sssssooooooo .......... lets start a thread of pictures of our Butterfly Gardens !!
this is one view of mine .
Today ..........
This message was edited Sep 16, 2007 6:08 PM
Pics of Butterfly and Hummer Gardens
AND ....................
THEN !!!
Great thread James. This is what I want to see. People's beautiful gardens and what draws the BF's and hummers to them. Yours is great. I cannot believe you still have that much milkweed left. What is it growing back as soon as the Monarchs eat it? That is amazing. I hope my plants hold up that well to the little piglets. Maybe since you are not bringing so much inside to feed them so much is not used. I don't know but I really thought yours would be bare by now. Okay question out of context? What kind of grass is that you have? Is it St. Augustine? It is beautiful. The reason I ask is because I had a backyard full of beautiful St. Augustine grass and then I got a dog and that was the end of my St. Augustine. Now it is jut in little spurs here and there. One of the reasons I decided to plant gardens. But anyway, I love that grass and just wondered if that is what you have. Whatever you have it is gorgeous and so is your garden. Thanks for sharing. It is so neat and tidy. No weeds. Amazing. I hope this thread gets lots of attention.
Leslie
thanks Leslie, I think that I should have nemed this thread "Show Us Your Bf/ Hummer Gardens" ...... perhaps it would be getting more photos .......
maybe we should start again ? What do you think?
james t
Sorry, hope you did not think I was ignoring you James. I had to go to work and I don't usually get to check this at work. I bet you get more action on this thread tonight when everyone gets home from work. Surely everyone wants to show off their beautiful gardens. I do notice that I get more response for my threads after the work day is over. So give it a little more time and I think we will have some takers.
I will talk with you again after work.
Leslie
nice garden
so far mine are mostly nectar plants - planning on adding more hosts next year
looking forward to seeing more
This message was edited Sep 17, 2007 5:47 PM
Awesome garden !!!!! so lush ....very nice.
That's a very nice garden, James. :) Very well laid out. And, Debilu, yours is awesome too. :) Mine is so disorderly compared to yours!!!
Mine looks kind of Puney compared to the lushness of Debilu's ......... The bed that I have was made from a butterfly garden plan that I found online ...... I have planted some of the plants that were called for in the plan ....... and then some that were not ....... the butterfly weed and the butterfly bush were in the plan .......... I may not be fertilizing enough .......
I planted some that were called for in the plan, but they did not make it this year ........ I planted some purple coneflowers and some spike gayfeathers that just did not make it .... I may try them again next spring......
my problem is that I can't pass by a pretty plant without bringing it home.
actually I am right now in the process of making that bed twice as deep cause everything is so crowded. Its on its 3rd year. I'm amazed at how much bigger everything was this year - it really filled in.
when did you start yours James?
Leslie,
That grass by that bed is some type of weed and bermuda grass .....the grass in that front yard is bermuda ....... my nicest lawn is one the other side of the driveway and in the back it is St. Augustine .....
Debilu ........ I started that bed in June of this year .......
just wait!!
Debilu ........... I am home now........ was posting from my office earlier ........checked the date on the pics of when I was tilling the bed and it was July 8th of this year !!
Beautiful garden Deb. I understand it when you say you cannot go buy a pretty plant and not buy it but it looks like you have more control than I have. But mine, like James' is new this year so I am expecting greater things next year. And James the weeds and grass are pretty anyway. lol. The grass does look great, I did not see any weeds but if you say so. Don't give up James. Actually my coneflowers have done pretty well, they are not spreading by any means but they have stayed alive. I have lost several others though. Hopefully this time next year James you and I will have some beautiful pics to show of our attempts at butterfly gardening. Right now actually a hummingbird is appreciating my garden pretty much but still no butterflies, at least not that I have seen. And that online BF plan you saw had it right one didn't they? I mean you have gotten a ton of butterflies. Wish I had gone by a plan instead of my own knowledge. I bet I would have done much better.
And Felicia, don't knock yourself out. Your garden is great. I don't think you have to have a well laid out garden for it to look good. Yours is doing the job and it is great looking. And don't forget the imaginary shrimp plant. We cannot all admit to owning one of those. lol.
Love you guys, keep the pics coming.
Leslie
thanks Leslie, ................yes I have heard that it takes perennials at least two years before they start flourishing ......... this is one of my hummer beds that is now in its second year and has been doing great ........
ps .......... in one of my recent posts I was raving about new cameras and the ease of use ........ this morning I am realizing one of the pitfalls ............ I have realized that I have deleted a lot of my spring photos of my other beds and misc. pics from around the place here :( and my wife has recently dumped the recycle bin :( :(
oh well such is life ........... se la ve
I've got a really strange back yard right now. The front yard is very nice -- apparently, the previous owner of the house had it professionally landscaped, so I don't want to touch that. The back yard is completely different. I have ideas as to what I'd like to do with it, but it would cost some big money to accomplish it, and well, that's not high on my priority list right now.
I have houses on either side of me, and none of us have fences, so there's three yards in a row that are not fenced in. So, if I were to till some land on the sides of my back yard, and make a garden there, it would look goofy (I think) because it would be in the middle of nowhere, so to speak. Now, if I could take over the neighbor's back yards, that would be a different story. LOL!!
The previous owners were strange gardeners to say the least. LOL!! He had tomato plants smack dab in the middle of the flat part of the back yard. She planted a sweet autumn clematis right next to the house (why???) and it's grows up the electric meter and completely eats that up and the cone flowers they planted in front of the clematis (again, why???) -- even after I chop it down to nothing. Then, there's the underground utilities that go across my back yard diagonally -- so I have to be very careful where I dig. On top of this, there's a pretty steep incline about 25 feet from where the back yard starts, and then there is a flat area with trees (including a HUGE Oak tree) beyond that, and then an 8 foot fence that separates our yards from the rock quarry's berm (this is has excellent host plants because everything grows there, until they mow it down, which happens about every 5 - 6 weeks). I should take a picture of all of this, because I'm sure I make no sense. So, at this point, a well defined butterfly garden like James' and Debilu's is unfortunately something I can't do, unless I can get a privacy fence up. :( Maybe next year. :)
Oh, and Leslie, only us warped people can admit to owning an imaginary shrimp plant. LOL!! :)
WOW Lily .............sounds like you are going to have to use your creativeness with that layout !!!! .............of course you could always fill it with imaginary shrimp plants !!!!!
That sounds interesting Lily. I would love to see that layout. Funny to think why people plant what they do and where they do. Although I will admit if someone ever buys my house they will probably be saying what a wack I was for planting this and that, here and there. I don't have much rhyme or reason for doing it but I think I do a little better job than your previous owners.
And James, I have those exact plants you have in your butterfly garden. I love the Esperanza, I now have two orange flowering ones to go with my huge yellow one I have had for four years. And the fire bush is my hummers fave plant to go to. I have two and they were actually just planted about a month ago. I wish I had planted them in the spring and planted about 15 more. Yours are gorgeous. My only problem is that my yellow Esperanza gets about 15 feet tall and will not flower until late. Seriously, mine just started blooming yesterday. So it blooms about the middle of September and blooms until the first frost. I have tried cutting it back and that did not do any good. It is an awesome looking plant because it is so tall and full but will not flower until this time every year. Any ideas on why that is James? Also the two orange colored ones I bought have bloomed ever since I bought them. Just does not make sense to me. I have asked at the nursery and they just say give it some fertilizer or cut it back, both of which I did and it still did not bloom all summer. It will be gorgeous from here until freezing but I want it to be gorgeous all summer long. Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated.
Leslie
Leslie,
Do your esperanza get sun, sun/shade or what ....mine in the pictures get mid day sun, then late afternon shade........... the one on the right gets more sun and seems to do better than the one on the left which gets less full sun.........I fertilize mine when they first emerge with miracle gro multi purpose feed .......... then in early summer I use miracle gro blooming plant food on them ..........seems to work good for me .
in this pic ......... you can see the difference in the size of the two ...........
I love the fire bush also ........ I am right now trying to get some cuttings of this plant to sprout roots .......... with no luck yet ..........
in that pic you can also see where i tried to get the one on the right especially to grow up like a tree ........we saw one in town that was done that way and it was really neat ......(now i think that it was something else that we thought was esperanza!!)........didn't work for me though and I am not going to do that again ....... i am just going to let it shoot up with many stalks as opposed to one main trunk!!
james t
Mine are in pretty much full sun James. At least the yellow one is. I planted one of the orange ones next to the yellow one so the yellow one kind of blocks the sun on it a little bit but it is in pretty strong sun I think. I will have to go back and look at it some more. I have to say the combination of those two plants together in your yard is just gorgeous. Your firebush are so beautiful and big. Also do you have to prune your Esperanza at all or do they stay small like that? I just don't understand why mine grow straight up 10 feet. I mean the stalks on these are about two to three inches thick. It could be a tree probably if I cut it that way. But everyone else's I have seen are smaller and more shrub like. Ya think I got a mutant? lol. Yours are beautiful and your house looks gorgeous also. Thanks a bunch James.
Leslie
Leslie,
sorry that I haven't gotten back to you on this before now ......... I have taken some photos of how I prune my esperanza throughout the growing season that I feel promotes more blooms and more bushiness ......... I will post and comment on them if you like........
here is a pic of the front yard with all of the beds that we have been talking about lately.
james t
Thanks James, I am here right now but will be going to work soon. So I will probably have to check the thread tonight sometime but I appreciate you doing this for me. The yard looks great.
Leslie
no problem .......... have a great day!!