Garden Successes This Year

Julie has been talking over in General Discussion about how overwhelmed we gardeners can get with all the planting and fall chores we have to get done before the snow flies. It is a great thread

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/459562/


She's been asking folks to post pics of their projects so I thought I'd start a new thread to show off our successes this garden season.

Mine is a new mostly shady bed that I started on April 12th. I posted some of these early pics this Spring if they look familiar to you. Here I've gotten all the sod up - took 2 days working by mself.

Next came the edging and backfilling with good top soil, compost and peat mixed all together.

This is about 3 weeks later (May 9th) as plants start getting purchased or transplanted from other areas of my yard.

This is June 11th and mostly planted (or so I thought!)

June 16th - tucked a few more things in and continued to do so for a good part of June and early July.

And here it is as of last week, Sept. 25th. Quite grown up and raring to go next Spring. Of all the goodies I put in this bed I'm most anxious to see the 8 primula that are in there

Brenda,

You have done a great job, that area looks wonderful. Your growing season is so much shorter than ours, but you certainly have some vigorous growers there.

:^)))
Molly

Brennie...I didn't even take the time to look at the pictures you posted yet. I wanted to be sure to have this thread in my "watched" list...so I wouldn't forget it later today. You know, after I've finished canning my second crop of beans (Thank God, that's nearly over!) and plucking my impatiens, cutting my coleus, digging the geraniums, and potting up some sword ferns. Not that I have a lot on my plate today. :-D :-D

I *will* be back! And thanks for starting the new thread...we can complain in mine and show off in yours! LOL

~julie~

it sure looks like a labor of love on your part. it looks great. congratulations on a job well done.

Thanks Herbie!

Well, Julie....fair is fair....need to see some of your handiwork too. :-D

brenda it looks really GREAT!! I know it was alot of work but man it looks gooooooooooooooooood!

I made a new hosta bed a few weeks ago.
Well im not finished yet! :)

I saw your pics Dori and that was a HUGE hosta garden!! I wish I had so much space.

Looks like you've done a smashing job on this bed. Nice mix of plants, for texture and interest.

Hi Brenda...I haven't forgotten about this thread, just still in the "Overwhelmed" mode. :-) I almost wish that frost *would* have hit here last night so I could move on. It didn't, and there's still a bunch more 'stuff' I need to get done.

I shall return...

~julie~

Brenda, your new garden looks wonderful. I think I will have to work on the side of our house next year - yours looks so nice the way you have done it.

I'm a real newbie, I started my garden from scratch in July this year. It has taken countless hours of work, and I am loving it. Here's what my garden looked like at the end of June - just before the house was finished...

Natasha
(more pics to follow...)

This is what it looks like now, just before fall...

We had 9000sqft of grass professionally laid - what a mess of weeds, so we laid the remaining 3000sqft ourselves (a very hard day of work). Then we had a picket fence put in to stop the kids and dog falling in the creek behind the house. I ordered an arbor off the internet and added it over the gate, then laid some paving for the bench in front of the house. I have about 20 roses planted in front of the fence and garage and around the bench and front door, interplanted with daylilies. Then I have lots of pink, yellow and white daisies between them (shasta's, asters, coreopsis, groundsel) and the beginning of an iris "patch" in a boggy area at the far end of the garage. The builder had brought in 2-3ft of subsoil to raise the foundation above the 100 year flood level, so I had to remove all the soil in the beds and replace it before I could plant anything. All this digging must be good for me...

Here's a close-up of the front of the house...

...and of the front of the garage...

I've also put in the start of a vege patch on the West side, which is currently occupied by some very unsuccessful pumpkins - they were supposed to be for Halloween, but nothing has happened yet and they don't have much longer to start making pumpkins... Not to worry, they make a good cover crop (lol). I made a lasagna bed for the vege patch, instead of digging everything out (thanks to DG).

None of it has had too long to fill in, but I'm really looking forward to spring, hopefully everything will have made BIG roots and will burst forth with great vigor (so send me good luck wishes on this first attempt :>))
Natasha

Wow, Natasha you've done a lot of work! Everything looks great. The second year is so wonderful, you will love it when the little green shoots start poking their heads up in the spring. Your first attempt looks a lot better than my first attempt, but we all get to learn as we go!

Natasha...GOOD WORK!!! Beautiful home you have there. I can identify with that "before" picture. I have two acres that looked just like it when I started working on it this spring. Funny thing is that, except for a little (VERY small, to tell the truth :-D) landscaping, tons of grass seed (that didn't do too well), and my nursery flowerbeds (who *knows* where to put what until you know WHAT it's going to look like?) it still looks like you *before* shot! LOL

Thanks for sharing!

~julie~

GREAT progress, Natasha!! Doesn't look like a newly built home lot at all. I don't think I could have gotten that much done myself. And Sylvi said it.....much better than my first feeble attempts at gardens. Just remember the mature size of trees and shrubs....that's all I'm gonna say about that! (from one who has learned that ONE the hard way).

Looks to me you've got some great foundations started in your beds and you'll be all set to start planting like crazy come Spring. Of course in MS you might be able to put some things in earlier....are you South MS or North? Another idea that's a HUGE money-saver is to start lots of things from seed overwinter if you have the interest and room in your home. I started last year and I'm hooked. I was so successful, I was sending seedling babies home with every relative I could AND still ended up selling columbine, rudbeckia and monarda in our neighborhood garage sale in early May. I've loaded up my seed stash this year and should have tons of new things coming out my ears come March.

Please update us here next year so we can watch your progress.

Thanks so much for all your encouraging words! My DH will only do so many "garden tours" of our yard, and I am so proud of all the work I've put in I had to show someone :>) Langbr, We are right in the middle of MS - I think I live on the exact line between 7b and 8a, it goes right through our suburb. You've inspired me to start a whole lot of perennials in little peat pots this evening...
Natasha

Hip-Hip-Hooray! Another seed trader! Glad to hear I was an inspiration to someone. LOL

Just be sure to keep in mind seed-starting in reference to your last spring frost date. You don't want to end up with a bunch of over-charged teenage seedlings that are dying to be in a grown-up plants' shoes. Don't know a thing at all about appropriate times for Z7/8 seedstarting timeframes, but you'll want to check into that.

Seed swapping and even seedling SASE/trades are a terrific way to increase your garden diversity by using your own "extras" to trade for other plant species. And DG has a nice Trade Tracker tool to help you keep it all straight.