Thank you. I will certainly have to try this.
Garden Shots 3-Let's see your late summer combos!
This dahlia (Kevin Floodlight) has been blooming for 4 weeks. With rose and purple buddleia.
Aren't Dahlias the grand dames of the late summer garden! I love KF, grew it several years ago, and have never forgotten what a bright beacon those blooms are in the garden- they draw the eye straight to 'em, even at night.
As Summer draws to a close, I'm still enjoying bits of its colors here and there. These were lined up yesterday as though they were waiting for the group shot.
Gemini Sage - I did not discover late blooming dahlias until this year. I grew a couple in years past, but I was given 9 different tubers this year, and I have come to really like them.
Other combos in my garden - Rudbeckia and ziinnia. The rudbeckia seedlings were planted early July, the zinnia seeds were sown at the same time. On the left is achillia.
Missmary - looks like we got the same color combos- LoL
This message was edited Sep 15, 2009 10:46 PM
This message was edited Sep 15, 2009 10:48 PM
This message was edited Sep 15, 2009 10:49 PM
How pretty!
I hope no one minds a newbie jumping in here. All your flowers are so beautiful. Wish I could find a place for each and every one!
Since I'm new to gardening, I was particularly thrilled when a container combo I tried about a month ago gave its all for me and turned into a real beauty --- Lantana and Evolvulus "Blue Daze." I had never successfully grown Lantana before and NEVER tried Blue Daze. I also stuck a red petunia in the mix (should have added more) and placed it outside my dining room window where the colors inside are yellow, cobalt blue and cranberry red. The butterflies go nuts over it and I can hardly get anything done for stopping and looking out the window. Here's a photo but I didn't get it at its peak. Will definitely try this one again next year.
And here's a better shot of the petunias ...
That is a very pretty combo
All are welcome here in the cottage garden
Pull up a chair and stay a while.
Judy
What a pretty planting! This is my first year gardening and I always like to admire what others have done and make mental notes as I go. I planted Lantana (Cherry Sunrise) this year and it's as big as a small hydrangea now, still blooming some. With its array of colors, it's a cottage garden all by itself! I've really enjoyed it so much. Welcome to the thread.
Miss Mary, did you know you can ''tag'' a single post or whole thread so you can reference what you wish to remember?
For a single post just click on it then at the very top is a little picture of a file click that and follow directions. You will have a personal store of posts& ideas.
That will be a big help. Thank you for the tip.
Gardengus & Miss Mary,
Thank you so much for the welcome. It is such a thrill to be able to contribute something! Miss Mary, your Lantana is gorgeous. Will have to try that one next year.
Gardengus, I didn't know that about saving posts but I wondered what that little number was for. I have been pulling photos off to my desktop and saving them in a folder called "Garden Ideas." Saving the posts is really neat. Thanks for the tip.
Here's another combo I tried that came out pretty good --- petunias and hibiscus. It is thinning out now but held its own all summer.
Judy
Very pretty, Judy! And welcome! Good to meet ya :-)
I love that Evolvulus, such a nice true blue. I tried one for the first time this year, it hasn't done as well as yours, but it has been a nice, easy container plant, and not fussy about drying out either.
Gemini_Sage ...
Nice to meet you too!
I have noticed that the Blue Daze starts closing up in the early afternoon and opens wide in the early morning. Have to plan on taking photos in the morning. I love the blue color but it really needs the yellow to set it off. Ditto the Cypress vine (nearby) on shutting down in the afternoon. The Lantana stays sunny and bright all the time. I am learning a whole bunch of stuff this year. All my plants are on the deck and I can watch them all easily. Most will go into beds as soon as the weather cools off and I can get out there and dig. As I said, I am new and have no beds to speak of now ... a blank slate, but lots of plans. I posted my bare "uglies" on the Beginner Landscaping forum when we were talking about edging flower beds with broken concrete. Can't wait to get started.
Judy
" can't wait to get started''
Are you putting in your new bed this fall?
Gardengus,
It's a long story but yes, I will start doing beds as soon as it is cool. I have been trying to start a garden for several years but things keep getting in the way (annoying health issues ... like two heart attacks, bypass surgery, breast cancer and more surgery ... all since 2006. I just turned 70 in April.). I will have to go slower than I could then but as long as I don't get too overworked I should be able to get things done.
I started in 2003, turning my little tract house into a country cottage and now I need the cottage garden to make it complete. My grandiose plans of years ago have been changed out of necessity but I can still have some beds, although they will be fewer and smaller.
Winter here is quite mild, although somewhat rainy, but preparing beds is something you can do almost year round. Summers are hideous with the temperature and humidity running about the same ... in the 90s. I just can't take that heat. That's why everything is on the deck. I have many of the ingredients ... now I have to make the cake :-) Finding these forums has been a Godsend. I not only have help and new friends, I have someone to share my garden triumphs with (and someone to lament with me when things go wrong).
To show you where I am in my progress, here is the house right after I purchased it in 1988 ...
And here it is this past July ...
So there you have it. Beds will be started this fall. And God bless all you folks for being here!
Judy
Judy, that house looks just lovely! I can only imagine how pretty it will be -- with or without the grandiose plans! Thanks for sharing. I wish you the very best with your health and your beds.
judy, that is very pretty. l especially love your porch.
Miss Mary and Lili,
Thank you so much for the compliments. I do love my porch. After family dinners it seems that's where everybody ends up. I sit out there at night doing a lot of "planning" in my head on what I want to do with the yards. Both the porch and the little picket fence in front were my own designs. In my day, all girls wanted to grow up, marry, and have a little cottage with a rose garden and a picket fence. I'm almost there. LOL There also are deck additions to the back and a picket fence on both sides of the house.
Here's one more pic of the driveway side and the picket fence. You can see all the possibilities for flower gardens, plus I want to try a shade garden in the woods in the back. What you see cleared is about 2/3 of my one acre. The rest is in the woods in the back. The front faces west so you are looking at the north side.
I've ordered Asiatic lily bulbs and have several roses, plants, shrubs, and lots of seeds. Got my work cut out for me, as you can see. I hope I will have pics of my gardens next spring and summer. I really appreciate your comments.
Judy
Judy, I LOVE the changes you've made! Great before and after pics, and they inspire so many ideas. Just do what your body allows, and enjoy the blooms as part of your healing process (gardening is such great therapy!). There's a member here who is in her 80's, lives alone, and just started her garden 6 or 7 years ago (I think) from a blank slate. She is such an inspiration to me- she requested some Golden Chain tree seedlings I offered for postage last year- I just love that positive outlook. Looking forward to seeing the progression of your garden :-)
Me, too!
Judy,
You are an inspiration!!! I love the before and after pictures, you are doing a great job.
Awww (blush). You guys are so nice. You don't know how much I appreciate the comments and encouragement.
Gemini_sage, your story of the 80-year-old lady gives me hope that maybe I will get it all accomplished someday. Wow! That is amazing! Thanks for relating that!
Miss Mary, thanks for the good wishes and encouragement. You are too kind!
Lynn, I don't think I've ever been anyone's inspiration. :-) That's a first for me. And I appreciate your encouragement too. Thank you, thank you!
Will definitely keep you all posted on the progress. Thanks so much!
Judy
Judy why don't you start a thread (Judy's Garden) so we can all follow along.
and maybe we can even find a new home for some our plants.
My garden is full and I am always looking for a gardening friend to push plants and seeds off onto.^_^ looks like you have lots of space.
Judy, I found this thread from way back in 2005 of before and after pics of her garden and home, and she shares some of her story:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/551551/
gemini_sage - That story is amazing and so inspirational. Something for me to remember as I embark on this journey. I can't imagine isolating myself in the middle of nowhere when I'm that old (what am I saying? I'm almost there!) but she sure had a lot of spunk to do it.
Gardengus - I had thought about doing just that (starting a thread), although I was going to call it something like ... "A newbie begins: First you need a cottage ..." I don't have all the photos on the computer yet of the transformation of the house, plus I haven't even started on beds yet, except for the two in front where the little white picket fence is (and they're ALL wrong). Also, I need to paint the fence on both sides of the house. When I get myself together, I will definitely put something up so everyone can follow along. There's nothing I'd like better than suggestions from you guys.
And plants/seeds will be more than welcome when I get to that point. You are so generous to offer. I already have a bunch of stuff on my deck that needs to be planted when I decide where I want to put everything.
Again, thank you all for the encouragement.
Judy
By the way Donna (rutholive) from the story is still posting. last month she was over in the tomato forum.
I've talked to Donna a number of times and knew she lived up on a hill
but had no idea how wonderfully she had transformed her property!
Judy - I love love love that porch & fencing. You are doing wonderful things too
with your little oasis.
Tam
Thank you, Tam. As long as I'm showing, I might as well show you the other side. This is the south side and will be so perfect for roses and sunloving plants. I want to stain the fence white before I do any planting, though. Again, waiting for cooler weather.
There's a pile of dirt on the left waiting to be shoveled under the trees for a shade garden (hostas, ferns, etc.).I ordered this stuff last May but the hot weather came on too fast and I just had to let it sit. Hopefully, it won't be too long now before I can get back out there again.
Hello, everyone. I've been reading this thread and just wanted to jump in and add my kudos to everyone on their flower combos.
Judy, that is quite an improvement in your home's appearance. Great job! I can't wait to see what your cottage garden will look like. I love before and after photos. They're so satisfying, I think!
Hemophobic,
Thank you so much for the kudos. Sometimes I can't believe the change either. Even the guys at the auto shop where I get my car serviced have made comments. When a mechanic compliments you on your home, it must be a dramatic change! LOL
This is NOT the way the story started out. I moved here to get away from a bad landlord situation and to get a tax break on the mortgage interest. These houses were really inexpensive and bare bones but they were roomy and had ample amounts of land. They are also on a state highway and I knew they would eventually go commercial. It was a good investment and I had no intentions of staying more than a few years.
But the longer I stayed, the more I fell in love with it and started thinking how I could make a few changes to make it more like me. Major construction changes/additions are about done and now I have to do the landscaping. I know it will take years but I'll just have to eat the pie one piece at a time.
Looking forward to having some "armchair" help along the way. All of your gardens and projects are so inspirational. I certainly won't lack for ideas! :-)
Judy
Judy, you'll be surprised how quickly it will fill up. I started planting here a couple of months before moving in, that was spring '07, this pic is from June of this year:
OMG Gemini_sage! Those lilies are gorgeous! Such a beautiful "meadow" type garden. It must have taken forever to plant all that, though. I have ordered Asiatic lilies from White Flower Farm to plant in front of my fence on both sides of the house. I have a feeling I'm going to be digging for weeks. I hope they look as good as yours do.
That's what I was talking about ... the "me" is going to be the slow part. Sometimes I feel like just giving up and hiring a landscape service to come in and plant stuff, get it done, then sit and enjoy it. But then I would miss out on the fun and satisfaction of knowing I did it myself. Plus, I am really picky. The guy who did the fence, the brickwork and the new sidewalks called me "Monk's mother." For those of you who don't know, "Monk" is a TV character with a bad obsessive-compulsive problem. Everything has to be "just right." I gave the poor fence guy fits.
But, sadly, he was right. So ... one piece at a time ... if you want it done right, do it yourself ...
Judy: some salvias would look good in front of that white fence, as would some dahlias. I've had great success this year with Dahlia Unwin's Dwarf. Don't let the name fool you. Those babies got about 18-24" tall and were they ever prolific. Here's a red one:
Hemophobic ...
That Dahlia is really pretty. I have never grown those. Are they difficult? We are probably about in the same zone or pretty close.
My mom used to grow Salvia (the red kind) around our brick patio at home. She showed us how to collect the seeds. I know it comes in blue too. I'm going with a monochromatic color theme ... rosy red/burgundy through all the pinks to white. I may get into blues and yellows later but that's what I want to start off with. That Dahlia looks to be just about the right shade of red. I will keep that in mind.
I also want hollyhocks and zinnias. All the old-fashioned stuff. :-) Both fence areas get full sun.
Thanks so much for the suggestion.
Judy: The dahlia was one of the easiest things I wintersowed last year. I bought a packet of seeds of Dahlia Unwin's Dwarf and sowed them and have them in several places in my garden. They have bloomed non-stop since starting to bloom and I love them. Now, the only thing is that the ones I sowed came up in different colors so you have no guarantee of getting all red or white, etc., but I have the red, a yellow, a bicolor, a white, etc., but if you sow plenty of seeds, you should end up with several reds. Or you could buy the tubers and know which color you're getting, but I've truly enjoyed these dahlias.
Glad you like them as well.
Angie
Judy, I love the color palette you've chosen, one of my favorite combos. I have a bed devoted to pinks and crimsons, where I also work in touches of blue and rosy lavender. There are some burgundy leaved varieties of Dahlias that would be really striking in your color scheme. The Georgia Dahlia Society offers suggestions as to varieties that perform well in the south, note the heading in the left column you can click on:
http://www.dahliasocietyofgeorgia.com/
Dahlias are winter hardy to zone 8, but I've had them return occasionally here with protection. Perhaps you could have the bed and soil preparation done professionally, then enjoy the fun part of placing and installing plants yourself. Lasagna gardening may also be an option for getting your beds ready- much less labor intensive and I've found it to work like a charm.
This is part of the pink bed in June.
