I see flowers!!!!

HI Everyone....

I'm so happy to see flowers....

Bleeding hearts are out now...I still have daffodils....and my moss phlox is starting to look beautiful! I have fairy wings coming up too (last pic)....yahoo....

We really really need rain - got some today but not nearly enough....I've been out watering and I never usually have to water this early.....

If anyone is interested in join a group swap - I'm hosting one for June....
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1394779/

I love Dave's garden and sharing with fellow lovers of plants! I'm in a love hate relationship with our deer population...last year they ate over 200 daylily buds....they have never touched them since I've been in my house (10 years) and last year they ate all of them ! Heartbroken! I'm hoping to keep them away so I get blooms I can share on this thread!

I love the Hellebore pictures....what awesome plants....I don't have many - only one and I got it in a trade.....it has flowers that are green like the leaves....I can never really tell when it's blooming...but it seems to like where I've planted it as it keeps getting bigger and bigger each year

Hellebores are great because deer leave them alone....they are poisonous.......the hybrids come in many pretty colors......it is nice to see so many flowers blooming.....my fav flower of all, iris, is starting to bloom......

Yes, our irises are starting to bloom too.

Ditto. Immortality iris is carrying the color message that the white tulips started. Then the white peonies come after that. The white shade garden has oxblood, dicentra alba, anemone, variegated solomon seal and whtie trilliums. I just want more more more.

Sounds terrific.

deer resistant....I'm in for hellebores! I gotta find some people who want to trade them!

I am finally getting lily of the valley! YEAH! I love that flower smell! :)

Be prepared for the lily of the valley to spread, Alikat. I ahve a place where I allow it to run rampant.

Adding to the white shade garden, this weekend, I am installing a ton of ghost ferns.

Love a white garden....really shines in the shade!

My feeling entirely. Since the gaultheria didn't survive the winter, all replacements will be white in some way.

I love color-themed gardens! Yay!!!

Makes it easy to pick among the many hosta cultivars. All the ones with lavedar blooms are elsewhere.

I have a patch of lily of the valley....it's spreading everywhere...including growing between bricks....tough little plants!

Ghost ferns....I'll have to look up what those look like but I love the sound of a white garden! Please post pics! I am certain it is beautiful!

I know I'm suppose to notice which hosta bloom purple and which ones white....but I have no idea....I mostly love the leaves! I just purchased one called golden meadows....it's so beautiful! I can't wait to plant it!

Will do. I just planted babies of Japanese painted ferns and ghost ferns. They have to grow up yet. but there are some other plants making a modest showing.

I have reevaluated the garden. Having threads like this gets my juices going. Rather than be upset by our messy neighbor's junk right besides my carefully considered white garden, I am going to create more of a secret garden here. With some very strong trellis in an angle that actually would follow our property boundary, I am going to plant a pair of hardy kiwi to block the view. Then, for interest, since there is space, I bought black metal pots from Homegoods to create a small water fountain in front of it by stacking them on upside down clay pots for a cascade. It's near the house so it won't be hard to run a line. The guy at Mahoney's garden center said the solar fountains don't work very well in New England so no sense bothering. The past several weeks I had been thinking about putting a silver fir in this fairly dense shade, but inspiration comes suddenly, and I know this is the right idea. Course the fir can still go in there, or maybe a Japanese plum yew that's upright, but the design idea doesn't depend upon them to grow. This little garden space is actually visible from my living and dining rooms, so there are ways to peak into the area, which makes it very worthwhile.

Alikat, I will post pics, maybe before and after, but can't do it today. It's a rush to get plants into the ground this weekend.

WOW! Love the idea of a secret garden....it should be just right for what you need! I've been toying around with trying to make a waterfall in my yard.....it seems that all you'd need is to be able to get electricity out to the pump to make it go.....so do you just sink the line to it?

I am excited to see your pictures! Before and after would be very cool!

I keep saying I'm going to have a retaining wall and waterfalls built in a different spot, and the design is firmly in my head (including how I'd prevent spilloff if the water stops) , but that is a larger, more expensive project, so it has to wait. Just as well considering the volume of soil and compost that are traveling across the yard for improvements. A little fountain ought to be easy, especially made with garden materials. Pots come with holes for the wires and the water source, so they only have to be plugged up again to be watertight. The pump apparatus came all together and under thirty dollars from my local nursery.

Alicat, you could dig a small basin, use a liner and make your own grotto without it being a killer job.

Sounds like wonderful projects are headed your way!

Thanks, Marilyn. Sore hands too considering the weeding in the sunny areas. Even areas with three inches of pine park mulch have these uninvited milk weed-like vines coming out.They even poke right through the cardboard weed stoppers! The shade garden is so much easier to take care of.

everyone has been pretty busy here - have not been posting much with biz travel and working in the yard. have been working hard and still have not made into the back yard for edging, mulching and the annual bed expansion. So far have moved 5 yards of dirt and another 16 of mulch with much more to come. the weeds are very happy in the back right now.

veggy garden is finally in as well.

It was such a late spring, it was hard to get everything done......now we are rocketing right to summer! Need rain here, my garden is like a dust bowl......

Same here. Only living thing happy with the dust is my dog who constantly sleeps in the deepest dust. Getting the compost and soil mixture on makes a huge difference, which surprises me every year. The "done" areas are quite different than the others. Seems it got hot pretty fast. The iris and early peonies are starting while the doublefile and snowball viburnums are still floriferous. it's these new developments that keep me trying.

It's so terrible here....we really need rain....I've been watering the gardens but you just can't imitate a good soaking rain! I have a few bachelor buttons bloom and a new iris that I planted last year....

Nicki has also been digging in my dusty gardens! Hopeful;ly, it will rain today even if it's just showers.....All of my TBI are out & several sibs.......

dry here as well and the rain predicted for today has vanished

chance of t-storms here dropped to 30%, it was all cloudy this morning so thought we were going to get something but it cleared out now it's sunny
My camera died on me, good thing I still have cell phone to take pics with

I always wanted to do a secret garden but having our dog ruined all my plans, he just barrels thru and over everything (and having a hubby that doesn't share your vision, doesn't help either)LOL

In the process of getting memorial plants for family members that have passed away

A secret garden!! I had an article mapped out called "five ways to make your own secret garden." Of course it could be "seven essential steps" or "the three things you must do right now" but you see my point. Haven't done it yet but .... hope springs eternal.

Maybe the garden is a secret so noone knows about it!

Ahhh....we all have a secret garden in our hearts!
WE GOT RAIN....just for about 15/20 minutes....but RAIN actual RAIN! its gone now....but it was thrilling for those few minutes!
Beautiful pictures....

Love that geranium, Jen......

my phlox are fully out now.....I love how they look in the spring!

I agree -- awesome geranium.....what's the name of that one....I have one similar....I'd love to know what kind it is. English lilac is now blooming.....that bush combined with regular lilac and the lily of the valleys....my yard smells fantastic!

The deer have been coming around.....ate some tops off the sunflowers....nibbled at the tall garden phlox.... So I've begun spraying with deer stopper....it smells great...like nutmeg.....and it really keeps them away....I've just have to remember to do it BEFORE they eat stuff! Wish I could make my garden secret from them!

We got just a few more minutes of rain today....probably 15min.... we need more!

AliKat32, Oh so pretty! Like everyone, we are desperate for rain. Though it seems like Jen has some very perky blooms. We has been moving the sprinklers around way more than normal, but our efforts are not good enough. Despite the lack of rain we are getting more peonies daily, but they aren't lasting long, and same with the Iris. Fleeting enjoyment. The Japanese Maples are doing better than they have in most years. We are enjoying the last flush of the multi-stemmed tulips, Florette. Here is a link of today's garden. Enjoy. Patti

https://picasaweb.google.com/107604936655818861781/GARDEN20150528?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Yes, pretty space Alikat! Patti, your garden is so natural looking yet planned at the same time. I am working so hard not to have chaos. That makes me appreciate what you've achieved more and more...

Very pretty.....every thing looks so fresh this time of year....my iris are the stars of the garden right now.....TBIs & sibs.......and Omoshiro clem.

very nice patti and i like the drive ali

here are some from here - all long/wide views as I have not finished weeding and mulching.

A panorama from the deck

last from the back yard - and some from the front where a battle with voles destroying the lawn continues. and then back down the side

Look how it is all filling in very nicely!!!!!

and the last of them. jm's really filled in this year,have some trimming to do.

Wha -- WOW - My gardens are nothing compared to yours and patti's....such beauty!
I love the shapes and of course the water features and rocks!
Is that a tricolored beech tree I see in pic two of the second set??

Patti -- what a beautiful space you have created....the paths are inviting and I want to just walk around and smell your flowers! Your tricolor tulips are stunning!

Thanks for the great garden walks ladies!

Bill, gorgeous tree peony! As always, your property , just like Patti's, is as lovely as any botanical gardens!

Hi Wha, your gardens are beautiful . Do you get help with it or you do all by yourself .Your evergreens fit in the landscape so nicely.