What size is the property that you garden on??

Okay, y'all are really inspiring me with your beautiful garden pictures. Here's my favorite spot to drink a cool glass of ice tea and turn the pages of my favorite book. When it's cold (like it is now) I have to look at this to know winter is almost over. This was taken last summer in my back yard.

Another veiw.. kind of what I get to see outside my bedroom window.. sorry about the blurr...be about June though....

Flipflops: Nice little nook. Is that a pieris japonica to the right in the photo? Looks so healthy!

Yes FlipFlop, beautiful nook.

Blossombuddy, Your phlox are beautiful. Do you have a commercial garden?

No its private. Just one of those hobbies that ran away. We tried going commercial but the economy sucks out here and there are no jobs and no local market for it. Our county and town was also declared a federal disaster area about a year ago due to flooding so a lot of the area has suffered. It is also big headache between the retail tax issues and the nursery inspections. A royal paperwork nightmare.

I am hoping though that in our retirement we can get the hoophouse up and running and do annuals for a supplemental income.. . Its a pipe dream, but would be fun. Annuals are not as regulated as perennials in the sale barn.

I basically do a lot of trading and propagating of our own. Been doing that for about 25 years but the daylily passion is recent in the last 10.

This is what we can look like in the wet! That was a 5 " rain storm that fell in 4 hours last September. That is the pasture in the background but the gardens all were flooded as well.

I will get water up to my little "glorified" potting shed. But so far the tide has not come into it or the residence or our workshop. We have been told by inspections that we have one of the dry-est (why does that word "dry-est" look so wrong!!) crawlspaces around.

Here is my "glorified" potting shed. It is a small fiberglass green house 8x16 and amazing what I can put out of that little thing.

And more of my "jurassic" phlox. I do not know why but those phlox are doing pretty well here. They were never that big at the old home farm and we are on poor soil here. I just let them do their thing. They reseed readily and are marvelous for the butterflies and hummers.

In our back acreage we have a private nature preserve where we have some pretty unusual native plants there and a pretty unique ecosystem. We have been cataloging the vegatation and have listed close to 250 savanah plants that are native here. That in itself has been a huge undertaking trying to learn who is who out there. We have also a bog and are very populated at times with many kinds of frogs much to our pleasure!
We can tell when the ecosystem is working right and when it is off balance much by the frogs.

Where is your farm, Blossombuddy ?

We are in northeastern Illinois...

Hemophobic: Yes it's Pieris Japonica Scarlett O'Hara which I purchased at Lowe's about 10 or 12 years ago. It must like it's place in the garden because I never do anything to it. Wish everything I have planted was that way lol

Notmartha, I've seen your gardens in other threads...but they still never fail to blow me away. I just love that rampant, free-flowing cottage style. It's simply gorgeous.

I've got 9.2 hectares (about 22.6 acres) which is about what the smallest properties in the area are. In acres it's approximate apportionment is:

2.0 acres - swamp and natural swamp vegetation
4.5 acres - creek and natural riverine vegetation
8.0 acres - mangos
4.5 acres - paddock/grass
3.5 acres - House/garden/driveway.

BlossomBuddy, my Phlox reach 5 ft as well and we're of the same zone as you and have poor soil too here on the farm. I had Phlox when we lived in town and they never reached such heights there. I guess it's the zone and the soil. That was the one plant I didn't get a good pic of last year.
Susan105

We have a wild phlox here that just thrives and the domestic seem to love it here. The wild stuff is on gold sand. There is no top soil.. if you sneeze on it, you just dun blew my topsoil away.. that is how fragile the land is.

The phlox are pure heaven scent, well that is if you can smell them above the daylilies around here, but we sure do enjoy them.

My creeping phlox do very well to. Just wish the grass did not do better! Its war between those two.

Right now I am sooo looking forward to my daffs! They seem to enjoy my poor old flood plain here as well! I tried some up on one of the berms in back and am hoping for a show of naturalization there. But its only their first year so I have no clue what they will do there.

I think our whole lot is 150x40', minus the footprint of our house and driveway. It's not as tiny as some suburban lots, but it's not very big. :)

BLOSSOMBUDDY, I have 70 Gladiola bulbs on order and can't wait till they get here so I can plant them. I have to wait till April though before they get here. :-( Then I'll have to wait till around Aug & Sept before they bloom.

I have a suburban lot about 1/3 of an acre. I wish I had 20 acres. Most would be native and I'd probably garden on an acre or two. I just don't have enough privacy!

Gardner105, that is nifty! And what do you plan to do with them> put them in containers or direct in the garden or??

In 2007, I had lots of containers around my house. I had containers in the back on the patio, on the end of our side entry driveway and in the front. In the front, I had containers on the front porch and on the steps in front of the house.

It's an idea that I'm really thinking of repeating! :-)

A pic of the containers on the steps in front during late July 2007. The containers continue past what the eve sees in this pic and the next. I also had 7 containers on the porch that you aren't able to see in pic.



This message was edited Feb 26, 2009 6:43 PM

Another view, another pic of the above

Some of my containers on the front porch in late July 2007. The pots in front of the containers are plants that hadn't gotten planted yet.

One of the 4 containers that look alike on the porch. I had 3 other containers that were different plants (2 were Coralbells and the other was all Coleus)

An Orange Impatiens, blue/white Lobelia, 'Wizard Mixed' Coleus and Fuschia 'Gartenmeister Bonstedt'. One plant each in the 4 containers.




This message was edited Feb 26, 2009 7:14 PM

Nice containers Marilyn.

We have 41/2 acres, over 2 are woods if you count the sides of the property as well as the back 2 acres. We have iris beds in the old pony pasture, mostly medians & seedlings. A few non designed beeds near the house, they have been shaded out so have to figure out more shade plants, can't just depend on hosta which the deer murder. It is a long narrow property, old conservation land which was invaded by trees, bayberry & viburnum. The grass is old pasture grass which we mow, both otherwise neglect, not big on grass now that the kids & ponies are gone. Trail 250' crosses the property, used for riding, hiking & cross country ski. New England stone wall (which was there) along the road has daffodils on the road side. Looks great in bloom, but ugly as they go past. We're out back working with the iris anyway,

DRIEST!! LOL Thanks Washington!

As I am thumping self onforehead!!! DOY!

Sofonisba, I'm with you. I bought my house a couple years ago because I'd taken care of acre properties by myself before and I thought I wanted to avoid the hassle. Let me tell you, there's no hassle like inconsiderate neighbors that are right on top of you!! So, the next house I buy will be on WELL over an acre, I hope. The house can be tiny, but the land had better be HUGE!!

Thanks Willow!

Yup, tiny house, huge property. NO NEIGHBORS!

I do believe this is the best voting forum I've ever been in on.

I have owned 120 acres and less and beleive me it does not matter how big the land is, there is ALWAYS someone that can always be inconsiderate. I just love it when I am out in my fields and here gun shot going off and I am having to erradicate trespassers with guns from hunting on my land or otherwise violating me. It is no fun no matter how big the land and rude just seems to be the way of the world these days. People just think they can do as they please and anytime. Or picking up trash or dealing with stray livestock and bad dogs or people in all terrain vehicles that think they can go anywhere too. People just have no consideration period sometimes and most have no clue as to the balance of nature.

I have your typical city lot. I really have to get some of the pictures I have of my gardens off of negatives and onto disk. I have a few pictures from a few years ago after a hail storm though. Not much to look at though.

This one was taken earlier after the storm when through it's about late spring?

Some of the daffs... I soo look forward to putting these in a vase this spring!

BLOSSOMBUDDY, thank you. They're going in a new garden plot in front of the hay barn. As soon s it warms up enough I'm going to go out and dig up the sod and prep the ground.
Fabulous Daffs!!! I can't wait for mine to bloom, they're just now starting to emerge from the ground. YEAH, SPRING IS ON IT'S WAY!!!!
Fabulous pics everyone!
BBL
Susan105

BLOSSOMBUDDY: Those are beautiful Daffs. Mine are just about ready to bloom and should be in a couple of days. Here is a picture of some I cut and put on my kitchen table last spring.

Drumlin and Harper-totally agree that's why we bought our new house I didn't want to hear the neighbors....

Interesting the percent of people on this site that own > 1 acre of land. Almost half.

I am impressed with the creative people with balconies. Quite a bit of work.

Thanks guys, well sadly, winter is back so I will not be seeing my daffs for a few weeks yet.. ugh!

On those glads, you can grow them in containers.. I have done that and it works very well and saves me the lifting in the fall.

I also put all my bulbs in nursery cans anymore. I will heel the cans into the ground, but boy and howdy, does that make for great finding them later when the transplant and lift needs doing and then it also help keep the moles out.

Heres todays weather looking out my back door!

This time of year I end up forcing things to bloom and right now have some wood cuttings blossoming in the livingroom. C'mon down to the Cut Flowers and Floral Design forum and see what we are doing there!