Went Lily Crazy

llilyfan, what a pretty back yard!

llilyfan, love your backyard!

Lovely, isn't it!

and just think, this is what irishsoul has to look forward to in the next couple of years! Once the bug bites there is no turning back and companion plants will start to settle in and ..................

And if you work really hard at it, it will look as nice as Lilyfans! :)

I'm trying really hard. Just came in from more weeding. Here is one of my favorite garden areas (that is just one Verbena). I'm going to add the rest of the garden shots to the Perinnal Forum as soon as I figure out to add a Hyperlink.

Here is the whole front garden

I think you're done a really nice job, irishsoul. You know, your garden is what YOU make it. We all have different tastes and different outcomes, and then of course we all have our climactic variations to deal with in terms of what works well and what doesn't! Very pretty.

Thank you Steve. My taste is all over the place though. Can't wait to see pictures of your garden.

My tastes can be all over the place too. I am not one with neat, organized planting schemes. I kind of pop it in where I want it and there I am! Lemme see what pictures I can come up with....

Here are some daylilies "Barbara Mitchell" and "Persian Market". We have a regular driveway and then a small circle driveway and I made small and medium sized beds along it.

This bed is alongt he side of the house next to the garage and was just grass when we moved in in 2006. It is mostly spring bulbs, lots of daylilies and liliums, oh and I plopped in a butterfly bush a couple of years ago and it is taking off LOL. I planted some coneflowers last year next to the house. The daylilies are just starting to bloom and the liliums are mostly OT's and have are still budding out, though I do have some trumpets off to the side blooming. We have a gardenia bush but it is just sitting there and doesn't want to flower so it may get yanked :-)

Here's a view looking towards the street.

Some Asiatics and daylilies near the house

Hydrangea bed against the back porch

Daylily bed against the front of the house.

Here's a larger bed against the circlde drive in front. It just kept kinda - growing as I ran out of room and had to expand it. I am sure it will advance even more this fall and there won't be much of a yard there, LOL. I have everything in here - daffs, other spring bulbs, daylilies, all types of liliums, and other perennials such as phlox, salvia, sedum, crape myrtles and altheas, and even a hardy hibiscus here and there.

Here's my new hosta bed - only had five or six plants in it now but I have more coming soon to help fill it in.

Here's another view of the back

Here's another view of the front beds.

On my, how stunning. Your Orientals are at the same stage as mine. And, I'm so envious of your hydrangea and hostas. We have absolutely no shade in our yard. Will just have to look at yours and others pictures. Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful yard.

Another view from the front a few days ago

Thanks Irish. I was worried about the heat but you're right, it's not the heat that bothers them it is the sun. I had some in a sunny area and - well they are no longer!

Wow you guys!! Wow!! You guys gardens look so beautiful. I've been out weeding since 8:30 this morning and I'm pooped and I've not even got a tenth of what I need to get done.... I hate to say this, but I need it to dry up a bit, everything is still really quite wet. Oh well, I'm done for the day, time to hit the showers...

Oh yeah, my peony show has finally started. I'll get some pictures up later... I think it's Red Charm that popped first. :)

Diann

By the way, what a cute dog.

You are very talented and a master gardner. Hopefully, next year, everything will start to come together. A young garden can look very sparse until it matures.

Thanks Ticker. When you get a chance, send some water down this way. We sure could use some. We wait for hurricane season to come (as bad as that sounds) to get some really good showers. This area usually gets the tropical storm portion, and everything just blooms to the max then.

SteveFtWorth:

My my, you must own a brick company for all the pavers you have on your beds.... Last weekend I drug my DH around to most of the big name places looking at pavers and trying to decide which ones to get for my new beds.... The end result was I finally decided against them as I could bring in a lot more loads of soil for what they were going to cost me and I was only trying to line 250-300 feet of beds. (this isn't all of the beds I'm putting in this year.)

To all the others thanks for posting your pictures as the tour was wonderful and I didn't have to walk an inch.

I just love how everyone here at DG enjoys sharing their beautiful gardens.

Glad to hear all those in harms way are ok too.

Janet

Well Diann, I was out weeding and pulling grass and deadheading too. Actually it is easier to pull things when it is wet :-) At least your grass is not like the St Augustine (which we have) or Bermuda (which I had at my old house) grass we use here in the south......ever tried getting that out odf hard dry soil with its aggressive runners? LOL not fun!!

Thanks irish :-) Though you give me too much praise as I am far from a master gardener :-) there are so many on here that are more talented and with better knowledge and more creativity, but I read and learn more every year. I agree on young gardens looking sparse - a mistake I *always* make is I plant too much too close together to get a "dense" look - and when it matures it's overgrown and I end up thinning it out!! I am not as bad but still do it even now. I have to resist the temptation to fill in every little gap LOL

Well Janet you're right! We ended up ordering three pallets of them from Home Depot. They are expensive however, and while they can make a bed look more "finished", there is always somehting nice about just having a garden with a nice line separating sod and garden. I think your grass is better behaved than ours is however and today we were putting some of that black garden cloth under the pavers to keep the grass at bay as I am tired of pulling it out of the bed and between the pavers. I didn't have any borders here until a couple of months ago. I kind of like both looks - with and without. I couldn't imagine 300 feet of beds!!

You are right about the St Augustine grass! We got cinch bugs last year and ended up having to dig out all the sod and replace it. We decided on the Midnight Kentucky Blue Grass for the front yard. It was so beautiful all winter long with the Dark Blue/Green color. Then our expert (not so expert) in lawncare put down weed killer and preceded to kill our new grass. So we ended up firing them and had to reseed the whole yard all over again. It is just starting to come all the way back now with only a few sparse areas still visable.

Worse grass is Bahia. We are constantly removing the runners from the flower beds

Live and Learn.

Steve, Really great gardens! I think we have our version of St. Aug., it is called quack grass and spreads very vigorously by underground runners.

irishsoul, your gardens are beautiful, I always envy neat, organized gardens.....I call my style disorganized chaotic cottage! LOL

Irish, I agree on the Bahia. My sis had that put in when she first bought her house and it is a bear to get out of the beds. I thought I was so slick when I landscaped her house and put in weed fabric only to have the little spikes of grass just skewer right through it! i just couldn't believe it. I mean in one week too! Just incredible stuff! She also always fights the encroaching saw grass from the canal side.

Thanks Ililyfan. Yours are beautiful. I especially like the picture with the misty look after your rain. Very "dreamy" LOL. And oh so well kept.

I am still looking for Ticker's weeds she claims she's pulling

At least St Augustine is *relatively* easy to pull out - compared to Bermuda that is. Bermuda is the WORST in my limited experience. Bahia sounds like a true horror! LOL

Steve, I agree, when pulling grass it's better to have the ground be on the wetter side, however, I was after Creeping Charlie and that stuff is just insane. :) I have a nifty little garden tool that I like to use to take out stuff like that and it helps to have the ground a bit drier for it to work right. Maybe tomorrow.. :)

Diann

Oh man, I should take a shot of the weed pile for you tomorrow... LOL

Amazing, no matter where you live, there will always be problems with encroachment or invasion of some sort or another. You kind of feel like you are the only one having these problems. It is nice to know you are not alone. Fight on!

Thank you Llily: I absolutely love your cottage look! I keep trying for it, then my organized brain takes over and I end up with balanced. I just can't seem to brake away from it. When we were in Ireland last year, I was so looking forward to seeing beautiful Cottage Gardens. Much to our disappointment, we found very few. Majority was organized and more like English Gardens. They were very beautiful, but Cottage is so wonderfully colorful serene. Do you mind if I download your pictures? I would love to make them part of my screen saver.

Steve, I would also like to download a couple of yours if you don't mind.

Thanks so much,
Rhonda

Sure Rhonda, if you think them worthy :-) Have at it!

I have a lily blooming!!!! Mags gave me this at the Iowa Round-up. I think it's Tiny Sensation (I need to check the tag closer).

Very beautiful, Diann!!!! See, Tracey is passing her mark around. Very prolific and you can see it a mile away, don't you think?

I love the colors. They really POP!