ok...here's a different before
Garden Shots 2- Summer's here, keep those pics coming!
and after...
Still a mess but a fuller mess that's coming along
QuoiMerrie - Looks great!
Gemini_Sage - I'm not sure what to think of how my lupines are doing. I have a couple blooming like this one and a few more that look healthy but have stayed very small with no buds. The deer here seem to like them too - I lost two right off the bat (got to get to that deer fencing lol!).
peonyrosegirl, that looks very promising! It may be a good idea to either remove blooms that appear this year, or at least prevent them from going to seed. Since they're a short lived perennial, I'm thinking conserving the plants energy may help them get better established for a good show next spring.
Oh - that's a good idea, they're not going to be great this year anyway!
Saw that you wanted some pictures of peoples gardens mine changes through the seasons this is a one of mine during early summer-time. Enjoy, if you want more pictures I can put on some of my other attempts of Coloring with nature! Most of the fun is with sharing our successes. We all know to well they usually come after a few failures in the process of it all.
Marlina, the variety of colors in your photo is striking.
Marlinaaa...
Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech............back the BLUE FLOWER BUS UP! Can you please tell me what the BLUE flowers are on the right side of that picture?? The whole photo is just alive with color...but I am a blue NUT and that is beautiful!!!
I think I know what it is, but I can't say it...lol The ol' menopause thing ya know...lol
Leawood -
If I may ask...WHAT is that plant on your August 8 post (5:03 AM) with the yellow blooms, and the dark purple stems on the big round leaves. Sheezzz... I just looked THAT up the other day. I swear...it's Friday...and my brain is just WORN out and overloaded. It's like my hard drive is FULL and it won't pull up files...lol Glitch~~**~~**
They have a variety of those growing near one of our local restaurants here and I KNOW what they are...dang it...lol
Highmtn, is it a big leaf Lugularia? I have one but no flower. It doesn't look so hot after I transplanted it. It likes to be wet. Lots of water is needed for this plant. The leaves look like tractor seats. AND it likes the shades.
This message was edited Aug 15, 2009 12:53 AM
This message was edited Aug 15, 2009 12:54 AM
Marlina that is wondeful combo! I love it! : )
LiliMerci is correct, Highmtn - it's ligularia - I bought it for the foliage, but I love the intense, sulphur yellow blooms. I have both the greenleaf and the redleaf. Although I didn't know it likes moist soil, I have noticed I need to water it often or it wilts.
Also, asexual propagation (cuttings, layering, budding and grafting) is prohibited by law. I don't know if this applies to certain cultivar, but mine said that on the tag when I bought it.
Highmtn just got your post it is Blue Butterfly Delphiniums and I plant them every-year . They are sold as perrenials but never have seeded or come back for me. Even though I have tried to dump all kinds of seeds there......Thanks for the compliment my garden was really great this year...Loved the abundance of colors myself ..Just a old Rookie -Marlina-
Thank you thank you both!
I KNEW Ligularia... ...my menopausal mind just wouldn't let the dang word out...lol
Anyhow... what wonderful, glorious flower gardens... I need to get out and putter in my yard tomorrow. I have just been pooped from work. Much to plant, and time to start thinking fall. We have allllllllll the signs (dog shedding like mad, fog almost every morning, spiders trying to get IN, leaves starting to blush up, and now the geese are constantly flying south over us...so... I honestly think we are heading for an early fall.
I enjoy fall planting. Things go to sleep and surprise us in the spring!
poof*
I could never remember the name. I have to look it up on my plantlist. I call it tractor seat plant because the leaves look like it, but I think that is a different plant.
Leawood gardener I admire your hard work with those Bananas! I wanted to try one if I heard enough people in cold zones say they've had success. Can I ask whether your soil is clay or sandy?
Marlina another gorgeous garden! Very bright and cheery. : )
I had some Butterfly Blue come back this year. I started them from seed though. I think they are definitely a short lived perennial or biennial. Mine flowered the first year from seed. And actually I liked them better the first y better than this year. They got way taller this year and ended up flopping over. I think what happens with store bought ones is they are already at least two years old when you get them, so at the end of their life.
Here it is a month ago... all flopped over
My soil ranges from good, black loam (the original soil - my house location used to be a meadow) to the worst mix of clay/rock you'll find (it is 'dreck' the construction crew used for fill when the creek behind my house was widened as part of the city's flood control plan) Four years ago they took out a swath about 6-12 feet wide along the creek, put in the stacked stone wall, and used clay with rock as fill. I'm slowly amending it, but every time I plant something I curse the construction crew and blame myself for not being more vigilant after dozens of truckloads of rich, black earth were hauled off.
When I plant my banana trees, I make a very large hole, line it with composted straw and horse manure (I pick it up at a local stable), put in my banana tree and fill the hole with more straw/manure mix. The bananas like the nitrogen-rich mix and the loose composition of the 'soil'. Each year I have more banana trees than I can plant in my yard, so I put them in pots filled with the manure mix to get them started and give them to friends.
Here's how that area looks today. I'm currently 'arm wrestling' with the city over the 'wildflowers' that are growing in the creek bed (goldenrod - just about to set seeds). When the project was proposed, the city engineers wanted to put in sloped banks planted with 'native grasses and wildflowers'. I refused to give up my land (I lost 6000+ square feet of yard) unless they replaced my stone wall, so I got the stacked stone wall.
leawood,oh my that would have been hard to take, its beautiful now.
Wow it looks great now! I would be so mad if someone was taking good soil from my property! I guess me having sandy soil wouldn't make much of a difference for overwintering, where you've ammended yours so well. Thanks for the info.
What a fantastic transformation! Not to mention a HUGE PROJECT! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr........I don't like the "CITY" or anyone claiming part of my property. Them's fightin' words as far as I'm concerned.
Years ago (when I lived in Idaho) we came home from work and found big green farm fencing stakes going RIGHT down the side of our property (10 ft inside the our property line)...even IN our horse corrals. We were UTTERLY SHOCKED. Before we could even call the cops we spotted a note on the back of the barn. We read it...and NO JOKE..it was from the new neighbor who had moved in adjacent to our acreage. He stated we had built our barn over the property line and we would have to purchase the section he had marked off with the stakes. OMG...we about croaked. HOW DARE HIM SNEAK OVER AND DRIVE 25 green field stakes on our property without calling to discuss anything (while we were gone). Let alone the danger it added to our horses coming in and out. OH MAN....the gloves were off on that one. We had those ripped out and thrown into his ditch so fast it should have made his head spin. I wanted to claim the stakes and keep them, but my hub just hucked them back over the fence. THESE PEOPLE WERE BRAND NEW in our area...and he wouldn't talk to us in person. I tell ya...he was 100% wrong and never once apologized. SOME people have AMAZING GALL at times, and no one has a right to take or claim someone's property unless the property lines were incorrect during some survey process. Even then...it can be done in a civil manner.
That's the problem nowaday, people don't come out of their house to talk to you. Fortunately, I have wonderful neighbor and we have street get-together all the time and I have a fabulous relationship with my neighbors.
I don't want to give a misleading impression - I was THRILLED the creek project was planned (when we bought the house in 2000, we were told the project would begin 'in a few weeks' - it actually started in spring, 2005 and finished in March, 2006). I was the first neighbor to sign the City's easement, giving them the land because the creek frequently flooded into my yard and had actually filled the basement twice (once in the 1970's and once in 1996). It was definitely to my benefit to have the creek widened and my yard is big enough I knew I wouldn't miss the land. My goal was to build a border garden along the creek once the remodeling was done, so I told the city not to replace the grass they took out. As a result, I now have a border garden that runs the full width of my yard.
Here is a photo from across the creek, taken 6/29/09.
Leawood ,our county is in the same process now,and I saw where they had widened the creek and they were installing stair stepped wire mesh with stone,kinda like baskets .The creek banks were real steep,anyway,it looked really nice,and I guess I was suprized,that they did it right !! You were very fortunate that they did a nice job,are you rural or city.I know the set back right of ways can be very annoying,our property is 3 sided pie shaped,garage sits ,of coarse at the narrowest point of the property,that was really a pain to get a side yard variance,because of all of the utility right of ways.We too have a ditch,it used to hold water,neibors built a pond so we dont get the water like we used to get.It will be interesting to see if they will clean our ditch it needs cleaned.
Leawood, KS is a small city (population 30,000) that is a suburb of Kansas City, MO. The creek project was a cooperative of the county (Johnson County, KS) and the city (county put in about 40%, city picked up the rest) as part of a regional flood control project.
Ah! Glad to know your property was not HIJACKED. Where I came from in ID property lines were sensitive topics...lol Back in the 70's - 80's if the county wanted to move a road they just condemned your property, handed you a check... and took it. Now look at what "eminent domain" can do!
Your place is GORGEOUS and triple awesome that things worked in your favor!
Well I willingly signed the easement that gave them the land to widen the creek, because it helped remove me from the flood plain. Interestingly, I still OWN the land (almost to the other side of the creek), so I get to pay taxes on it!
LOL.
we pay taxes on 2.4 acres, after right of ways 1.7 is I guess what they call ours !!!LOL
not a lot of color left,summer winding down already
Perhaps not a lot of color, but rich in textural contrast and interest for the eye! Lovely, huggergirl!
Love it! The photo has so much going on in it! It really is a beautiful stairway! As I looked closer I saw alll sorts of little treasures tucked here and there!
My kind of fun yard!
everyone thank you ,I was wondering if anyone would see all the "garden art"
I should have a bumper sticker that reads
"I BRAKE FOR GARDEN ART"......lol
Trust me... I SAW IT....me like it!
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This message was edited Aug 19, 2009 3:51 AM
Highmtn,aaww tanks:) we were out east golly ,10 yrs ago in vermont or N.H. We had to turn around and go back,it was soo cool a garden art paradise,bowling balls on rerod,looked like a giant bouquet of flowers,all kinds of cool junk,they had made planters out of kids bib overalls,stiffened some how, they stood up,like an invisable person was wearing them !!! It was amazing,he was an artist and he was equally cool
LeawoodGardener,
Consider yourself lucky it looks nice and you can call it a creek. Ours is more a ravine. We've planted some liriope in the hopes it would stop the erosion, but it hasn't worked on one side. They continue to build more and more buildings with huge parking lots upstream, so every year there's more water that pours thru here when it rains. The rest of the time it breeds mosquitos. The county brought a prison work ?gang? to clean out the fallen trees about 15 years ago, which did help, but that's the last time anyone has worked on it. The city has incorporated it now, and it's even less likely that they'll do anything.
My sympathies. After many calls and e-mails to council members, the mayor and the head of public works, I finally got the city engineer to come out to view the situation. He assures me they will do 'something'.
LOL Meanwhile, the goldenrod is getting ready to bloom and spread its seeds...
Will this work?
ridesredmule,I love it
This message was edited Aug 25, 2009 4:50 AM
Iam going to work on this in the fall,needs some help,had some stupid peatunias in there pulled them up,they were ugly,dont know what they were,i know they were not true waves.
