Take us for a stroll through your garden!

The larger bed, on the left side of the yard...more hostas and ferns

side view of that bed

my other piece of garden art, and probably my favorite part of the garden- a fountain I made out of hypertufa

And then the far left side is just ferns and another container. Our yard is pretty small. I'd love to have more space and a bit more sun so that I could grow some of the things you guys have.

Schickenlady I think your wall seat and well dressed fox is adorable. I agree about the heat, I just stuck my head out and took a quick walk outside. It is so humid its like walking under water and way too stupid hot. DH's lawn is just toast, mostly reduced to weeds and bare dusty areas. We had more showers this am which only seemed to increase the steam level. Yuck!

Noreaster your shade garden is just lovely and no doubt a lot cooler than most places today. Very restful and serene. Your tuffa pots and fountain are really wonderful too.

ngam - beautiful gardens and your new area is starting to fill in nicely. Noreaster - your garden is beautiful and ngam is right about a shade garden on a day like today. My yard was mostly shade when we first moved in 30 years ago. We've taken down a lot of trees to get some sun and also to get rid of an ant problem. (and leaves my DH doesn't want to rake) Nice garden art. Schickenlady - love the wall and fox. I'm in the same boat as you - I didn't save any tags until last year so there are some plants I don't know the names of. Eleanor

ngam I love the before and after pics - that is a great idea! It looks gorgeous!

Noreaster your garden art is just wonderful too!

great pictures..... love the hypertufa fountain

Very nice
Noreaster - I've been wanting to hypertufa as it looks like so much fun. Your fountain is very inspiring.

Noreaster, I'm in Kennebunk :)
Your gardens look soooo cool and inviting :)
I love your hypertufa! I have been "lurking" in that forum for a while but get so confused and overwhelmed before I even try *lol* That fountain is amazing! Maybe someday I will give it a try. Is it expensive to do?
Absolutely beautiful!

Kim

Thanks, everyone! I admit it's nice having shade on some of the hotter summer days. I'm also the world's laziest waterer, so I wouldn't do well with a full sun garden.

Kim, nothing to fear with hypertufa...it's very easy, and worth the effort. The only difficult part is lugging the 94 lb. bags of cement. And it's also fairly messy, so you need to have the space to do it in. I posted some more detailed instructions for the fountain in this thread in the hosta forum earlier this year...it's down near the bottom of the thread:

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/733821/

I guess the greatest cost for the fountain would have been the pump and the cost of the sunker reservoir- my inlaws gave me the pump from a fountain they no longer used, and the reservoir was about $25. The other ingredients in hypertufa are portland cement, sand, pearlite, and peat moss..I buy them all in big bags and I got a lot of pots out of them as well as the fountain, so I'd say it's fairly inexpensive. Certainly cheaper than buying nice planters, you know?

Good morning! How nice to vicariously stroll through all the gardens today. You have inspired me again, and I am making L-O-N-G lists for next season.

Here's a before shot of our front garden, which we enlarged this year by more than 100%.

This is a photo of the work on the garden when it was about 1/2 done. That's my daughter and granddaughter there, working around the plants that were already in the garden. I think that this was taken in mid-June.

My daughter is telling my grandson how far she wants the garden to go. Notice that I am taking pictures - not getting dirty or hauling heavy stuff!! LOL!!

I promise you that I did more than my share of getting dirty and hauling! And I still do. Perhaps this evening I will get outside and try to get a shot of the entire length of the garden.

All of these photos were taken in late June. The garden was completely dug out and edged by the first week in July. Ever since then we have been coddling the plants we moved - like the daylilies - and adding new stuff given to us by our neighbor.