Garden

[country gal]

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@Susan Louise wrote:

I thought I'd share a few of our garden pics. The bottom right in the 1st pic shows a camera...one of a few that help us to document our hummingbird visitors migrating through

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I was shocked when I looked at your first photo and saw  an alien spacecraft hovering over your yard (top left) then I realized it was just the bottom of a hummingbird feeder. WHEW! Had me going there for a second! LOL

[mousiegirl]

Susan Louise, is there a reason why you didn't plant very tall hedges next to the fence to block out the roofs of neighboring houses?  I don't see roofs here, but I am a privacy nut, so we planted tenefoliums that can grow to thirty-two feet tall all along our black cyclone fence.  We are one of the very few homes which is fenced, did that before we moved in, for privacy, and to keep my dogs from roaming.

I also plant for the birds, bees, and butterflies,  Your garden is so neat, you would be aghast at mine as around here, it is country, basically, constant dropping of leaves, etc., and no lawn since the last drought and with a lot of help from gophers and moles, so all that remains through my winding garden is a compacted, narrow path.  We may improve on this one day, but no lawn, though there is one area that we may try to plant sod one day, though by that time it may be forbidden, but we will find a substitute.

[lucymo]

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@Susan Louise wrote:

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@lucymo wrote:

Very pretty!  No wonder all the birds and critters love it there.

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@lucymo  Thank you! It's a lot of labor, but definately a labor of love. I do enjoy this time of year where I can actually sit back on the patio and enjoy it. Too bad you didn't live closer and you could join me

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@Susan Louise, I know I'd love sitting there on the patio and enjoying the company and the critters. 

[Lilysmom]

Just lovely Susan Louise.  Thank you for sharing. I am sure the hummers love it here!  LM

[JustJazzmom]

@Susan Louise

I like the use of the paving stones between planting to divide up the beds. I just did a straight line of bricks across the back and sides of my backyard.

[Susan Louise]

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@JustJazzmom wrote:

@Susan Louise

I like the use of the paving stones between planting to divide up the beds. I just did a straight line of bricks across the back and sides of my backyard.

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@JustJazzmom Thanks! When I designed the gardens, since I made them 7' deep, I needed a way to get to the back of all areas/sections without destroying the plants for weeding, fixing/staking/shoring up plants after a storm, harvesting seeds, etc. A lot of other folks gardens I know don't need the walkways since they are only one or 2 plants deep. 
It takes minimal effort to clip some branches along each walkway every week to ten days to keep the paths clear. It's not so much of being 'neat', as to being practical for the other reasons I mentioned. We have 2 other gardens that have no pathways/dividing walkways because it's not necessary

[JustJazzmom]

@Susan Louise

If you look at the rose arbor photo on the thread asking about thornless roses, you can get an idea of what my backyard looks like in one area. I have the yard divided into 2 'rooms' so to speak with 2 trees as the anchors with landscape below them-- perennials.

I got tired of mud and moss below them and mapped out many years ago some design -- a 9' circle under a magnolia and a elongagated oval around a dogwood.

[Susan Louise]

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@JustJazzmom wrote:

@Susan Louise

If you look at the rose arbor photo on the thread asking about thornless roses, you can get an idea of what my backyard looks like in one area. I have the yard divided into 2 'rooms' so to speak with 2 trees as the anchors with landscape below them-- perennials.

I got tired of mud and moss below them and mapped out many years ago some design -- a 9' circle under a magnolia and a elongagated oval around a dogwood.

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@JustJazzmom  Wow@ Your gardens look fabulous! I love the one around the tree...very healthy large plants (hostas?)...TY for sharing!

[JustJazzmom]

@Susan Louise

The first photo has the hostas-- 3 'Striptease' and 3 'Fragrant Bouquet'.

3 Japanese painted ferns 'Pictum'

3 Carex morrowii 'Evergold'

1 Tiarella on the left -- hidden except for top of flowers showing-- its an 'Oakleaf' Tiarella. Only one of 3 to survive that I had.

In the spring time, I have daffodils that come up before the hostas and other items emerge. I need to (someday), dig up and divide the daffodils.

[Sweetbay magnolia]

@Susan Louise, your yard is lovely.  I just bought a lantana because the hummers are hovering around my back deck these days (when I say deck, it is 12' x 48' on a half acre lot in a heavily forested area, and there is a 55 acre farm behind).  They have been around the feeder out front all summer but he wasps I allow to nest there are getting hungry and are competing with the hummers.  I also just bought a lobelia cardinalis for them, which I intend to pot up in a planter with a plug in the bottom.  Since it's a moisture loving plant, I think it will do just fine under the cover of my porch and I will water it well.

I seem to remember that you are in the Midwest.  A friend of mine, who I work with on a farm, told me that your weather is predicted to be be warm and rainy (warm being a relative term) this winter.  May you fare well and continue to encourage wildlife.  I was bummed the other day when I realized I had transported a praying mantis to an asphalt jungle, in my truck.  I couldn't save it but now I think I will always have a container with me, just in case I need to do that!