I can do there that will work as one. I finally get some Arkansas traveler to grow and now the fence is gone. So, maybe I can make one out of sticks, who knows. I have access to loads of sticks.

The sunflower lost the bottom leaves too, there was too much wind damage, I just cut them off.


THe ones beside the building where unharmed. one over by the fence was twisted like a piece of rope, nothing to do but pull it out. Always surprises me how little roots they reall have, no more than a football sized clump.

THis was taken a week before the storm, now there is one less and the rest are a foot taller.

it
blew off every petal but one.

sure was a bright clean sky after 3 inches of rain. The neighbor boy said he was out looking for his cat when he saw what looked like a water spout of rain shoot across the field towards my building. It hit the fence, jumped over, and took trees down by the bridge. I thought it was odd that half of my flowers were blown one way and the rest the other. I thought the tall phlox were toast laying on the ground, but they dried out and stood up beautifully. We are getting many swallowtail butterflies right now because of them.

 
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Doberluv

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Heh, heh, I forgot to come back to this thread and just was exploring some old threads and here it was! Thanks Shadowface.

Smkie....gorgeous! I love that big sunflower. I had a few lame ones last year.

I give up worrying about dogs lifting their legs in my garden. I'm going to lose. I just hope it's an acid loving plant and look the other way till the next watering day. haha.

That's a beautiful picture of the sky! Your photography is really very nice too, along with your garden and your kidlettes.
 
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I don't know if either of you are on Facebook, or do the groups thing or not, but I created a gardening group. The idea for it was to create a seed swap group, but I secretly want to gawk at everyone's gardens too, lol.

Smkie, that sunflower is going to make some fat birds! :p
 

smkie

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I don't know if either of you are on Facebook, or do the groups thing or not, but I created a gardening group. The idea for it was to create a seed swap group, but I secretly want to gawk at everyone's gardens too, lol.

Smkie, that sunflower is going to make some fat birds! :p
I am flailing in the land of too far behind everything right now but will soon try to get there and join too. THanks for the invite.
 

smkie

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bumblebee moth..was much more golden in the sunlight, more greenish in the shade. I had exactly two chances to photograph before zippppp and it was gone. I have never seen one before in real life.


http://www.bing.com/images/search?q...26910C4B87BF44E0D694795F98537&selectedIndex=0

going going gone..the other night I saw all 5 of my little titmouse family sitting on top of the sunflower head sheltered by the leaves. The lightening lit up and you could see they were just having a grand ol time weathering the storm out at the café. I would like to paint it. I would go out the door and they would fly to the woods but soon as the door shut, they were all right back.
The best part of sunflowers is seeing who comes. This moring I told Gg on the phone as I sat really still below that I felt like I was in an atrium there were so many coming and going. She could hear them singing too.



here is a better pic of one. so cool to me

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q...865EF3E07AD7085555B6CD48BC52&selectedIndex=47
 
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smkie

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garden dragon..from the sticks and things Cindy gave me.
"The tomato Eater"

style 2


Most of my giants are gone, fare the well until next year. They were wonderful with the birds, butterflies, and bees that they brought.



I am just so pleased with how things turned out this year. My friend Cindy sayd first year a garden sleeps, second it creeps and third it leaps. If I am here next year, I have a few things I would like to add. Not many, still want the wild flower sweet William to put back along the side of the woods by the swing. The four oclock / wild phlox bed is self sustaining, and pretty much so is the new one where the fence fell. I would like to increase the strawberry bed. I would like a couple more hollow logs too. That worked out really well for the sweet potato.
 
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