Well I hope all of you that have been having health problems a very speedy recovery. I know the shingles aren't any fun, I've had them myself.
Leslie, I have a question for you. What made you decide on 8 ft wide beds? I've had a heck of a time with my wider beds. From now own any new beds I make or create will be between 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 ft wide for weeding, and cleaning and so forth. Hopefully your beds will be so full of daylily seedlings you will not have to sorry about grass growing in between them.
Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and had someone special to spend the Holidays with.
God Bless each and everyone of you,
Marian
Cost of building beds.
Hi Marian,
I chose 8 ft beds because I can reach in from either side, so that makes 6+ feet accessible and I'm going to put plants I'm growing for increase but not hybridizing with in the very middle so I only have to get at them every 2-3 years. The railroad ties are 8 ft. so it was convenient. If they were only accessible on one side I'd have never made them that wide.
Leslie, these pictures are for you. We live on a hilly 3 1/3 acres. Our main daylily beds are down behind our house in what is much like a bowl. I took these pictures yesterday as proof of the historic snow we had on Christmas Day 2010. Upon reviewing the pictures I could see how the terraced beds stood out. We use whatever materials we can get at the time when it comes time to put in a new daylily bed. That could be crossties, landscape timbers, rocks, concrete block walls covered with rock, stacking blocks bought from Lowe's or Home Depot, or even wine bottles as the front border of new bed put in this fall. We have taken a challenging landscape and tried to make it work for us. I can't even begin to tell you how many trees, mostly pines, we have had cut down in the past several years for guess what---daylily beds!.
If you will look up the hill there are 9 levels in the center of the picture. We separate our dips and tets for hybridizing. Three of these 9 beds are dip beds. These are not all the beds. I'll include some other areas, too, and try to find some pictures when the daylilies were blooming.The green posts to the immediate right are in our vegetable garden.
Doris
This a closer view of the terraces. The black garbage bags are leaves that we have hauled in. People give us leaves that we use to keep some areas natural. Leaves are great mulch for holding in the moisture, keeping weeds out, and composting.
An even closer view. David built the steps and walkway, and I laid the rock. When you can do the labor, it certainly saves money and allows you to do more.
This bed I call Diana's bed because of the statue of Diana. I redid this bed this fall. It has all our tet. Lambertsons and some of our newer daylilies. Some of the new ones coming in the spring will go here. The markers for the new ones are already placed where those will be planted. There will be over 100 daylilies in Diana's bed. On the back side of this bed/the split rail fence is another new daylily bed that was put in this fall. All of our Nicole Harry daylilies are here and many other newer daylilies.
Here are more terraced beds. Behind the upper rock wall are new daylily beds put in this fall. These were terraced years ago using landscape timbers that had rotted. We replaced them with one stacking rock wall and three tan stacking block walls. That is the back of our house up on the hill. We get plenty of exercise just walking up and down the hill each day to get to our daylily beds. The neighbors loaned us their golf cart a couple of years ago, and it has been a blessing!
This is our small cabin that we visit most weekends until it gets too hot in June through August. It is not air conditioned and the bedroom is upstairs. The downstairs stays comfortable even in the hottest of summer. We call the cabin The Shady Rest (like Petticoat Junction) and our garden is The Shady Rest Gardens, an AHS Display Garden. The main daylily beds are in the vicinity of the cabin. There is a daylily bed behind the cabin that cannot be seen in this picture. The beds in front of the cabin are raised beds lined in rectangular rocks. David always talked about having a log cabin, so we had one built down in the back that we can walk to. We have too much work to do here, so we rarely leave overnight unless it is to go to a daylily meeting.
Going up the hill to the left is a narrow dip daylily bed that we put in this past spring. Behind this bed are about 20 native azaleas that we planted years ago. They are gorgeous when they are in bloom in the spring. Up the hill are more terraced beds made from landscape timbers and a stacking block bed. All of our tet. Joiner daylilies are up the hill to the right out of sight.
This is a view from the front of the cabin of the terraced beds that are in the first pictures. The beds in front of the cabin contain daylilies, but also lots of other perennials so as to have color before and after the daylilies are finished blooming.
This is a project in progress. This is to the left of the cabin. We had had a dry creekbed and decided to take the rock out, put down a liner, replace the rock, and have running water like a real creekbed. We then decided to put a small pond in about three-fourths the way down. We still have to get the liner in the creekbed and the small pond. We are thinking about incorporating a small waterfall on the back side of the small pond to give more rushing water affect. I just want to get it finished but the weather is not cooperating. It will be spring at the earliest before we can finish.
Here you can see a large sink that was being thrown away from my husband's school, and he brought it home. I have made a planter from it and have it resting on a large pine stump. To the right you can see more of the terraced beds (dips). Notice the irregular lengths in the middle of the picture. These are the tops of creosote fence posts (different lengths) that David brought home one day. Someone we knew had put up new fences around their cow pasture, and they were going to throw these away. They were piled up here in the way once we started cleaning out the back while working toward building the cabin. We had had a neighbor come in earlier with his bobcat and terrace this particular area. One day my imagination invisioned a defined wall there using those irregular fence post tops. I have come to like it,because it breaks up all the horizonal walls that the eye sees when looking up the hill.
Here are beds that are made from landscape timbers. That is Muffy trying to stay out of the snow. The stacking blocks that Muffy is on are one row high and outlines a new dip bed.
This picture is taken from up the hill looking down. The crosstie beds are at least 17 feet wide. David made them this wide so we could get more daylilies in the beds. We have a walking path that goes down the middle of the length of the crosstie beds. We can reach the daylilies from the path and from the outside of the beds. I will show you a better view of this from a picture taken when the daylilies were blooming. The cornbread is done, so it is time to eat. I'll be back later and post some pictures of the same areas when there is real color.
Wow. It's overwhelming. How in the world do you keep up with all of that???
This is a wall that was done this summer in the shade for shade plants, mainly hostas and ferns. I want to add more color this summer.
These dip beds are made from landscape timbers. They will be replaced in a few years with something more permanent and more eye appealing. I cut the foliage back last early June when the rain had stopped in May and I was not watering. The foliage was yellowing so the foliage was cut back leaving the scapes. Then I started watering a few times a week and the new foliage was beautiful.
I made these half circle beds at the high end of the crosstie beds from stacking blocks found at Lowes. I made steps going up to the pathway that goes through each crosstie bed. I filled in the steps with pea gravel. The pathway through the crosstie bed was covered with free wood chips that a tree company brings us.
This is a better view. Notice that I also use yard art or something to cover up the crossties. David plans to get more wood fences made to cover the high side of the crossties. I found that section of wooden fence at an antique store.
Overwhelming is the word that I hear the most to describe our gardens. It can be overwhelming when there is so much work that needs to be done at the same time, such as starting in February the old foliage has to be pulled away from each plant, all the fertilizers (Nutricote, milorganite, alfalfa pellets, Epsom salt) have to be put around each plant, and then mulch has to be put down (used pinestraw this past year instead of pinebark mulch and will again this year). If I could get all that done by early April, I would be thrilled. I want to institute a spraying program for thrips, aphids, and spidermites this year as well as doing something to kill snails and slugs. Once the spring rains stop, then we will have to begin watering. We now have a well as of less than two months ago, so we will have to figure out a watering schedule and watering zones. It becomes a fulltime job once the temperatures begin to moderate in February. Also, shrubbery has to be pruned, and there are all those other outside jobs such as weeding and spraying Roundup. Though I no longer have a paying job (thank goodness), I spend a lot of my time volunteering. David works very hard here when he can be at home. He still works a fulltime job. We have had a high school senior to work for us this past summer and some since school started. He has been a Godsend. I like winter because I can stay inside, get re-energized, and do some other things that I enjoy and only have time to do in the winter (such as quilting and reading). Also, we much prefer colder weather over the hot, humid summers when we have to be outside.
I will post more pictures tomorrow night.
Very beautiful Doris. All I can think about if I had that much to tend is my aching back, lol. But, I notice you have raised beds so that should help a bit. I sure would be outside all the time if I had that many gardens to tend to.
Casshigh, that is simply gorgeous. The good thing is that you love what you do, which make it sooooooo much fun. I would suggest that over time you systematically install a sprinkler sys attached to the well. I can see where pulling all that hose around would wear you out by mid summer. I don't know if you have a seating area out here, but, I would recommend one to cut down on your trips back to the house and give you and DH a place to relax and reflect. How about a portable "gazebo"? Looking forward to next years pics. Mike
Leslie - The planters look great!
Thanks, Cindy and Mike.
Watering has been a major issue for us. That is why we had a well drilled. We had 660 feet of waterlines run from the well with 6 new faucets. We tried to place the faucets at different areas of the garden that would allow us to water all areas. The plan for this summer is to leave the waterhoses in pathways and have them covered by the free wood chips we get. We will place overhead sprinklers around and use shorter hoses to attach the sprinklers to the stationary hoses. That is the plan now. We may find that we need to do something else. The well is uphill in the back so the water will be flowing downhill to most of the faucets. You are right about dragging heavy waterhoses, especially uphill. We have numerous benches and sitting spots around for visitors. Unfortunately, we rarely sit down because there is always something to do. I admonish myself each year saying that we need to slow down and "smell the roses". If we don't take the time to enjoy it, what is the purpose of all this? We will always be working on slowing down until we become physically limited. The truth is that we are both workaholics. We do not know how to sit for very long. When we can't be outside working on something, we are inside planning. For us, part of the enjoyment is the work to get to the end result.
Wooowww! Gorgeous! An Muffy is beautiful, too! Thanks for posting the photos.
This shows the path through one of the crosstie beds. Directly in front of this crosstie bed I have a row of red double knockout roses in a terraced bed made of stacking blocks like the ones that make the half circle beds above. The roses are there to hide the crosstie wall. In front of the knockout roses is a row of boxwoods. In front of the boxwoods is a row of blackeyed Susans. In front of the blackeyed Susans is a bed of dip daylilies. The blackeyed Susans start blooming when the daylilies are about finished blooming.
This shows some of what I was explaining above. Oops, the blue peacock is on the ground. We saw the peacock in a couple of gardens at the National in Valdosta, and I had to have one (actually two).
We cover our pathways with the free wood chips that a tree company brings to us. After the wood chips have broken down in a few years, David will scrape them up and use them to help fill in a new bed.
I'm trying to use more pots to add color, texture, and plant variety.
Everything in full bloom at the Shady Rest.
I gave this sign to David a couple of years ago for Christmas. It is still propped up against a tree near the cabin. We plan to mount it on a base and rock around it. A project that we want to do this spring.
There is a yellow Lady Banks rose on the arbor next to the pond which is by the cabin. I have let Creeping Jenny cover the area under the bench. It adds lots of color to that area. When it starts to run out onto the pathway, I just clip it with scissors.
A better view of this pond. We have a larger one with a waterfall, too. If I find a picture of it, I'll post it.
This shows one of the daylily beds that we put in this spring. It will be an all dip bed. I had put dips in this end and tets in the other end, but we have acquired lots more dips and I need a place for them. This bed was shown with snow covering it. That is my husband David. He still makes my heart go pitty pat after almost 32 years!
I like to add a few surprises here and there. You can find all kinds of neat things at thrift stores.
I got this idea from a garden tour. If you get a chance to go on a garden tour, go! You can find ideas that you can incorporate in your garden.
Leslie, I did not mean to hijack your thread. This is becoming something more than showing you examples of terraced beds.
WOW!!! Casshigh your garden looks amazing!!! You and your DH have done a great job!!
I have several pocketbooks bought at thrift stores that I plan to plant and display this summer. I also bought a pair of bright red patent leather high heels that I plan to put at the base of daylily Amanda's Little Red Shoes (Nan Eller). I'm not sure what flower I will plant in them, but I'll find something appropriate.
We grow a lot of hostas, too. We did have over 200 different varieties before the drought a couple of years ago. Heck, we have been a drought for several years with a wet winter this past year and this past spring. We have seen little rain in the recent summers. There is a rose bush on the corner that I want to move this winter. I have to find another place for it. I think it is a David Austin rose. It is yellow and blooms on and off all spring and summer.
These hydrangeas were beautiful this past summer. I found them at Lowes about 3 years ago the Monday after Mother's Day. They had failed to water them and they had wilted. They were selling them for $1.00 each. I wish I had bought more than I did. I think there are 6 or 7 that border this path.
