January 2010 - still celebrating our gardens

Hummingbird moth, of the sphinx moth family. They come out at dusk to sip nectar.

Polly - Happy Birthday!

Thanks so much Carolyn.

IWe have a lot of the hummingbird moths here Jack, but I've never seen them up close like that. They are beautiful Aren't they tomato hornworms when caterpillars?

Wow - what a moth picture!! That's awesome.

Happy birthday, Pollyk!

Happy Birfday, PollyK! And many, many more.

Raina is singing "Happy Birfday, to yooooouuuu...."

Thanks for the moth id .
I see them often when the torch lilies are blooming.

I like this part of the border garden.

I can see why. It looks like a painting!

Hi Pirl

Hi, Jo Ann. It's zero degrees if the wind chill factor is right. Good day to work on photos of flowers.

It's definitely time to dream of spring and summer.

totally serene
DD&GD are making summer plans to go to Germany and Poland.
Its her graduation present from HS last summer.

pirl, love your garden. That is what I want to do here. I'm saving you picture to refer to as I work. OK?

Thanks, Jo Ann. Sounds like a great trip. Bavaria is on my eternal list.

Sure, Marti. Try your best to avoid rigid soldier straight lines of plants, like some nurseries have. They may be forced to do it to maintain order but it certainly doesn't make a garden. Try for long soft curves and half the battle is won. It's much easier to mow the grass along long curves than squared off beds.

Straight lines can't be avoided with gardens at the side of driveways or walks but you can trick the eye with swirls of color.

Here's a photo taken at Eartheart Gardens, a Japanese iris and Siberian iris "nursery", that does not have those awful soldier straight lines of plants. It was heaven on earth to visit.

Thats kind of what I'm planning on doing. I hate long straight lines. We have a riding mower so I thought I'd ride it around in the spring and that will give me my edges cause I can see how much room the mower needs to make the curves. Than I can lay in my raised beds along those curves. In the veggie garden I'll have to watch how I do them, esp for the grapes, and blackberries, but think I've got that figured out.

Thank you for the birthday wishes Katie and Sheryl!

Marti - Vegetable gardens are usually straight, as is ours. But you can add beds around the garden. I'll be rounding those corners (one of which is shown here) this spring though mowing has been given away forever as a permanent gift to my husband.

beautiful pirl

All the pictures are beautiful - gave my morning quite a lift!

pirl, how much land have you got? My lot is 75 feet wide and 192 feet deep with a single wide trailer on it. I wish the trailer was situated a different way, but the property sits North/South and so does the trailer. I have morning sun on the east side of the trailer and on the west side is were I will put the shade garden as 3 maple trees keep it shaded thoughout the day.

Less than an acre, Marti, but a lot more gardens than people with a lot more acres. So many plants do well with an eastern exposure and the hosta will thrive in your dappled shade from the maples. We love our hosta but detest the slugs and earwigs so we do use Ortho's Slug Geta Plus to try and eliminate them.

Thanks, Pagancat.

I really love this daylily, one of my hybrids, and the way the yarrow matches it. It's one of many I look forward to seeing all winter long.

I need Yarrows. those are great Pirl

I love yarrows. Jack grew a 4' x 4' square of them one year, in a spot between two paths, and it was filled with color. After bloom I cut each stem down to the ground and they continue to bloom until December.

The alternate method is to just remove the spent head and hope the stem produces more flowers and it usually does.

I like the way it's an accent to other flowers and not major competition.

Pirl, that is a beautiful garden to look forward to next spring. We are in the 60s and trees are starting to bud out.

great pix everyone,
this was last May18.I'm hoping for a fuller patch this year.

Thanks, Sharon.

ge - I'll bet with all of your purchases over winter it will be a much fuller path in 2010.

It changed a lot last year with an infusion of astilbes and DL's.
I added Veronica Royal Candles and more JI's
I removed the planters on the right and planted short DL's there
This is a July picture

It will be wonderful this year and you can use the pots for your other arrangements.

Beautiful gardens. I remember seeing a landscaping show years ago that had big squared off walls made from RRties. There were steps and the whole thing had different levels going up the hill with the steps. Big massive and straight lines. They planted it with mass plantings in circular designs with a curve of plants contiuning down and up the different levels even picking back up on the other side of the stairway. Made a huge difference in the look.

Someone (might have been you ge) posted pics of the Veronica Royal Candles last year and I just fell in love with them.

Might have been mine

In the picture they had white tips, do you have one like that?

ge1836, Lovely photo. What is the very pretty soft looking pale lavender flower in front.

I can maybe just walk around in my garden finally. The snow is mostly gone except where piled and in the shade.

Donna

The white tips was a photo phenomina,early morning sun.
The fluffy plant in front is an Astilbe Sister Theresa.

Gorgeous photos Jo Ann - I love the tiarellas and the veronicas.....

Spiky plants go so well with lilies and daylilies.

I love the Tiarellas, too, Carolyn. The colors on the leaves is just so intense.

I killed some Tiarellas once... or was it Heucarellas (sp)?

My neighbor says they dont stay around for long.

Here the tiarellas are better survivors than the heucherellas but that may have been partly due to the fact that I bought plugs on a co-op.

*That's* how you spell it, thanks!

Good to garden. This is what I want to see ALAS the pic was taken May8
Thats my cat Jerry
This is DD's garden not mine.

This message was edited Feb 1, 2010 5:32 AM