Photos of gardens.....

I would love to see some more gardens, so I am starting a new thread. I hope some here on the Butterfly and Hummingbird forum will share how you are doing your gardens. Spring is here and I know just about everyone has been out working in their yards and working very hard to get their garden beds back in shape for another season of butterflies and hummingbirds!

Here is a before of my front garden taken about 2 weeks ago. Since we didn't get a cold winter here in my zone in Florida, everything got pretty overgrown especailly the Porterweed. It is actually trimmed up in this picture! LOL! It's definitely a butterfly magnet! I dug that huge Porterweed up and moved it to the backyard.

Here's how the front garden bed looks now after I added new plants, trimmed up other plants, and removed plants. Of course, when it all fills in after a couple months of growth it will look much better. :-)

This message was edited Apr 30, 2007 9:32 PM

Hey Mark ................ we want to see your English Gardens! (Hint, hint!) And Deb I want to see what all your hard work looks like now....... please!!!!

Here's a picture from last summer. I actually saw hummingbirds for the first time ever on my honeysuckle vine. So I went out and bought feeders saw one more at the feeder. I hope to see more this year.

Here's some glads.

Not much blooming in June in this garden. I am expanding this another 10 feet and have added an arbor, walk, lots of pots my own personal lounge chair ect. When I finish I will post pics.

Tracy - Your garden is BEAUTIFUL!!!! Love the plants you have in it! Congrats on the hummers! I hope that my garden eventually attracts some hummers too! Thanks for sharing your lovely garden here!

Our puppy likes the garden too! :)

Awwwwww .......... isn't your little fella a cutie! Is he a springer spaniel? Too cute!!! :-)

Thanks Becky! He's actually a cockerspaniel. Going through my pics, I realized that one: I have to take more pictures when things are in bloom and 2: I've got to get more spring-early summer blooming plants! Guess I have to go shopping!! (not such a chore)

Becky

One or two photos for you to look at....................LOL
Work in progress................

Becky

another one............

I see how it is Becky, LOL! I was procrastinating, and ya gonna drag it out of me, hahah! Seriously, I was waiting for some growth to level off so everything would be more visible.
Your yard is looking great Becky, I just love that PW!! Your front garden is looking awesome!!

Mark your yard reminds me of an old show 'Good Neighbors", with that solid fence in back..Is that brick????? Do good fences actually make good neighbors????? It's really looking good there bro!!

Hi tracy! Nice to see you. Your glads are lovely... Becky's right, what you have there is really beautiful! And what an adorable puppy..He looks very comfortable there. :-))

It rained and rained last night, so things are pretty wet now. I need to rake some mulch back into place, but once again, I'm so glad I raised all the back beds up a few inches. Amost all the back is either planted, or earmarked for plantings. Last year it was all overgrown and weedy, and there was one particular tree that took up about a third of the yard. Really bad, I mean, even for letting our dog out there, LOL! When the one tree was finally removed, my imagination took off. Toward the end of summer I was thinking about all the host and nectar plants I could fit back there, and now I'm already running out of room....

First I will show ya how it looked with that big gnarley B Pear tree hogging up the whole corner..
http://davesgarden.com/forums/fp.php?pid=2893748
:-D

Now a little view of that same corner..
(I will post some more after I get Bennie off for school..)

Another one

Your really getting fluffy there Mark.. Are you like me, running out of room??? lol
How many pics ya want me to post Becky? I went out and took 59 and selected 15 to share with ya here. Rather team up than a separate thread is my preference! Thanks for opening it gff!!

:-Deb
These were all taken this morning. We had a super good rain, so it's a bit untidy.

This is the main host-nectar bed where it began in the middle back yard.
Pictured:
Parsley, Agalinis, Foxglove, BF Daisies, Texas Mist, Frostweed, Wildflowers, Passionvine, Duranta, Mexican Salvia, Poppies, Coreopsis, Cosmos, Dianthus, Bluebonnets, Milkweed, Black Hollyhock, Black Bart Columbine, Rue, Bronze and Green Fennel.

To the left of the above main bed is pictured here: Fragrant Corkscrew Vine, A. elegans, Sweetbroom, Texas Yellow Star, Meadowsweet, Pink Buddleia, Agastache, & TxLantana....The little tree closer on the right is Flying Dragon.

To the right of the main bed are here:
Passionvines, Scarlet Bee Balm, Gladiolas, Crocosmias, Sweet Allysum, Forget me nots, and Vitex. In the pots coming from there are False Indigo, Desert BOP, Desert Willow, and Duranta (in ground). The square pot to the right is one of 2 with Sweet peas...and wowie they smell heavenly!!

Here are a couple details from the main bed:
I have never seen a Alcea rosea bloom in person before, and it is my first Hollyhock ever. Been admiring them in other ppls yards for so many years and finally claimed it from Siggy on the swap thread last October. I really love this plant, and it looks like hundreds of blooms prepared to pop in sucession all summer long.

This is a shot of the wildflowers I spread fall and spring.. Lots of mysteries in there... among which is also a duranta in the middle of all that, which I am very glad to see. Siggy gave me that too, I just lucked out at the right place and time.

When ya come through the gate and look across diagonally ya see from above 4 railroad ties, in the shape of pi, or 2 T's put together. In them I formed 4 rows with a smal alcove where the Lemon tree stand on that old tree stump. Surrounding it in the rows are: Zinnias, Sunflowers Red hot pokers, Snapdragons, Sweet peas, a potted SPicebush, Nasturtium(Empress of India), Hops, A. tuberosa, Echinacea, Liatris, Rudbeckia, Coreopsis, Daylilies, Bluebonnets, Salvia greggii, Verbena, more Nasturtium (Jewel). then to the right not pictured yet, are 2 long rows. One with A. incarnata, Nasturtium, and Salvia greggii...The far right row by the fenceline back to front, Spicebush, Yarrow, Sweet pea, A. macrophylla, more Nasturtium and Yarrow, more Sweet pea, White 4' Oclocks, another Spicebush. On a trellis closest to the gate are SO'Hara Morning Glory, and Moonvine.

A little closer..

All of the above are in the back now. I haven't taken pics of all the Buddleias yet, or the Brugmansias, but I will get along to it. 4 out of 6 Budds are stil kinda small. The white one is in front with a new neighbor for balance. A new one to me called Blue Mist, (corymbosa). I can wait to post about that..A snicker and a warning, you guys will probably get tired of looking at that Hollyhock Nigrita. PF said bf like them. I have taken up enough posts for now, but Becky,....you asked for it!! I hope this was what you had in mind...ROFLMBO
Thanks for being such a gracious hostess with the mostest!!

Thank God and you and everybody!!

Deb

Ok, guys - now I have garden envy AND rain envy! Your gardens are just beautiful! You have given me hope for the future, as my garden is still rather young - 5 years or less. Deb - could you try to blow a bit of the wet stuff over here to south GA - we're in a bad drought, & have wildfires in the Okeefenokee Swamp about 75 miles from here. Fortunately, all we've had here is smoke blowing in, but I understand nearly 20 homes have been destroyed and many more threatened. Fire IN the swamp is a good, natural regulator,(keeps the swamp "swamp-y", rather than drying up due to overgrowth), but the peat moss underground can smolder & burn for years, and this fire is consuming huge amounts of acreage of surrounding forest.

Great y'all! All are very inspiring to me and gives me some ideas of how and what to plant. I am not very creative, so looking at what everyone else is doing with their gardens/yards sparks my creative ideas.

Mark - You garden is very elegant! Can't wait to see more in a month or two when everything is in bloom and you've finished up all your different garden areas! And I definitely want to see how your Crocosmia garden is laid out.

Deb - WOW! You have done an amazing amount of work in just the past 3-4 months! Your backyard butterfly & hummer gardens are coming along very nicely. Your backyard is going to look like a blooming jungle for butterflies and caterpillars in a couple more months!!! You did a great job keeping the seedlings alive during the winter and boy! is it paying off now! Way to go, Deb!

I put a lot of work in my gardens, too, and look forward to sitting back soon and enjoying it all! I just hope we start getting more rain soon. My county has the one of the highest drought/fire threat areas in the state of Florida right now. Not good! I don't have an irrigation system, but I do have a well to water everything with. (So no water bill. Thank goodness!)

Graceful_garden - I hear ya about the fire threats. We were smelling the smoke clear down here in south central Florida this week from your GA fires. How scary indeed for all of you in Georgia. I didn't know that peat moss could smolder and burn for .... YEARS!!! Yikes!!! Stay safe!

Becky, Tracy, Mark, and Deb.....your gardens look magnifique!!!! I love to look at others' gardens and plants. It looks like everyone has done such a good job, and a lot of work!

I'll work on getting up the nerve to show my back yard that I'm working on. I had a couple old dying Sweetgums removed and have 2 more to go...I need more sun....it's impossible to have a butterfly garden in the shade.

Thanks for sharing!

Wow - great idea Becky, I love seeing everyone's gardens. We are in rainy springtime, too and everything should look better in a couple of months.... I'll try to share as well.

I only had a minute, so I did the backyard and south side yard (daughter has piano lessons) - strangely enough there was a hummingbird when I went outside (I've only seen a couple so far this spring) I was so flustered I didn't get a picture of him ... grr what a dummy! anyway, this is a container with goldfish, still waiting for our solar fountain and the plants to get bigger, but the kids have enjoyed this alot!

heres another, where alot of salvia is starting to grow, also phygelius rectus which are supposed tobe hummer magnets ? we'll see!

kay, south side yard, which I just re-did last summer, I pulled out TWO TONS OF GRASS - crazy, it will be better in another year or two.

ah - my pictures look boring compared to everyones, I'm having posters remorse !!! here's another closer pic

and lastly (for today) the baby dragonfly that was sitting on the screen when I came back inside! These little fellas hang out on our window screens on the back of our house, they are still fairly little.

oops - forgot, two more backyard.

this one shows the tulips a hummingbird disappeared inside - too cute. Also, that I have children, and I will have a nice area to garden & console myself with when they grow up!

uh oh

Red, your gardens are lovely!!! Those huge Tulips and Hostas are to die for!!! And that full Azalea? Very nice!

thank you fly girl, I think I hurried a bit with my pictures and I'm cringing when I look at these --- oh well, I'll redo in a few months when there is more in bloom.

I love everyone's pictures! I have zone envy, not so much in bloom here in Wisconsin. Here are some tulips and grape hyacinth.

A couple pots I couldn't resist planting.

And my favorite Magnolia.

Boy I agree Roxanne! Red has got it goin on up there in OR. The climate there is so different from here, so many things I could grow in this TX heat! I like the flow and harmony you have going there, Red, such clean lines!
Rox, I relate to the tree removal and letting some more sun in. So true

The side of our house gets east sun in the morning, and it was the best spot for full sun for a few years. A lot of butterfly action has been going on there since I began planting there. Many of the plants there have been there for about 4 years.
The front yard is less wild looking than the back. But the back is scruffy on purpose.. White and Red Clovers and mulch and maybe some native grass when I am ready to trim it all in tight. I have found wildlife like a somewhat casual habitat. Critters appreciate function before form anyway.. If something looks like it works well, it was half by accident. Honestly all I was thinking was "I need this!"~ When I had it it was then, "Where the would am I gonna put this?" So I just went for it!!
Besides gardening is the best way to share. Once we have them there is a 90% or better chance we can reproduce it to give to someone who liked what we grow as much as we do.
I am growing more things for the first time than any year before. Gotten bolder and bolder too, LOL! Hopefully I will be able to harvest the seeds well enough to share and keep going on some reliable annuals.. A lot of testing will be done with the perinneals. Best way for me to learn is to grow it for myself.
And about the rains... This is the rainest April we have had in so so so long! I know drought well. It turned out to be the best year of all to establish certain plants that would have been a waste of money otherwise.

Here is looking across the front yard. The little Blue Mist shrub on the left in front of the window will grow to balance the Buddleia to the right of it. Then there is a Redbud in the middle. In front of that are 2 Bradford Pear trees. They do look amazing in Spring with all the white blossoms. One of these days they might have to go. There is Jasmine on the far left. The Cestrum nocturnum made it through and also the star Jas. Love the fragrance of the Cestrum!

Look what ya started Becky, LOL! You da girl!!