Garden Pics: Breakin' Our Backs for Beautiful Blooms! #10

thread for just about anything that is going on in your garden, or whatever plants you felt like taking pictures of!! I hope that everyone joins in from anywhere, since we're all Northwest of somewhere!


We came from here! http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1007101/


So this pic is of a small fraction of what's been giving me soooo many back aches lately! It's about1/3 of the area that's been redone. The flat area where the grave path is has had: a septic pipe dug up, the underground sprinklers rearranged, the grass killed and rototilled, raised with fill dirt, weed barrier put down, gravel and bark spread out, and now I've begun planting it. I have a few more green things out in it now than what in the picture. The picture was taken 3 or 4 days ago.

I'll do a series of before and after pictures, if folks are interested, once I get the pictures organized a little.

For now, a couple of pics from some of the blooming plants to get this thread going.

This message was edited Jul 16, 2009 1:17 AM

look who decided to bloom again!

the last one for me tonight.

My back is aching just seeing 'PART' of the new project! WOW!!!!! It looks great.
Are those your new echies? Love the colors!

red. beautiful job on your new area. I would be in heaven if I had all that space available ready for planting!!

Red what a lot of work you've done. Kuddos! I agree with Jan - my back hurts just seeing the pic! It looks beautiful.

Love the name of the new thread. :))

Woah, Red! And here I thought I'd been breaking my back... your project makes mine look like child's play! That's soooo gorgeous!

I was envious of all you who have these wonderful huge spaces to garden... but geez, I don't think I could manage it. Guess I'm better off with my little city-sized yard. hehehe. ;)

Pony I also have a little city sized yard and would love more space. But I love my neighborhood. Did I already tell the story of the angel/fairy that appeared in my front yard? My neighbor was taking a walk with her husband at night when they found this foot tall statue on the sidewalk in front of my house. Amy was pretty sure it was not mine since it was way too sweet and angels are not my thing.......but they put her on my stone wall just in case. It's one of those with bent legs that sits on a ledge. Well, the next morning I went out to get the newspaper and saw this thing, and was puzzled. I asked all the neighbors if it was theirs and no luck. She is waaaayyyyy too sweet so I decided I would change her appearance a little. I gave her red lips and red toenails. Then she went to visit a neighbor a few houses away. Those neighbors gave her purple eyeshadow and blue eyes, and will pass her on, to be changed even more. I can hardly wait to see her in a few weeks! That's what my neighborhood is like, and I love it.

That's awesome, Judi! My neighbors across the street would totally do something like that. They love the whimsical stuff I have in the front yard, and their back yard is full of silly fun stuff too. I'd like to put a lot more goofy stuff out, but my hubby doesn't agree. I'm definitely going to sneak some more things in while he's away though... and won't he be surprised when he comes home to a frog pond... hehe.

Thanks all. And I agree with everyone about the space issue. It makes for a large play ground to garden in, but a ton to keep up with. The whole plan in part of this renovation of sorts was actually because it should cut down on the maintanence in the long run. I'm sooooo looking forward to that!!

Judi... that's a great story about the fairy/angel. I'd love to see what she looks like! what a great neighborhood to be in!

Jan...Those particular pictures are not of the ones from you. :-( Two from you are just getting ready to bloom! I don't htink that the other one is going to bloom this year. I ran into these Echies at Wal-mart of all places. Of any of the echies that I've seen that say they are fragrant, I've never been able to smell anything until I ran into the ones there. These smell just heavenly!!! I picked up two for myself and two for my sister who is going to be over here in Sept. I planted all four!! lol. I'm not usually a fan of Walmart plants, but I figured that I was saving them from either an almost certain death by not getting care there, or from an un appreciated life in someone elses yard who just thinks that it's a plant. lol After I planted them, I looked at the tag to see what kind they were. The tag just says: Echinacea. That's it! So, I have no idea what kind they are. But, the tag then also says that they're only hardy to 30 deg. At first I was pretty peaved by that, but I should know better when buying stuff there. Then I thought about it and did a little reading, I have found nothing that states of an echinacea that isn't hardy to at least 0 deg. So, I think that they probably are hardy enough. And right now, the bud on one of the ones that you sent is the same color, so I think that it might be a match. Wahoo!!

This message was edited Jul 16, 2009 11:36 PM

Beautiful pictures RC. Your new area is lovely.

rc.....you said you were working on a big project, you didn't say it was gigantic!! ROFL Beauftful!! Love that last picture on the old thread and the butterfly. Is it as hot there as it is here. I went out to water at 7 and came back in drenched. Should have turned the hose on me. Nice to hear from you.

Thanks Willow and Sally!

Sally, I'm sooooo happy to hear someone else use the term gigantic for it!! It definitely seems that way to me since this is the first time that I've ever had all my joints hurt from gardening (that usually only happens when I'm hiking), but then I thought that maybe it was just my bad joints and not really as big of a project as it feels like! lol

Yes, it's as hot here. I check the thermometer before I went to work (around 3 pm) and it said 94deg. It still feels really warm outside, at least 70 I think.

Okay, i'm the dummy and did not see that, If anyone wants to see the pics I posted check the old tread not going to do it again. LOL (So Sad)

So we will go on, now that I'm in the right place. ^_^

My frist Daylily.

But this is the hardest 'love of labor' I have ever went tru. 2 days 5 hours each day. To come home with it.

^_^

That's a great bicolor. What's its' name?

You weren't in the wrong place! just the same place. lol

Is that a new vehicle? It's nice.

Banks are not nice.

I agree with you there. I like it. where did you bring it home from ?

Yes it is (the car) so happy.

I have the name of the Day but??? not sure where I but it.

I took this pic of a phlox but I did not know he had a friend.

Are you asking about car or Lily??????????

Bought the car at Penn. Subaru in Gorst. Went to buy a Subaru, saw it and fell in love. LOL

This is his friend.

Off to bed, will try to stay with it. So hard anymore, don't have the time I used too.
Hugs to all
Night
Tills

RC! I just love the opening picture at the top of the thread! What a stunning space, and I love the sweep of the gravel path - please please do post loads more photos, before, after, during. This is lovely.

Tills - congratulations on such a cute new vehicle! Enjoy it and travel safely.

Laurie, join us on the philosophy101 thread - would love to have your input!

Red - yes, more photos! It looks like such a peaceful place. Just makes you want to take a deep breath and say aaahhhhhh....

Sheesh, gone for a day and a half and so behind again.....

Willow, the Gloriosa's you posted in the last thread were great, and I LOVE that hosta!

Sally, Your bus trip tale gave me the shivers! Glad that it came out as good as possible...sounds like you had a great group, as I can see so many ways it could have turned out differently!

Judi...YEAH for your new camera! I loved the angel story, and since you have the new camera, you will have to snap a picture of her when she comes back around! Your nicotiana were beautiful...I can imagine that it smells heavenly by that pot!

RC...Great to see you back, and WOW can I see why you hadn't spent much time in the forums. I bet you barely crawled your way to bed at night! The result of your labors is just amazing.......I can't imagine having that much of my world look so beautiful and orderly all at the same time! BEAUTIFUL!

Pony, Your pond is turning out so very nice! I imagine leveling it was a real pain --figuratively as well as literally--but I imagine that you feel much better now not having your eyes drawn to what you saw as an imperfection in your otherwise wonderful project!

Tilly, your dahlias are very pretty, and big CONGRATS on the new car. I am glad you were able to find something that you are not only happy with but fell in love with as well!.

We just came back from spending a day and a half in E-WA and boy am I glad to be back on the cooler side of the state! How can you guys stand working in 90+ degrees? We had to catch up on a month and a half of weeds, and about cooked ourselves! 99 degrees yesterday, and was a cool 70 when we left at 5:00 this morning. YUCK!

Welcome back, Julie! :)

You're right- it was worth the broken back and blown-out arm muscles to level the pool. That low corner was driving me crazy, it was all I could see when I looked at the pond. I'm very very happy with it now. :)

Dang, I thought it was hot here yesterday... I think I would drop dead in 99 degrees. Yikes.

Glad you're back Julie! Good to know that we can all make it through a day of weeding in these sort of temps! lol. Believe me, this is the first time in almost 10 years that the yard has looked this orderly. This whole push was to help to be able to keep it more orderly. Well, that and fix the sprinkler system and septic pipe. lol.

Pony, don't you just hate it when that sort of stuff just grates on your nerves until you can get it fixed. But, then it feels so good to have it fixed!

Laurie.... thanks! and glad to see you here! I hope you join in more.

I will post more pictures then when I get them together. Likely sometime this weekend. I still have one corner of the yard that is still just in the state of having been torn up. But, I had to have some place to move the pot ghetto and all of the stuff that was being dug up to be moved, divided, and replanted. I had three giant Aster plants that have since become a hedge of roughly 35 plants! I still have more to put out. I keep wondering why it all looks so bare when I know that there where plants there before, but then I realize that I had dug the equivalent of 35 plants.... even though it was only 3 to begin with!!

My other time waster this morning...... my 19 year old cat, who I didn't think was agile enough to catch anything, brought in a chipmunk this morning! She was at the door with it, I let the puppy out (not knowing she was there), the puppy scared her, she ran in the house, he barked, and she dropped the live chipmunk! Of course that chipmunk had to run behind my very old piano, which is an upright grand and heavier than hell. I was able to slide the piano corner about 2" and then it ran out and into the owners' wine rack!!!! can you imagine a chipmunk running in and around a bunch of wine bottles! it was quite the sight. Eventually I ended up enlisting the help of the cat again to help me keep it from going into the living room. Anyhow, I finally caught it after about 15 min. of chaos between the cats, puppy, and chipmunk!!

Humans are not meant to live in 99 degrees - at least not PNWers!

"I am glad you were able to find something that you are not only happy with but fell in love with as well" - Julie I'm still waiting for a man that fits that description.......

I love my new camera! Thank you Red for sending me in the right direction! I still have a lot to read and learn about it.

LOL@ the chipmunk... amazing how a little critter can cause total chaos!

I used to have a fishing net that's sole purpose was catching flying squirrels that would get into my Mom's house. They'd come down the chimney and wreak havoc in the house. (always in the middle of the night, of course) One time, I woke up to this bizzare muffled meowing sound at the foot of my bed, and when I turned on the light, my cat was sitting there on my feet with a flying squirrel held in his mouth by the scruff of it's back. Kitty's eyes were HUGE and he looked at me like "I caught it... NOW WHAT??" hehehe. What a sight that was.

Rc - was that cat's name Precious?

RC......LOL what a visual! I can just see the look on all four faces...you, kitty, puppy, AND chipmunk. Too bad no one was there with a video camera in hand!

Pony, same goes! Bad enough to get a bat or a little tweety in the house in the daytime...I think I would have night terrors after a few nocturnal visits from flying squirrels!

Judy, You are right ...99 is just not comfortable for an outdoorsy type of person. I will give you the same stupid comment about it being "a dry heat", as I am melting worse over here today at 89 then I did yesterday in 10 degrees hotter! As for the man...LOL...you'll find him eventually. Just like cars, you have to weed through a lot of klunkers who are falsely advertised before you find the right one!

Tils, congratulations on your beautiful new car. Happy Driving!

Lol.... yep, i agree RJ, that would've made a very interesting video! And the cat was sooooo proud of herself too.

Judi...nope, not Precious! Precious is solely an indoor cat with supervised outside visition rights. lol And She's only 9 yr. old. The cat the caught the critter was my senior citizen cat, 'MyLady'. She's 19. As I mentioned above, I really didn't think that she was still quick enough to catch something like a chipmunk. mainly because I hadn't seen her catch anything in a couple of years. I'm glad that the camera is working out for you. That's a very pretty sweet pea!

The PNW Garden shot from a Toddler's perspective, height-wise. Merged 3 shots together - it's large area & the lighting doesn't help:

O.K. ROFLOL You guys have made my day!! I can just picture those "huge eyes" on the cats and the frantic dashing to capture the critters.

Judi.....great pictures, so sharp, camera envy here. I know you'll enjoy it.

Till......nice looking car girl! And beautiful pictures.

Too hot for me to work unless I go out very early in the morning and work in the shade. I'm a wimp when it comes to heat. Supposed to start cooling off tomorrow, none too soon for me. Even the birds weren't flying much today.

Katye, I love your picture! It is interesting isn't it, how perspective can change the garden? The more time I spend photographing my world, the more I "see" of it. Thinking about detail and perspective has made the whole garden come alive in a way it never did for me even five years ago. Love the digital technology.........

oh yes, but i wish my camera took better distance shots - they look flat to me. But I don't want to shell out the $$$ for a nicer camera. This one does nice macros for being an older model.

Flat: part of the veg/cutting garden border

Not flat!

I know what you mean! The macros look like 3D.