A favor to ask - pics of your gardens

We always have wonderful pics of individual plants and blooms here. Occasionally someone will post pics of a new garden (Tammy has some great ones...thanks Tam). Would some of you veterans post some pics of your gardens? Not only would I love to see them, but I'm struggling a little with trying to get mine off the ground. I do have books, but I would always rather see pictures of successful gardens of someone I know and respect (yes, I am talking about you guys LOL), than pics from books.

tia, jan

Great idea! I know I've seen some pictures here & there but it'd be nice to have them all in one
thread here.
Tam

I would not want to hold my garden up as an example, as although I have been gardening long enough to be a veteran, I am not in the least artistic. I plant one of everything, instead of planting in "drifts" or groups of 3 or 5 like the design books say. I never know if a plant is going to fizzle out after one year, or take off and strangle everything around it. I call my garden "the ongoing experiment". If I am lucky, something does well, and a couple of flowers complement each other, and then I can take a picture and say how lovely my garden looked that week! I could post some pictures that would show you how NOT to make a garden... Right now, the predominant flower is dandelion.

June, I'm not looking for garden design. just how to grow alpines and friends. right now I have a large area of clay soil covered with landscape fabric, then river rock. even I am smart enough to know that is not a rock garden (unless rocks are what you are growing). it's a raised bed, so should drain. but short of removing the entire top (fabric/rock) and tilling in tons of amendments, I'm thinking I can do small pockets at a time; amend the soil, add rocks, and plant

Jan, your set-up looks good, but clay soil will certainly need loosening-up with sand or fine gravel.. Alpines do demand well-drained soil for the most part. Some like Pulsatilla seem to do fine in clay soils while Saxifrages generally detest it. Planting pockets might be a way to get around the fuss of revamping the entire bed. Not much colour in my rockey yet but in the next couple of weeks I should be able to post overall garden shots.

Hi Jan .
I have a few Pics. that may be of interest to you .
My son and I built this Garden / Pond 3 years ago .
It took 2 years to complete .
I have about 8 progress Pics. If you were interested .

June,

I'm a one of each collector too. Only by starting from seed do I get enough of
the same to do drifts. But when I buy stuff, I just want everything & I only have
so much space (& money) . Have you read Ken Druse' book "The Collectors
Garden"?

Tam

Hey, Kell. you know I love your pond. would be delighted to see the progress pics.

Todd, thanks. I can certainly wait until you have some things in bloom. no hurry. I know the clay won't work as is. I've bought sand and organic matter, but I just can't tackle the whole thing at once. so I'm thinking if I dig up an area, replace/amend the clay, raise it some, and border it off with rock, I should have something I can work with.

Tam & June, I'm sure my rock garden will be a 'collector's' garden also. everything (about 6 plants LOL) I have so far is 'one of each'. I'll have to look for the book.

Jan,

Definitely take your time. Personally, I enjoy the process of building the garden and
finding & then planting the plants a lot more than I do having finished beds. I guess
rock gardening works so well for me since the plants are tiny so you can fit a lot in
(plus they are so fickle that I have to keep buying more. LOL).

Tam

OK, here is a not-too-shabby photo of my gravel bed, taken at the end of summer last year. The bed is on a gentle slope away from the house and the gravel is 4 to 6 inches deep. Underneath is a mix of glacial moraine (sand, gravel, assorted boulders) and gobs of clay.

I haven't read "The Collector's Garden", Tam. Now I know what to ask hubby to buy me for my birthday!

June, it's lovely. question (gonna sound dumb!)...no soil at all?

No soil, but the gravel has quite a lot of sand in it. It is "road gravel" from the local pit, and we use it for our driveway as well. Here's a more recent photo, taken the day before yesterday.

Jan,

NARGS has "how-to" build rock gardens on their website. You might check it
out for technical help too.

June,

That's glorious!

Tam

Stunning rockery June! I can't show mine now as it's a mess compared to yours!

Well I can't show mine because, er . . . uh, I don't have one! -- yet. So far, everything is in pots and troughs, and one regular perennial garden that kinda borders on alpine soil. The easier things grow well there. That's where my Pulsatilla's are.

Aha! confessions! I feel better already (sigh of relief)

edit for sp.

This message was edited May 15, 2007 8:17 AM

If you look closely at the picture of my "stunning" rockery, between the flowers you will see lots of plants that got winter-killed or wind-burned! I have a lot of borderline hardy perennials and sub-shrubs that get damaged when the snow cover either melts or gets scraped away by deer. My Helianthemums are particularly vulnerable, and look disgusting every spring until I trim away the dead bits and they leaf out again.

The helianthemums are real work horses here. I'd never dare put them in the rock garden
or that's all I'd have. They get huge! Amazing differences to plants from climate affects.

Tam

Helianthemums are a bit of a challenge in my area. They can grow best kind for a couple of years then up and die for no apparent reason. I used to have a nice Fire Dragon and the Wisley Primrose...now I have none!

Here's the orange helianthumum's that have been doing well for
me for several years.

Tam

I don't have a big area for growing alpines - I grow them in sinks. My main garden consists of herbaceous borders.

Wow, Tammy, nice helianthemum! Please can you tell us the name of that variety, and where you got it?

I'm kind of between June & Tammy, so definitely need to try a helianthemum and see how it does for me. that one is a beauty, Tam. yes, please do tell us the name.

Galanth, it's very interesting to see how everyone manages to fit in their alpines. thanks for your border pic. My yard is more 'Islands in the Sun'. really don't have anything on my borders. and so much of it is still pretty bare.

I saw the prettiest little troughs at a nursery the other day. some of them only 6-10" and they were selling the mini plants, too. but I was on another mission (dwarf conifers and some flowering shrubs) and couldn't allow myself to indulge.

Sorry I don't know the name of the heliathamum. Last year I grew a bunch from seed and planted them
on my rocky hillside. A couple are blooming this year. Some didn't survive. I just picked up six more
from the Morris Arboretum Rare Plant sale last week to put more on that hill. They seem to like very
hot dry and sunny spots.

I took some more pictures today & will post when they are downloaded.
Tam

And there is that most excellent rock wall in Tammy's pic again.

Here's the helianthamum this year blooming with the iris.

This garden bed has a small rock garden at the foremost area of the picture.
The rest is filled with fluffy pinks & purples that self seeded happily after I planted a
few. Soapwort, Penstemon Hirsutis and Dianthus just starting now.

This message was edited May 20, 2007 9:36 AM

Here's my shade garden that has alpines/rock garden plants like
dodecatheon, Arisaema sikokianum and all sorts of more common
shade lovelies.

I'll finish with a shot of my pond garden with the primula japonica's
in glorious bloom. (Sorry its a repeat I posted in another thread
on this Forum but I couldn't resist posting it again.)

Tam

Oops.... here it is

Tammy, the primula are so beautiful with the ferns among the rocks. I don't blame you a bit for posting twice! Makes me think that I need a small shade are,too. My rock garden is in full sun and that is somewhat limiting.

Jan - that spot is in full sun. Its the moist soil that does the trick.
The spring & pond ensure that soil is constantly moist. Its almost
boggy and the primula love that.

Tam

Tammy you have a wonderful garden!

June that is a gorgeous garden! It amazes me just how adaptable plants can be and the different methods it takes to adapt ones garden too the same plant given where one lives. I grow a few of those sames plants in our native soil that is what I would consider a clay loam. I only add a top dressing of gravel to keep the crown of some plants dry.

Tammy, your gardens are wonderful. I love the billowy pink and purples of the rock garden with the hand sculpture and the shady gardens are filled with plants I can only dream of and of course enjoy through your pictures. You have a wonderful estate.

I'll throw in a couple of pics of my gardens even though I know most here garden in a completely different climate and won't be able to utilize anything from them. I still think it's interesting to see how others adapt their gardens to accomodate certain types of plants.

That's a fabulous alpine bed!

Tammy, that shade rockery is stunning! Ferns and japanese primroses blend so nicely. And Ally, your rockery is spectacular! I wish I could incorporate cacti in mine! Mine might come close in another month....late June is probably my peak time.

Alley - WOW! Your rockery sure is gorgeous. Just stunning.

Tam

PS: You make me laugh calling my place an "estate". Its a 200yr old
farm that I'm not really farming. Chickens, cats and lots of plants. Just
not many that produce any food. LOL

Tam

Gram, just got back here and realized my post is missing a whole paragraph. I wanted to say I absolutley love the setting you have there next to the lake(yes that would qualify as a lake here in this part of the world) or as I'm sure you folks call is a pond. I very much like the rock walls that encircle a couple of your garden beds. I'm hoping to have something similar around a bed that my DH and myself are going to try and install this year. Truly a lovely spot to live and garden.

Tammy, as far as I'm concerned you have a rather grand estate. It is truly enchanting. I live and garden on .608 of an acre in blue collar suburbia. Given, it's in rural, blue collar suburbia, so I have animal rights and have a handful of chickens and various pets that my daughter tends. At this juncture she says she wants to be a vet... we shall see.

Thank you Galanthophile, I quite enjoy seeing your herbaceous border and the sinks posted here on the other threads. I'm afraid my herbaceous borders are sadly lacking. Our native soils need quite a bit of organic matter and additional water to look as lush as the one you've posted above.

Todd, I look forward to the pictures of your rockery.... and of course those from your recent excursion.

Last night things were taking way too long to up load so here is the other picture I was going to add... this is of the front rock garden that is still under construction. As you can see I've gotten some plants that are way too big for this area. I'll be digging up quite a few plants this year and planting smaller plants. This bed is 80' long and about 6' wide... wish it was as least another 2' wider.

Ally, I second the spectacular comment! Which cholla is that, O. imbricata? Very nice.

Todd, I may have some good news for you regarding cacti. I have many Escobaria vivipara, grown from seed from eastern South Dakota. I been overwinter them in pots, along with the rest of my potted material undercover in a hardware cloth covered 2ft 3ft x4ft box. One year I had the idea to insulate the sides with some extra peat bails I had. The box was situated on the slightest incline, and I had enough bails to do the three lower sides. During a late winter thaw, water from melting snow flowed into the box where it was dammed by the peat bails. The cacti were completely submerged, and sometime after the water re froze for the rest of the winter.

Come spring, when I discovered all this, I figured the worst. But there was absolutely no winter damage.

This is a really nice thread! Great idea.

Ally - another beautiful rockery. Very nice.

Jan - it sounds like you have a terrific place. I lived in town
before I got this place. My property was 60' x 120'. (Maybe 1/6 acre?)
I could not have any animals and was fast running out of space to plant.
Somedays I think I bit off too much with this property but I am
never bored here, that's for sure!

Tam