Don't anyone dare tell me its TOO BUSY!



Just have FUN!

C'mon guys and gals!

I have been told in the past;..."There are gardeners and there are landscapers".

"Don't some of us kind of sort of combine the two?"

I'm hoping to wake up this forum and hope others will be interested in sharing your landscape ideas from simple to jungle to elegant concepts. I do agree that since this is a landscaping idea forum that we should have some sort of organization in our plans, and if it isn't apparent in your unique ideas, share with us your reasonings for why it is,........ and educate us!

Mine are not always apparent either and I will be happy to explain any confusions in my personal concepts and share them should anyone find them confusing or interesting.

Now you know!



Now you know things are gonna' get better in this picture. Its still early in the year.

well,.............anyways,..........It could be a fun forum!

Well,

I knew it was longshot and that this thread likely would'nt happen!

Thanks for looking!


auf Wiedersehen!

See ya around the pages!
David

David ...

I would love to learn how to design a garden. Mine just kind of happens.

I, too, hope this Forum can become active.

Smiles,
Lyn

David, I think your gardens are FANTASTIC!!!!

David, I love your driveway corner the most - the colours and textures really appeal to me.

I certainly do appreciate your kind comments,.....so.......things are getting better in my bohemian gardens and thought you might like seeing whats up!.

Come on now ; lets see what some of you are up to too if this thread is ever gonna float, and lets talk location, location, location for those gardens of yours together and share ideas together.

I really wont mind if someone says for instance;......"David,...I think that Coleus would also look good filling in that hole over there next to that Red blooming thing to the left in that second picture..."

...just a fun thought that might happen...and you know I'll have bohemian ideas for you too!

Lets talk gardening in the 'natural' with a tad of landscaping. Gardening first of course.........

I

David ...

I feel like I am growing a lot of roses in the midst of a weed patch. Altho' there is not one bloom or bud to be seen on any of the roses. On May 25th I dis-budded the whole garden when the rose curculios showed up. I'll keep it dis-budded until the end of June to keep them from breeding in my garden.

I garden on five levels and feel like I only have one bed complete. Everything else is in the "I'm workin' on it stage". I also have gobs of novice mistakes to fix, so my garden is not even close to a real garden.

A couple of shots before I dis-budded the gardens:

Backyard .. house pad level



All of the irises have to be re-sited. I thought they were dwarf bearded irises when I found them on top of the slope and moved them down to the house pad and planted them at the front of the borders. Ooops ! They turned out to be stunted tall bearded irises.

One of the street beds. The rose is not in full flush, but now has room to spread out since I made the deer fencing much larger. It sits in front of an almost vertical slope covered with variegated vinca planted back in the 60s by Mrs. J. There are some butterfly bushes in there along with some volunteer oak trees. No ... I haven't figured out how to get rid of the oaks, but they have to go.



This is part of the side yard on the house pad level above the rose in the last photo:



This is my favorite plant in that bed at the moment. Heuchera 'Amethyst Myst'



Smiles,
Lyn

What a great space!

Everything is so well placed while keeping a beautiful natural look. That is a pretty Huechera too.

David ...

I need to find a ground cover that can be walked on, can handle dry heat zone 8 and cold zone 8a to block the weeds. Grass simply takes too much water and care.

I have lousy soil and need to mulch to keep the moisture in the top inches of the soil. The mulch makes establishing a ground cover quite difficult. Should I forget about ground cover and think differently ?

I didn't show photos of the unfinished beds, but I know I needs some advice there, too.

I need to transplant several small roses that I planted when I first started the garden because I didn't know how to plant in glacier slurry and they are sited wrong and planted wrong. (I think I am going to put them in the woodshed bed after I remove the irises. I have no idea as to where to put the irises.)

I can add photos in another thread, if this is the proper place to ask for that kind of advice.

After I move the small roses out, and fix the grading in that bed, I'll need help figuring out what to put there. I do not want any more roses. It took me three days to dis-bud the garden and the roses were not in full flush. One of the beds I had planed for more roses is pretty empty.

I may know more than the average gardener about roses, but I don't know about other plants. It's quite honest to say I am very much the novice gardener.

For the rest of the summer, I won't be planting much because my day temps are in the mid 90s to low 100s and that is hard on transplants. I can shade them, but they will still be heat stressed. I'll be working to get everything weeded and mulched. So, I am kind of in the planning stage for what to add as far as adding plants for the next season.

Is this the forum to show those awful beds and landscape problems, from my point of view, to get help ?

Smiles,
Lyn

PS .. it has to have a "natural look" because I don't have time to create a more groomed look to the beds.

I see no problems at all in your gardens Lyn.

I have learned to selectively weed, and never preoccupy myself with perfection. You have done a beautiful job of doing the same concept it seems and the look is truly lovely.

I like the little tuffs of natural grass for instance growing around here and there in what is clearly a planned natural garden.

Beautiful to me!

I do plan like you a bit (I see your organization), yet will always have a natural looking garden.

I have a hard time imaging "The Garden of Eden" being structured and topiaried as in formal European settings from the past, or, worse yet, every shrub being trained into box shapes.
********************************

It's not a me thing, yet have to admit some of those high end HMO gated communities sure look pretty as You drive through!
Many of these folk don't actually garden of course on the whole, but their well paid group of groundskeepers do a great job for them. I wonder sometimes how many times a year some of these folk in this group; ever walk out on the beautiful grass they have paid well for;... to get to that Rose bush way over there to smell it?......................especially in Summer and here? (Maybe if its right outside the air conditioning and by the pool )

This is simply an instant rambling thought with humorous intent, and no disrespect to those who don't do actual gardening themselves and pay to have it done. You are blessed!

(Going out and clipping Roses for the bud vase does not count even if you paid for them. If you don't spray, fertilize, and touch the dirt yourself;...you are not a gardener and its flatly a fact. )

Message to any who may fit the demographic mentioned above in last statement and who are blessed:.........

"Now;...you get yourself out there and smell that Rose you paid good money for,...and saw way out there in that front yard as you pulled into your driveway. Do it tonight!!! :lol:"

David
**********************

Your gardens are very pretty and inviting Lynn.

David ...

>>>It's not a me thing, yet have to admit some of those high end HMO gated communities sure look pretty as You drive through!

I lived in one of those communities before I moved up here. This is my first in ground garden. All of my container plants were stolen except for the roses. So, I became a rose nut.

My photos were of the areas that are working. I didn't show the areas that are not coming together in any of the photos.

The beds were designed around traffic patterns and to break up the straight lines of the area. The roses were planted first because that is what I had. It's time to move beyond my comfort zone.

I am wondering if this is the right forum to get help going forward with other plants. I know I need help going forward.

>>>Your gardens are very pretty and inviting Lynn.

Thank you, but you need to see the rest of it ...

Smiles,
Lyn

I as an individual can only share my viewpoints as a friendly gardening neighbor as over the fence Lyn.

I do think that you should share your questions with other forums and especially the Cottage Garden forum. You have a cottage garden indeed.

Start a thread something like,..."Any ideas on how to help me achieve my cottage Garden dreams?"

Share your pictures and I'll be a watcher. You'll get response. Its a guarantee!

In the mean time. Show us pictures of the rest of your area, and we'll talk ideas either here or on your new thread with title of your choosing in Cottage Gardening.

Keep up the good works and it will be fun seeing your uncharted territories that will become your dream garden in time...

David
Just happened upon this thread because I saw it on my front page
I think part of the reason this forum is empty is too many stickies with no reply or little information that all say 47/51 months ago makes the house LOOK empty

Any I do like your stile and have seen your gardens in other forums

...And I do happen to be Bohemian or at least part my paternal Grandmother.
I guess it is all in the eye of the beholder , my husband calls it junky , but then he is Swedish

>>>>I as an individual can only share my viewpoints as a friendly gardening neighbor as over the fence Lyn.

That's all I am looking for, David. I know I need to research the plants to find out if they will work in my heat zone.

Planting time is over for the next several months as day temps are hovering around 100F in a dry climate with no summer rains. New plants would fry.

I, too, like your style. So, that's why I was trying to "pick your brains" ...

I'll post to the other forums with questions. For now, I am in maintenance mode and am too hot and tired to dream. But, I do dream.

Smiles,
Lyn

Lynn, I love your use of rocks for boarders to your paths. Your beds look so pretty. Mulch I have found makes for great paths. Easy to change if you change your mind, with the bonus of enriching the soil.

David, your gardens are perfect. My home decorating is bohemian but had not thought about my gardening style. Here is how I attacked an almost finished section of my yard.

I started with a basic idea for a newly shaded area, looked at the traffic pattern that was there and how to work with it or change it. Then I looked at the plants I had on hand. The summer of 2012 I mulched the first dog created path. My ideas began to form.


In the fall of 2012 I started with a shady unused area of yard. The neighbors seedling fir trees had grown 50-75 feet and had totally changed the area. I'd started with cardboard and covered then area a section at a time. Then I covered the cardboard with mulch and started creating paths. I used the cardboard method creating beds and paths until the entire area was grass and weed free. As the cardboard started to decompose I started dividing and moving plants into what I conceived as beds.


Because I have dogs I used the short wire fences to keep the dogs out of the new garden beds. Here is one bed started with "found plants" February 2013 and some just terraced area along the back fence where the cardboard/mulch process wasn't yet started (same time period).


One panel at a time was placed to hide our plastic storage sheds. We bought them as pairs but only installed one at a time over several week-ends. I divided and moved plants I had on hand. Attended a couple of plant swaps and picked up a sale plant or two.


At the end of June 2013 we had to have our filberts removed because of blight. All the woodland plants from that area were incorporated into the new beds. I worked on moving plants all last summer as I had time. All the large sword ferns, autumn and tassel ferns, native ginger and hellebores came from where the filberts had shaded. The branches from the downed filberts provided borders for the new woodland beds. The gates and last panels went up about this time also hiding our garden junk.



A little over a year this is what it looks like today. The dogs a pretty well trained and most of the wire fencing is back in storage. I preferred to just lay old filbert branches across the beds to keep the dogs from running through or playing in the beds. Lost a few and gained a few plants. A lot of the moved native sword ferns, ginger and sale hostas and other plants filled in rather fast.


The area is still evolving. Have lost a few plants to disease, an unseasonably cold snap last winter and maybe just moving too late in the season lady year. No weeds except for seedlings so is fairly easy upkeep so far. By next year all the plantings should be fairly mature. I feel this area is pretty much finished.

I am still working and planning the area opened up to the sun from the removal of the big old filberts. I'll save that for another time.

It's very beautiful Jewell! I wish I had some shade!

The shade wasn't by choice. What once was a sunny lot has been shaded out by thoughtless and long gone neighbors. The south side of our yard now has HUGE trees along the neighbors property line When you have lemons got to make lemonade

I'd be happy to have that much shade where I live. We have lots of trees, but none are in an area where I can put plants, thanks to the dogs and the deer.

What a change Jewell, and love the woodland garden look! I can just imagine sitting around a firepit in Winter!

Love what you've done.

I was really kidding with the title of this thread as I know my gardens are actually far from perfect. Thank You though!

Here are some current pictures here. My landscaping is all about pathways too Jewell!