Spring is in the Air and the Dirt

Having a little fun while recycling my horse's shoes ...

Here's a tighter shot of the viola bed - I added the Perilla and Petunias this weekend.

Wrightie: It looks faahh-bulous. That sedum is wonderful. The whole scene is to die for. Great photos.

kudrick- cute little tulip--claypa beat me to my guess. I have a couple of red species tulips.

Quite a show claypa- Is that the strip down the rive where you sifted tons of rock out, you showed us last year...
Plant geeks are great!

wrightie- lovely scenes

Yes, that's the one sallyg. I love the pavers wrightie - and the plants

Thank you - I only hope to get this place 1/2 as nice as what everyone else on here has going on in their gardens!

I wouldn't know a species tulip if it slapped me in the face! I bow to you kidz. Claypa, that shot of tulips and hyacinths is spectacular! C, one section of my paved walkway is under an inch of water at the moment, thanks to settling. GRRR. Every time that happens, it leaves a bunch of soil on the path, so I've been busy trying to plant more sedums over there to hold that section of garden *in* the bed, and not on the path.

Wrightie what a beautiful spring garden. Looks wonderful.

My Apple tree is blooming and love is in the air.

My Red Maple is leafing out nicely. That's my clipped Yew with an arch cut into it in the background. You go thru that arch and into the Secret Garden.

From the other side, OK, the secret garden hasn't been planted yet but maybe one day this small area will be something more than just a holding spot for plants and an access to this side of the house.

Awww HollyAnn, The picture of the Apple blossoms and House Finches is so pretty,Could I use it for my desk top Background picture?
And the secret garden arch is very nice I could see a bird bath or bench on the other side to draw you in and maybe a colorful potted plant.

I spent the 1st part of the morning in the basement potting up pepper & tomato plants. Then out side to work on thinning out and cleaning water lilies, They needed repotted and the excess I am trading for some plants at a local nursery. It was nice working under my weeping cherry and hearing the honey & bumble bees busy visiting the blossoms.

I had 3 frogs calling to each other. I was suprised the camera made this frog's eyes blue, What prospective mate would turn down this handsome frog?

A pic of the pond from the other side.

And a picture of my Girls,

cherry blossoms in full bloom up here.

Oh you are more than welcome to use the picture. I can send you an attachment if you D-mail me your E-mail address if you want one without the DG markings.
You can tell the speed of some of our projects. We planted that hedge with seedlings specifically to create the secret garden. LOL
One of these days we will do something more with it, I have some kind of stone pathway garden in mind. It about a 12ft X 24ft space that runs along the side of the house bordered on one side by the house where I have a temporary bed for transitional plants and the veggie garden on the other side. The front is the Yew hedge and the back is the gated and fenced area of the lower back yard where the dog runs.

Nice pictures of your yard and the frog shot is great. I started a thread over in the watergarden forum you should post his picture over there.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/836589/ We are having a frog party.

Loving all these photos - keep 'em coming! Hopefully I'll have some shots of my own to post soon - I've missed so much already this spring but there's more! Blooming now in the gardens - Halesia, Kwanzan Cherry, assorted Crabapples, Redbud (white and red), Viburnums - OMG the fragrance! When I took Phoebe outside early this morning, the whole yard is filled with their lovely scent :) Tree Peonies are budding up, a type of fern leaf Peony is blooming AND my very first Clematis bloom by the front door! Planted two white Clematis, forget the name, on the new trellises I hung on either side of the front door. I had a few blooms last year and the foliage was kind of spindly - but not this year - they've already started to climb and fill in and should be gorgeous this year :) Unfortunately I never got the chance to take down the lights I wove through the trellis for Christmas and looks like they're going to be up for next year because the Clematis has already swallowed them! LOL I will try my best to get a few pictures but probably won't have a chance to post them until next week as we leave for Richmond tomorrow. In the meantime, I'll just enjoy all of your pictures :)

I can't wait for your photos, Debbie; your garden is such an inspiration. Is it the viburnum that is fragrant? I need to learn about shrubs this year. Our yard needs a bunch -- but we have no full sun spots at all, so we push the margin!

Holly, I sent the picture to my pic file and when I used it as the desk top pic it came out blurry, I send you a d-mail. Thanks

RCN...are your Christmas lights to Christmas color or just one color, like clear, blue or green. I have blue lights in my weeping cherry that I leave up all year and are on a timer, very pretty at night with the blue lights shinning through the foliage.

Ladygardener, my neighbor does the same thing with his weeping cherry. I figure the tree enjoys at least a couple hardiness zones warmer.

Bee's eye view of a Darwin hybrid tulip

bleedin' hearts - columbines should be blooming any day now

I'll show you the money plants - last year the red azalea behind them was blooming at the same time, kind of too much

Love my Candytuft!!!!!! Such a beautiful messenger that Spring is here....

Here's my Lilac Bush. I can smell it all over my back yard! It is old. Trying to rejuvenate it by cutting out some of the older canes. It also does not get enough sun--and--as everything else in this area, it is fighting a losing battle with the Silver Maple roots only feet away.

I can't change any of this--so all my back yard plantings are "on their own".....

Gita

And here is my Bleeding Heart (one of two).

calypa,
your photography is awesome!!!! I think I have the ability with my camera (just a cheapy Polaroid one), I just need to use a tripod. My hand is never steady enough for the super macro shots.

Gita, Are those forget me nots under the bleeding heart? It looks very nice together.

YUP! I have them all over--everywhere.....

Thanks Gitagal! But the credit goes to the camera and the subjects, believe me. It's taken me 8 months to realize how to do certain things, like adjust the white balance and set it for different lighting conditions, and focus on a certain part of the subject. Also it has a "steady shot" button that looks like someone's hand shaking, which is kind of funny. Not wasting film is such an advantage with these new cameras, too. I still have a hard time getting good pictures of birds, though. And kids. They move around too much.

Another pic... I never notice the insects until after I take the picture.

Beautiful shots everyone, love the tulips(and the bug) claypa.

Happy, yes it's the Viburnum that's so fragrant. However, on my walk with Phoebe last evening something else had a heavenly fragrance and we were too far away from the Viburnum?? Maybe the Crapapples? Just never noticed that they were that fragrant, but that's basically the only thing blooming in that particular area - oops, although...there is one more Viburnum blooming down there, a variegated one - maybe that's it! Now I'm going to have check it out when we return, I dearly love that variegated Viburnum and what a bonus if I find out the blossoms are fragrant as well! I would love to see photos of your gardens and give you a few suggestions for shrubs which would tolerate the shade - there are some which would do fine, just need to know how MUCH shade - morning, afternoon, total shade or maybe a high canopy of trees that would give filtered shade? Deciduous azaleas would work, they're just beginning to bloom, another heavenly scent in the garden :)

Chris, the Christmas lights are the tiny white lights and you're right, they might look pretty if I turned them on! Maybe I'll turn them on to celebrate the summer solstice :) I looked more closely at the Clematis bloom yesterday - another Walmart blunder :( I thought I was buying one with pure white flowers and the bloom actually has light lavender stripes on it - but I'm okay with it, from afar they look white :)

Ok, here you go. I didn't clean up for you! This picture is of an area to the left of our garage. The fence on the left is between our house and the neighbors'. Our property continues behind the fence in the back, which is there to keep the dogs from running into the street.

Until last year, the hill was just a sheet of ivy. But my step son cleared all the ivy out, and I am slowly planting my way up the hill. The row of bags demarcates how far I have gotten in amending the soil. There are a lot of heuchera, astilbe, bulbs and the like at the bottom. I was thinking of hostas (of which I have a lot) and aruncus and maybe ligularia (though that takes more watering than we might give) in the middle and then shrubs in the back and along the fence (which is barely standing but isn't on the schedule for replacement for a while). I don't know if you can tell but the hill is quite steep. And when the trees leaf out, there is a lot of shade. I'd like to get some light colored shrubs in there -- variegated plants, and gold plants -- to focus the eye a bit. I'd really like some flowers, but it is so dark up there. It looks bright now, but that is because the trees haven't leafed out.

This area isn't going to get a lot of TLC, because it is a pain to walk up the hill, and it gets so little sun that it doesn't get me excited, so I need relatively tough plants. I really love the azalea that is blooming there now (you can barely see it to the right, hidden behind another azalea), and I've managed to root some stems, so I may put them around and about. And I've done the same thing with a white spirea that I love (maybe bridal wreath? but doesn't look quite like the photos of that -- it is more delicate).

Anyway, my challenge now is to pick out the shrubs for the perimeter.

Now if you really take pity on me, tell me what to do with this. This is in front of what used to be the garage, and was converted some time ago into a family room. (Needs paint, I know . . . .) There is a narrow area in front of it where we could put plants in, but I've never figured out what. I'd like something that comes up to the window, but not over it. There is no direct son at all -- when the trees leaf out, it is almost dark. And there is hardly any room for plants (there is driveway pavement almost to the planting area, which is maybe 2' deep -- I didn't measure.) I was thinking of building up the rim of the bed a little bit. I'll have to completely replace the dirt in the bed, which is awful and full of bits of construction material.

Maybe Nandina? I'd like to put Camelias on either side, but that is probably folly. Perennials are probably not right for here since the area would look barren all winter. But I'm really at a loss, and it is such an eyesore.

And just so it isn't all gloom and doom, here is part of the bed of wood poppies. You can see all the ivy at the top - my goal is to get rid of that this year and replace it with shrubs -- azaleas and spiraea maybe; I'd love to put in a hydrangea but I don't think there's enough sun. On the left is a blackberry that my family won't let me pull out.

A lot of my yard is like this (I still haven't cleared away the winter debris, so ignore that): very very very steep. It is really a challenge. The top of this stretch is mostly filled in, but I have a lot of similar stretches to work with.

Ok, last cry for help for today. This area I haven't thought about much at all, and I may not get to it this season, but it cries out for help. About 12 years ago I put some plants in, then got too busy with my kids. So there are some mature hostas in there, a nice bed of winter aconite, some shrubs that don't get enough sun and will have to be pulled. It is really a blank slate. Very shady. It used to be a hill that sloped away from our property, and so we put in a retaining wall to create this bed. But then I never could figure out what to do with it. I may just do hostas.

By the way, you may have spotted bits of ugly fences here and there. We have put them up to keep the dogs out of the beds, largely a losing proposition. I'm stuck with the fences for now. Our dogs are unrepentant.

Oops -- forgot the picture. See the next entry.

This message was edited Apr 25, 2008 11:23 PM

Here you go. It is actually much shadier than it appears in this photo once the trees are fully leafed out.


This message was edited Apr 25, 2008 11:43 PM

Happy,

WHY do you say that Camellias are a "folly"?????

I have the most beautiful Camellia next to my front steps. It is a double red--called Bob Hope. Many a person on DG has drooled over it!
My house faces North--so this camellia gets NO sun--ever! It is, just now, popping out in bloom. Covered with bloom--every year! It is about 6' high and about 3' wide. It is now--maybe--8-10 years old.

The main thing with Camellias is to protect them from Winter winds and the "elements" in general. I have 2 other large shrubs on either side of my front steps which do this very well.
If you buy one--make sure it is a PERENNIAL (Hardy) Camellia. Not all of them that are sold are. I bought mine at my HD long time ago.

Gita

Gonna find a picture here fror you.......

Here's the whole bush. This is back in 2006. It is a bit taller now....

You really need to know how to root a camellia cutting. It is not easy! Just saying that so you don't ask me for some. I will gladly send you a few cuttings if you want--but it will be years before they bloom.
I would recommend you buying one from a Nursery.