Show Us Your Landscape and Gardens - A Photo Thread - November 2023
prairiemoon2 z6b MA
6 months ago
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deanna in ME Barely zone 6a, more like 5b
6 months agoprairiemoon2 z6b MA
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Show Us Your Landscape and Gardens - A Photo Thread - November 2022
Comments (4)Surprise, there is a November thread already - good job Babs! Glad to see you are taking lots of photos of your property. That first photo is gorgeous! I love the mist in the background and the color of the sky with the pretty clouds. Quite a constrast to no leaves! We haven't gotten to that stage yet. Sue - lots of pretty plants still blooming in your garden. You do get your money's worth! That C. weyrichii Apricot is a very pretty color! My Mums bloom late too but at least this year, the warm weather is so extended that I feel like I am getting my money's worth. What a cute photo of the cat enjoying the darkening sky! Deanna - I love your friend's roses - the color combinations are so pretty! I was out yesterday moving plants around - it was such gorgeous weather, I didn't want to go back in the house. [g] My Mums are still blooming but after a rain, they splayed open and are half on the ground. Doesn't matter, they are still very pretty in beds of leaves. This is 'Beverly' this morning. I am really enjoying this rose. You can see how tall it is. It was not described as a climber but it sure seems to want to perform that way. After deadheading the first blooms, these canes shot up about 8-10ft. And really the photo does not do it justice. When I walked out the front door earlier - the stems are nice and red and it's just a very pretty sight. I do want to provide some support next year. Here's a close up of a few blooms... This is 'Savannah' Another rose that a photo doesn't quite capture how beautiful it is. It has a luminous quality to the color and the petals arrange with a button center like an old rose. Both roses are still very fragrant. Here is a very poor photo of my Penstemon 'Dark Towers'. A few weeks ago it was gorgeous. Attractive seedheads and multi shades of red, still looking pristine. It's looking quite raggedy today. I'm moving them around this fall to try to get a better combination of their fall colors....See MoreShow Us Your Landscape and Garden Photos - July 2023
Comments (13)PM, you remind me that I forgot to take pictures of Penstamon digitalis ‘Mystica ’. I grew it from seed two years ago and it has been so much more hardy and beautiful than I had thought it would. Here it is at the end of its bloom. It certainly survived last year with flying colors. We’ll see how it does if this year continues to be soggy. Right now this spot is a ”where am I going to put this” spot. I need to figure out a place to put that will really highlight how nice it is. PM, two shots of Lauren’s Grape, mostly self-sown. She’s dependable, I’d say! Silene armeria, Sweet William Catchfly, is a favorite reseeder. The flowers are beautiful, but the best thing is how it cooperates with neighbors. You can see from the second picture that at its base it has almost no clump at all, meaning it can happily sprout up amongst established plants, grow and bloom, and set seed, all while never really bothering or crowding anybody. It is a prolific reseeder, and always very welcome each year. It is a short-lived biennial, so it does not get out of control and reseeding is welcome. Had to go to Bristol, RI, this weekend for a kid’s regatta, and saw these hydrangeas beautifully performing in a decrepit historical building that seems to be about to undergo a historical renovation/rejuvenation. I love how their beauty stands out amongst the decay. Kind of like a picture of how life can be. Also, saw this deliberate planting of Gooseneck loosestrife, laughed, and had to take a picture of how it is now invading the plants next to it and branching out. It’s so deceptively sweet, until it’s not. Again, kind of like a picture of how life can be! Lastly, posted this grouping on Maria’s ”tea” post, but adding it here with the Ladies Mantle addition. Most of these plants are in pots waiting to be put out. Finally decided to use the golden ferns in a summer arrangement with a potting annual that was left over. Then I realized the potting annual was a perfect match for the astile, and the golden fern was a perfect match for the hostas, LM, and Dicentra ’Gold Heart’ foliage. I got a porch arrangement on the cheap for as long as the astilbe blooms, at least!...See MoreShow Us Your Landscape and Gardens - A Photo Thread - August 2023
Comments (13)Deanna, The Berms. The last two winters I have been focused on figuring out more ways to address drought in the garden. My full sun bed in the front of the house, slopes away from the house , of course, as everyone’s does. So the rain runs off into the street to some extent. I already capture the rain coming down from the downspout into the rain barrel, but I thought, maybe if I built a Berm along the low street side of the bed, it would keep the rain on the property and keep that bed moist. It has really been successful in that regard. Of course, it’s not a great year to judge it because we have had so much rain. Next time we have a drought will be more instructive. Aside from that purpose, I am seeing the added benefit of building up the soil. I chose the location by where it would capture the most water and fit in with the design of the bed. It allowed me to still grow the plants that don’t like wet feet on the other side of the Berm, at the top of my steepest slope, if I want to - like Salvias. All the plants directly behind the berm really benefited this year. Not only water, but fertility from the Berm breaking down. The volunteer squash was such a delightful surprise. The foliage is so attractive and the plants have remained healthy all season. It has just taken off all along the top of the berm, and I’ve had to “arrange” it around the Sedum AJs and Grasses. It climbed into a Sedum and deposited another squash, which was a fun surprise this week. I had a half dozen seedlings and I thinned out to two of the strongest. That squash has grown 100% better out front in full sun on that berm than it ever did in the back where I get 5hrs tops and tree roots to contend with. And I don’t think it looks out of place with the rest of the perennials and shrubs. I want to do it again next year. I also had volunteer borage come up. I discovered a few years ago that Cardinals have some kind of interest in the Borage plant, that I still don’t know what it is, but I grow that for them now. I think I can grow the squash and borage together in the Berm next year. But there are so many possibilities for what you can grow there. And you could grow nothing in it too. I wouldn’t plant perennials or shrubs in it, because it does break down and needs to keep being replenished. I have grown them right up next to it though. To build it - well, depends on whether you compost or not. I have two passive compost bins that I bought from the town years ago when they were trying to encourage people to compost. I fill them up with any kind of plant material - deadheaded hibiscus blooms at the moment, weeds that are not going to seed, grass clippings, leaves. Then we collect kitchen scraps - egg shells, coffee grinds, banana peels, vegetables, orange rinds, paper towels sometimes, tea bags…etc. Nothing diseased. I leave the tops off the containers to allow the rain to keep it moist and if it doesn’t rain I have to water it. That’s all I do until it’s full. In the fall, last year and this year, we have a pile of branches from pruning in the spring that I haven’t used yet. We have grass clippings. By the time I am building the berms, I’ll probably have brown leaves. I will take it all….the branches on the bottom, and then layered on top the contents of the compost bins, the leaves, the grass clippings. I make them a couple of feet wide and a couple of feet high. Maybe 18”? Depends, I don’t want to shade the plants behind them. I shape them like a long wide sausage…lol. I do curl the end sides to keep the rain from running around the side of them. Then I top them off with a good thick layer of bark mulch. I’m not sure I would always do this if it was in an out of the way area, but right in front of the house along my best bed, I wanted it mulched. This year, I plan to replenish by pulling back the bark mulch and adding to it then adding another thick layer of bark mulch again. I want to add more branches this year to slow down the break down. If I could get away with not having to replenish it every season, that would work out best. I’m also adding new locations where I plan to grow vegetables next year, for the fertility. I found the beautiful soil in July and I constructed the Berm last Fall. So, not that long really....See MoreShow Us Your Landscape and Gardens - A Photo Thread - September 2023
Comments (18)About the Tithonia, I KNOW! I check every day. Not even a bee on it, and there are NO chemicals or anything nearby. I forgot about the root beer smell on some Agastache. Going to crush some leaves and see if I can get a whiff! This is a GREAT blog post from Hayefield about Japanese Burnet and what to plant it with. It’s the one that got me started. Now I notice all the smaller ones and I am ready to go down the burnet rabbithole! Hayefield Japanese Burnet post Some more first-year bloomers: I thought all of these seedlings had died and mistook them for a type of carnation, but I am SO pleased to see I was wrong! These are Heleniums, which have FINALLY survived the slugs and become plants. My wintersowing germination is excellent, but I swear I love over 50% of what germinates before it can get established, mostly from slugs. I’m very happy to finally have Helenium survive. I may have to move it from this location, but I’m very happy to cater to its needs! Sterntaler coreopsis is now blooming. I must admit, the burgundy center is not my favorite since I am not a fan or bronze and burgundy in the garden, either in flower or foliage. (The burnet above leans more towards purple, so it’s OK.). But, I’m glad to have them anyway. It seems one of my Heliopsis is neither Summer Nights or Burning Hearts, but is the standard. Another very welcome surprise! Here’s a good shot of my secondary growth from the seed pods with their own buds. It’s just so weird and Intersting! And this lungwort and brunerra area has LOVED the moisture. I lost many brunerra when it was first being established, but for the past three years it has finally settled in and even reseeding all over with both brunerras and lungwort. It’s so nice to see the variegated/frosty brunneras reseed. I think it helped when I put a HUGE rock up at the driveway edge so the plowman would stop destorying it. Every plowman should be required to tend gardens by hand in the summer, in my dream world. And three spring/early summer bloomers are reblooming, both viola, nepeta, and dianthus. And, lastly, I love River Oats seedheads. They are still green now, and are beautiful in the morning moisture....See Morediggerdee zone 6 CT
6 months agolast modified: 6 months agoprairiemoon2 z6b MA thanked diggerdee zone 6 CTprairiemoon2 z6b MA
6 months agodeanna in ME Barely zone 6a, more like 5b
6 months agolast modified: 6 months agodiggerdee zone 6 CT
6 months agoprairiemoon2 z6b MA
6 months agolast modified: 6 months agoprairiemoon2 z6b MA
6 months agolast modified: 6 months agoprairiemoon2 z6b MA
6 months agolast modified: 6 months agodeanna in ME Barely zone 6a, more like 5b
6 months agoprairiemoon2 z6b MA thanked deanna in ME Barely zone 6a, more like 5bprairiemoon2 z6b MA
6 months agolast modified: 6 months agoprairiemoon2 z6b MA
5 months agolast modified: 5 months agoprairiemoon2 z6b MA
4 months agolast modified: 4 months ago
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