Wow, your gardens are so beautiful. Your love for gardening shows in your gorgeous flowers. I really enjoyed all the pics - especially the dog - what kind of dog is that? Very adorable!
My Cottage Garden as Pictured Today :)
You deserve all the praise you get.
Could that plant be Oenthera? Commonly called Four O'Clocks and also Ozark Sundrops.
susan...are we supposed to be chopping them down b4 the cold?
Maureen, I love that dog to pieces.. I got her from the pound and she was a mess.. thought she was sick for the spots on her tongue, but she has some chow in her but she is mostly golden. I brought her home and yes, she likes me but she is sick in love with my husband. We've had her for 7 years now I guess.. We just had her shaved to help with hot spots. She's the best dog ever. Shes an indoor dog of course, but she stays in the yard and watches cars and people go by when we are working outside.. but if you come into the property, she will let me know :)
Pirl.. ohhhhh :)))) I will look those up!! :) I started to and of course being a typical gardener started reading about the plants I found as a result instead!
No Sticks.. I chopped down cause we will be doing a huge Halloween/fall harvest scene there.. DH is super into Halloween.. and It's a good thing the angels are all out the rest of the year because we really do it up! I even leave out the flamingos and put costumes on them.. We are really into it!
Trust me.. you don't have to chop them down at all.. the first hard freeze will bring them down no problem! Leave them alone and they will come back next spring :)
Susan
This message was edited Sep 27, 2007 2:54 PM
when i got those i had only one flower bed to put them in and i wasn't liking it cause it doesn't get direct sun....WELL, you know how they say to put something that could grow too much in an environment where you would normally not put it and it will keep it at bay....and waalllah....they are growing nicely...not taking over so they may be staying there.
Here's a link to one of the Oenthera on Plant Files: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/117832/
Quebec celebrates Halloween like no other place I've seen. Probably 90% of all front lawns are decorated, along with doors, windows, etc.
Susan, I enjoyed each and every photo. Thank you for taking me on the tour. Your yard is a paradise! I'd never go in the house!
soulgardenlove - So BEAUTIFUL!!! Love your gardens!
I have a question .... how deep is your garden bed that has the Brugs growing in it? I have garden beds running along my backyard fence that is 4' deep. I have a couple of Brugs in pots and was thinking after looking at your photos that I could plant mine right in the back beds.
Most wonderful tour yet. Surely, surely you don't do all this work alone. Makes me just want to quit. Could never, ever accomplish such a magnificent garden. Bravo.
From the other posts....have you lived in Texas before?
Hi Susan!
It was wonderful to "tour" your garden again! It is even more beautiful than it was earlier this year and it was really lovely then. I'm so happy that you were able to get your well done before this hateful water ban. It would be a crime for your gardens to shrivel and die. I've been saving AC condensate which helps. Actually, your post reminded me that I forgot to check my collection bucket today so I ran out there a few minutes ago and it was overflowing. So thanks for the reminder, I don't want to lose any precious drops! :)
Is that 'Indigo Spires' Salvia by your veggie garden? It is very pretty and prolific in bloom!
So sorry that you are still under the stress of drought in Georgia. After 5 years of no rain....we suffered a spring and summer of flood. Wouldn't believe that too much rain can be just as devastating as drought. Will pray that things change for you soon.
Ewww, five years of drought followed by flooding is awful! Too bad you can't pump some of that water over our way. I hope things are improving for you now, LouC.
I'm still praying that La Niña doesn't develop, as predicted, so we can actually have some rain this winter.
Yes we are back to "normal" whatever that is. Our watersheds were all dry and things were getting pretty desperate. That is no longer the case but we are all very aware now that we can't take water for granted ever again.
I am especially impressed with Chloe's ears. So sweet...
What are these plants? I really would like to know so I can grow some!
September 26, 2007
9:39 AM
Post #4019353, it's entitled "taking over"
Pat
soulgardenlove.....
I think you need to move, .................................so I can move in there. : )
Everything is so beautiful. You have done a fantastic job with your gardens. And I just love your angels. Especially #4019080.
Thanks for showing us.
~Lucy
Chloe's ears are great. She is very alert.
I liked that angel, too, Lucy!
Susan, where do you live? I want to drive by and take it all in! :)
All of your hard work really pays off. I could never do that all by myself.
My back yard has been neglected this year due to bouts of vertigo, but it has calmed
down and I am back out there.
If you ever get bored, come over here and I'll put you to work! LOL
Be sure to take some pics of your yard all decked out for Halloween. My hubby
despises the holiday :( I look forward to it because my mom went all out for it when I was a kid and I try to do the same for my son. I love decorating for Halloween! Every year my son reminds me that it's the 1st day of Oct., time to get out the pumpkins, etc.
Susan
Susan, how cute that your son looks forward to you decorating for Halloween! Decoration have certainly changed over the years (and I'm NOT that old!!.
It was a beautiful thread to look at and ENVY!! REALLY nice, thank you for sharing your photos.
pat
Very lovely! I thoroughly enjoyed the tour. Wish I could see it in person--it is truly a work of the heart.
Critter I've checked Mazus and that's not it either but thanks for helping me!
Pirl.. Oenothera my leaves look rounder.. I think I will have to wait till bloom.. I'd be really happy with that though!
Sticks, you will see them reproduce over time.. next year where you saw one plant coming out of the tuber, there might be two or three depending on how happy they are.. They don't do it overnight, but they still fill out pretty quickly over time.
Beckygardener.. if your in Florida, you should put them in the ground.. I really don't know how deep my good soil is.. I shoveled manure all over the beds when I created them and them i mulch with leaf mold at least once a year.. But depending on what part of the yard it's in, some runs off and some stays.. but I'm not sure.. I'm probably going to rethink my placement of the brugs and move them to a back area as I'm going to focus on cottage plants in front of the fence. Brugs take up soo much space and I'm sure they are taking away from my little evergreens that are barely visible at each fence post. Make sure they have lots of room when you plant them.. Another reason I don't know about soil depth is that I don't till any new beds anymore.. or old ones for that matter.. I just keep adding beneficial organic material to the soil and let the worms do the work. If I need to plant something deeper than my black gold reaches, then the soil is surely amended and mixed in during the process of digging the my hole if I have been feeding it. ohhhhhhhhhhh Becky.. I'm feeling silly right now.. You didn't mean how deep, you mean how wide.. duh! Well, I'm not erasing that and the front beds are seven feet and before this year they were five.. You have plenty of room to plant with that width..
UniQueTreasures Thanks! :) I have to go in the house.. I need a place to shower and pass out!!
LouC.. just about!! We don't have any landscape service or yard company. My husband does all the grass. We have a riding John Deere (Love it) and he has the aerating attachment and he knows what to do and when to do it to keep his grass looking great.. When I first started gardening he told me he wanted no part of spending his weekends working in "my" garden.. but he lied and he is the veggie man as well. I think he fell into it by default as I had planted some tomatoes three seasons ago and they were pathetic and he tried to salvage them and said he would take over the veggies the following year.. Fine with me.. even though this year was hard on them. I am the only one that cleans out the beds and weeds, as I'm the only one that knows whats a weed and whats not and sometimes even i pull up a perfect good plant and don't realize it until after.. happens to everyone.. However, I will admit......for the heavy duty digging, trees and large shrubs and the like...I have to hire help. Dh said he was not going to be my hole digger so I on occasion oversee some guys that come out and we work together. I am the one that lays out where i want all my stuff and I put the plant in where it should go and oversee how the stuff gets planted in....cause I've already learned that it can't be planted to high or too low and I see that it's not.. I also make sure it's got enough width to form some good roots. One time a guy helping me commented that I should have been a Commander in the military! :) HAHA I know what I want and how I want it!! I also get large amounts of leaf mold in early spring and sometimes I get help spreading it. I have a truck and my husband got himself a company car for being so tired of driving my minivan for all the truck time I needed. :) My biggest help is having an irrigation system. I couldn't have the garden I have without it. I am a mom and I've got things to do! Don't quit.. I've made all kinds of mistakes and I just keep going. I'm not the best gardener, I'm just persistent. When other people kill their stuff they think they can't do it and quit.. When I kill stuff I try it again! :) Sticks and I traded plants and I sent them to her in TX :) But yes, I was born in Lubbock and graduated from Boswell high in Saginaw.
Danita, it was so nice to have you out.. Glad you could see the garden again.. if you need pots I have tons! I'm about to list them for free on craigs list so speak up! it is a terrible ban, but I've seen pictures of the lakes and those are scary.. The predictions of the potential of no water for personal use next year has my husband and I thinking that we need to connect our well to our home should anything catastrophic ever happen. I told him we'd feel mighty silly if we couldn't flush or shower, but had pretty grass.
Pat.. the yellow and red bloomer is gaillardia.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/69
It's a wonderful seed to start with as it's tough as nails and easy to grow. I started a few when i didn't really know what I was doing with seeds.. They were the only that forgave me for my ignorance. Mine get very tall and then kinda lean over.. i would like to get some that are the shorter variety that stand up. The shorter one is http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/31614/ The blue is as Danita stated, Salvia 'Indigo Spires'
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/54677/
Thanks Lucy, I love her too! She fills up her skirt with water :) Good luck having me move.... My husband and I have a fantastic marriage and we are madly in love, but I told him AND his parents that if someone ever had to leave his childhood home.. it would be him! :)
Susan I live in East Cobb and your welcome to come over :) I've been toying with the idea of having a RU around here, but i jsut can't take the responsibility for one right now. i got three pumpkins today and we will start the decorations this weekend. I'll do another thread of pics once were though.
Pat thanks and know that I started with nothing in this garden.
Thanks Daltri!!
:)
Susan
This message was edited Sep 27, 2007 6:19 PM
Wow Susan!
All that hard work, seed growin, cutting coddling and dumpster diving sure has paid off! Beautiful job, I had a lovely time in your garden! :) And I was going to ask about the Tree, but ya beat me to it, I see it's doing great!
I remember when you were telling me what was going to go where! Now I get to see it...I can almost smell the roses too!
How do you get the brugs to stay so small!? I cut mine to the ground in May and they're all 25 feet tall again.
Rj
My goodness...what a job you must have had getting all of your gorgeous pictures posted. Beautiful gardens. I loved every bit of the tour and especially the watermelon. LOL! I love roses and watermelon. Your butterfly pictures are so nice. This was a treat. Thanks for linking to this thread.
Susan, your place is just gorgeous. I can see the hard work and love in your gardens. How much land do you have?
It looks wonderful and I am such your DH is proud now even though he was leary in the beginning of you taking out his lawn.
Thanks for the tour - maybe one day I will see it in person.
Brenda
Dawn is breaking and I've had my dessert for the day - a visit to Susan's gardens, again!
You all are so sweet :)
Hey Rj, yes, I finally had a chance to take pics and show them, so you got the tour.. There is more but it is in development.. I'll show that later :) Yes!! You see my tree! :) I know that redbud will give me good form one day. It just needs to settle in and feel loved after the horror of being trashed.
HA! I guess it's all relative.. but I think my brugs are huge!! I'm guessing that mine "only" get about 10-15 feet for the difference in our zones and yours sprout sooner than mine.. or it could be different cultivars?? It's kinda scary for me to think about making such huge drastic changes, but I think I need the room for more cottage plants and they must go into the back this year. I also have climbers, don juan in particular that I plan on growing over the fence in mass and they need their turn to shine and wont be able to with the brugs taking center stage. That's gonna be some work for sure.. And wherever there aren't any perennials.. I'll seed annuals til it grows in.
Brugie Thank you. I love roses and watermelons too! :) What I really love about my garden is that I do my best to plan as i can, and then lots of things happen on their own and it makes magic..like roses and watermelons. I know that is something that would never ever be found in a contemporary manicured landscape, but I love it in mine and it reflects who I am, my personality and what I enjoy :)
Brenda, there is a privately owned park that is part of a trust nearby and they have covered area and bathrooms and I'd love to host a RU there.. Problem is that I'm not is the position to host one right now.. I've come to realize that while i have small children, they continually have "things" that come up and must be attended to.. I wrongly assumed I'd have more time in my life when they got out of diapers, but the minute they do, they do stuff like play baseball, swimming and cub scouts.. But I certainly have it in the back of my mind and hopefully can do one before too long. Your more than welcome to come over...heck, why don't everyone on this thread come over!
Good Morning Pirl!
I'm so glad I did this thread too.. I told my husband that I really probably appreciated seeing it in pictures as much as you all did for the simple fact that I'm always doing doing doing and this actually made me sit, see and really take it in too. This morning after we got our son on the bus I took DH over to one of my brugs and made him take a moment to sniff the air.. Something we don't take enough time to do in our busy lives and it's nice just to take a moment breathe~~ :)
Susan
"take time to smell the brugs huh?" Hehehehe
I remember when my kids were little that people would time tell me that "it will only get busier", I would think "how is that possible?" Now I just smile at couples with little kids. I don't want to ruin their illusions, I sure needed MY illusions to survive back then!
Not trying to one-up anyone. When they are "grown" they multiply. I had two children, girl and boy. They have spouses. Girl has two boys. Boy has a girl. Two boys have spouses. One of the boys and spouse have a girl. They are often here one a time....or two..or three. The last little girl was a year old day before yesterday and we kept her all day. My house is a carnival most all the time. Blessed that they want to be here but as for having more time......????.......DH retired last Oct. and we are busier than ever.
Only trying to say.....I had the same aspirations that I would gain more time to do whatever as they grew older.
EXACTLY Lou!!! But I remember NEEDING that distant hope of it would get easier and I'd have more time when I was going thru the "little ones" stages. I will be a grandma for the first time at the beginning of the new year. How I wish I lived closer...
Yes, I think I am going to dwindle my brugs down to 2 or 3 nicely placed brugs and be done with it. I have been giving them away all summer, and still have loads.
soulgardenlove,
I just got the chance this morning to go through your garden photos. I really enjoyed seeing your extensive and beautiful gardens. I liked your unique vision with touches of whimsy. Thanks.
Yes, I now realize that their isn't an overabundance of time that just appears.. I have to make chioces about what takes precedent.. They are both in school 5 days this year, so that's been really nice for my garden time :)
I'm surprised Rj, what are you going to put in thier place? :)
Thanks Semper!!
Susan
WOW...what I mean is WOW!!!!
Totally amazing! You have a beautiful yard Susan!!!
Thank you
Thank you
Thank you!!!!
:)
Susan
Susan, the one with the most fantastic garden wins........you win!
LouC
Susan, your garden tour is as good as any gardening magazine I could ever use for inspiration. Not only are you a wonderful gardener, you're an artist too. Your mom taught you well.
Your roses and Brugmansias are beautiful together. I love your container with the silvery plant cascading from it. Your use of garden oranaments are precious. Love your angels.
Deborah
Remember when you had all the plants in the nursery area from diving and generous DG folks? Well, I hosted a Texas area plant swap in July, and I have plants coming out my ears. I have a bottle brush, a powder puff tree, orchid tree lined up to take the places.
In spring I cleared out the lower area right off the deck, cut the tall shell gingers, and planted a low colorful leaf garden and some clerodendrum phillipum..Well, I just don't seem to be able to grow small stuff. Everything just gets giant. So, if you can't beat them, join them and enjoy it...I'll give it a whirl again next spring, this time there will be 3 strategically placed brugs that will get regular trims..(promises, promises..yeah)
I really like the cottage look, but can only pull it off Feb thru Mar.
How are the youngsters doing anyway? any taking interest in helping Mom garden?
So you're the Randy they were talking about.