Here is one from last summer. It is pretty much a "do-it- yourself"
bed. The vine with the fuzzy seedheads is a clematis, the regale lilies come back each year, the tall airy one is verbena bonariensis (first year and am hoping it self seeded), in front are petunias (self-seeded) and annual salvia that self seeds. Nothing fancy just a country garden which is about all I do.

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Oh- that Sierra Azul nursery has stunning gardens. Many of those plants are more in the range of what I would actually be able to grow in my climate. Thanks for sharing.

gldno1- I think that's a beautiful combination of plants. I hope the Verbena reseeds too- it seems to be a beautiful addition. I've always meant to try it. Maybe this year.

Here are 3 from my gardens. I posted about the red bed and the patio garden in the cottage garden forum. As soon as the weather gets colder, I'll post about my new back bed.

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New back bed

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Redbed

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New Patio Bed

BTW - I have been to the Sierra Azul Nursery in Watsonville and they have WONDERFUL display gardens.

Here is a link that might be useful: Red Bed Thread on Cottage Garden Forum

I love looking at photos of everyone's gardens. So much beauty and inspiration, a great lift on a chilly winter day. Here are a handful of pics from my garden:

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Clematis 'Henryi,' and irises 'Superstition' and 'Liaison'

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Containers on front porch, with iris 'Edith Wolford'

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Daylilies 'Egyptian Spice' and 'Mary Todd'

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Bee on seedling aster

Laurel

Gottagarden- your red bed is absolutely stunning! Just gorgeous. You might want to check out the Dillon Garden in Ireland (Link below) she has a long red border on one side and a blue border on the other. Hot and Cool. It might give you some additional plant ideas (not that you 'need' them but it isn't about 'need'- it's about plant lust).

Here is a link that might be useful: Dillon Garden Photo Gallery

ahhh, a breath of spring. Thanks for the beautiful pictures. I've included a link to my 2006 garden.

Here is a link that might be useful: 2006 Garden

I don't have much time to linger now since my lunchhour is over, but I'll post the link to my albums for anyone that wants to look at photos.

I quickly scanned thru the photos above and they are gorgeous. Be back tonight when I get home from work.

Here is a link that might be useful: Monique's CT garden photos

Love this thread! such goodies to dream over --
I am excited about seeing those recent pics of Dillon's gardens too -- they're so tropical and different from her early years. I'd seen a few photos recently w/ the pool, etc., but had no idea she's totally re-vamped almost all of it -- incredibly tropical looking. Almost as good as going there in person.

Many thanks. And to see all these other fantastic combos -- GW folks are so generous with their ideas!!

As usual, Monique, stunning pictures. I don't know what you are better at - gardening or photography. You have such a wonderful eye for both.

Thanks to everyone for the photos here. Such a nice diversion on a January day!

:)
Dee

Hey Bindersbee, here's a little info about posting photos: you have to have the photos hosted somewhere else. I've noticed a lot of people use photobucket.com. Anyway, once you have the photo online somewhere, you can make an inline link to it here. You do that by writing tags like this, [img src="http://whateverdomain.com/somephoto.jpg";] except you need to replace the [] brackets with brackets (I can't write it with the real ones or it will interpret it as code).

Although we're all looking forward to spring, here's an example of some nice fall colors in my yard:
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By the way Bindersbee, I notice you're from Utah. You should start frequenting GW's new Utah Gardening forum! We'd love to have your voice there!

Steve

Steve, wonderful fall colors! I really like the double bench arbor too.

That arbor is a little dream I've had since we bought this place about six years ago. We had to, no GOT to, put in all the landscape ourselves and I finally got to the arbor about a year and a half ago. Built it myself, and it wasn't very hard to do! The hardest part was parting with the money -- redwood is pretty expensive.

I've got great ideas too . . . . but they usually don't get implemented. Congrats to you on making it happen.

Steve,

That's the arbor I've always wanted. My husband is pretty handy - did you make plans before building it, and, if so, did you save them and are you willing to share??

Great pictures everyone! Just what I needed on this rainy January day.

Marianne

Garden Gate - We put this in 1 year ago. Things are starting to fill in.
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Spring Time - Creeping Phlox
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Island Bed (sorry about the cars in the photo)
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Marianne,

To get the ideas for the arbor, I looked at a few books, but then I just made a quick sketch on paper (not architect's tools or any of that, just a freehand drawing) so I could count how many pieces of wood and how long they'd need to be. If you email me (through the "my page" link) I could send you some more photos so you'll see the sides. I could also go out and take a few detail shots of the joints and the angled cuts on the ends of the cross-pieces so you'll see how I put it together. It was pretty easy.

One of the handy books was Sunset's "Trellises and Arbors." The version I bought is linked below, but I believe a new edition is out now.

- Steve

Here is a link that might be useful: Trellises and Arbors

Beautiful pics! We really have some great gardeners on this forum. All the pics above are fantastic.

I wanted to say to laurelin I love how you put your iris together in the complimentary colors. I see so many iris beds all the different colors, and while most people like that, I prefer the way laurelin has done it in her first pic.

dkotchey, your pictures and beds are nbeautyful. I ike the springtime picture a lot. What are the light blue flowers on the left of the creeping phlox and above the spurge? Forget-me-nots? Thanks!

Here is a picture of a part of my garden in July.
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I very much enjoyed this touch of green and color in January.
Great thread!

Here are several albums broken down by the month or color scheme.
I too have a question about the myosotis. Hopefully they will email and let me know if that is a dwarf type. Mine is sprawling and Iike hers/his better.

Great pic also of the castor bean in the red garden!
Karen

Here is a link that might be useful: zone 5- pics of my gardens

Spring tulips (Monsella plus a few taller orange ones from the previous year!)

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Globemaster Alliums in June
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Daylilies (Elegant Candy)& Coneflowers (Sundown) in July

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Purple Sand Cherry and Clematis Comtesse de Bouchard

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Heuchera, Lungwort & Japanese Painted Fern

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Patio pots with houseplants, coleus, flowering maple, & datura - high summer and everything has gotten big.

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October shrubs & grasses

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This thread is great! Everyones pictures have given me great inspiration and wonderful ideas for my perennial border that I have been trying to redesign.

For those of you that asked, the myosotis/forget-me-nots are from Ferry Morse (I got them at Lowes) - The cultivar of Myosotis is Bluebird.

Leslie197, In your patio containers photo, what is the plant with the great textural leaves that is to the left of the flowering maple and behind the coleus and datura?

"Bluebird Forget-Me-Nots"

Ok. I'm going to attempt to post a picture. Bear in mind that my garden is way overplanted because I knew that I'd need to move a lot of plants when we finally tore out the back yard landscape and replaced it with what I want. The pink flowers in the perennial bed are Diascia 'Coral Canyon'- one of the best perennials ever for me. That whole mass started from one plant and it's just grown into a beautiful clump over time.

I'll have much better photos this season- we're in the middle of a total landscape overhaul.

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Dkotchey,
I wasn't sure which plant you mean, there are about a dozen houseplants in that grouping. The bluish strappy leaves are a type of succulent which I have had for over 10 years. I bought it without a tag & have no idea of the name. It grows out of a thick woody base about 8 inches high & about 3 inches in diameter with two woody branches (the 3rd died off) about 1 1/2 inches thick. The strappy leaves are felty feeling and fill up with water over the summer. I bring it into the house at the end of summer and don't water it until the leaves get flat again, about in March!

The dark green split leaf plant in the center back is a type of philodendron (or relative) which is also old. The base is as gnarled on the bottom 18 inches as the big-leafed ones you see in botanical gardens, probably 50 woody stems. I chop it back to almost nothing but wood when I bring it in each year. The limish green leafed plant is a Marguerite Sweet Potato Vine that I use to tie everything together (and hide the pot edges.) The small bit of red you see on the left is the bottom of a huge (5 ft tall) reddish hibiscus. I just winter over a cutting of this.

Thanks Leslie197, I should have been more specific on what I was looking at - It's the philodendron that caught me eye. I've never seen a split leaf type. I may need to find one of those for myself. Thanks for the info on the other plants too! That coleus is eye candy! I love that too. :)

Your gardens are totally inspirational. I searched on your posts and saw some other pictures - just beautiful!

Happy Gardening!

I llllllllllove this thread! Wonderful gardens and tons of inspirations here.
Here's 3 pics of mine; the first was taken in my yard last summer, the other two in Paris (France) during my holidays, in September.

lobelia, balloon flower, epimedium
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pennisetum, dahlia, verbena bonariensis, coreopsis, asclepias tuberosa (???)
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rudbeckia, salvia (or was agastache?), senecio cineraria
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Here is a link that might be useful: My photo album

cheerpeople . . .
Your larkspur is beautiful. Who is that adorable little kitten in the front? What is his name???

OK, I did promise....better late than never.

First, a new yellow and blue border

early May

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June

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July

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One more........

The woodland garden in its early stages:

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Wow David! I guess you don't have to feel bad about leaving your old garden. The new place looks magnificent.

Hi David, Thanks for the peak at your new gardens, the site looks fantastic! I'm sure you are having great fun creating your own little paradise... I envy you being able to create a totally new space, as we're just busy working to maintain our present one, being that the beds are all defined, and the spaces don't change much. Things always do move around a little bit, however, and there are always new plants to try out. :)

John

Your garden looks great, David! I want to know if you have a deer problem and if so, if you have your garden fenced or how you deal with it.

I am trying to create a garden using plants they supposedly don't like, but there's always a grey area (and no shortage of adventurous deer!).

Marianne

Hi John and Jackie and Marianne! Yes M, indeed, I do have deer problems. This is 4 acres of old growth woods and 2 additional of sun, in the suburban countryside, and with a beautiful streamcourse in the back -- so of course, deer are a problem. They are worst in the winter, when they cause a fair amount of damage to shrubs -- anything not sprayed gets nibbled. Thus far I have resorted to sprays because I have not had the time and energy (or money) to put up the nearly 1/2 mile of fence needed to surround what I would want to. Surprisingly, the deer have been less of a problem in the summer than I expected (as you can tell from my blooming daylilies -- there would be none if the deer were a big problem). I have a golden retriever and a cat, both outside a fair amt in the summer, and I think they help. There is just an awful lot of potential browse around, and I think there is so much potential food that helps too. I did have a major problem with roses I planted last summer- nearly all got badly browsed. So I am going to try selective spraying this spring to see if I can get the deer trained off them.

Yes, jackie, you might think from these pics that I would not miss my old garden. But I DO, in fact, fairly badly. My old garden had a level of maturity and intimacy that will be slow coming on a big site like this -- maybe never, who knows. Part of the problem is that there is so much bed spece. The blue and yellow border I have shown is the only one that has any sense of fullness yet, and there are lots of changes needed there. So we shall see how it all shakes out. Often I wish I had a much smaller project to work on. And that's what I think will have to happen -- not bite off the whole thing at once. Oh no, most of the woods are woods and will stay just that way. That's half the point (or more) of having a site like this. Achieving a sense of intimacy is much harder and different on a big site too. And for me, it is one of the essences of having a garden.

I will post some more as I have a little more time.

David, I have nowhere near the experience that you have, and nowhere near the property. But you brought up a point that I have sworn by since I've moved to my current house with it's almost-acre.

When I was growing up, we lived in a rowhouse in the city, with a postage-stamp-sized yard. My mother gardened, and if she stuck a dozen daffodil bulbs in a spot, they looked lush and full and gorgeous. When I stick a dozen daffodils anywhere on my property, they look sad and lonely and... underwhelming, lol!

It's taken some time for me to adjust to having (for me) a big yard, and it also took me awhile to realize that it would take lots of time to achieve what I wanted to acheive. While I am thrilled to have so much land (again, for me), I find myself wishing sometimes that I had less, because I don't feel I've made an impact yet with my garden. I have areas and work on them, but I have to figure out how to tie them together.

So, just commiserating with you, lol! (Although I also would kill for 6 acres, lol!) From what I've seen of your last garden, I think it won't take you all that long to get back to what you want again.

:)
Dee

Hey david,

how'd you deal with your woodchuck problem? Your garden looks lovery BTW.

Well, jeez David, what took you so long to share a couple of pictures? With any luck we'll be able to persuade you MI folks to have IU5 in 2008 so I'll be able to come and see this all in person. I know you have alot more "material" so don't hold back...lol.

Sue

After seeing all of these beautiful pictures, I'm almost afraid to show any of my work in progress! But what the heck, here goes.

My front bed--which will be expanded this spring--as it looked when it was newly planted and mulched in spring 06:

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Next, part of that same front bed, later in the summer. (It doesn't look like this anymore--I switched up a lot of stuff this fall.)

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Part of my back bed... this is what you see when you round the corner of the house on your way to the garage. Based on the fact that the cerinthe and red beets are out, and the purple SPV has filled in, I'm thinking that pic was from late September. The part of the bed that you see here went through at least 5 different incarnations this year:

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A detail of the 'Hopi Red Dye' amaranth falling through the iris foliage... blue/red combos have such tension, and this one just knocked me out. I was sorry when I had to finally cut back the amaranth:

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Last but not least, part of my "driveway strip" bed in June. The fern-like foliage beside the hakonechloa is a type of centaurea that I just couldn't fall in love with and yanked out. In July, I got a great deal on a tall urn and put that in the place of my potted mother-in-law's tongue. This spring, I plan to replace that chainlink fence with a taller privacy fence.

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I am so inspired by all the photos you have shared. I don't have any to share yet, but I will share a website for Gordon Hayward, whose garden is more or less what I would like to create on my own piece of land.

Marianne

Here is a link that might be useful: Gordon Hayward's gardens

Wow! Nice gardens everyone. Certainly a picker-upper on a day when the cats and dogs don't even want to go outside.

Here's a couple of shots from our gardens in eastern Canada.

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David, can you tell me what you use to spray to deter the deers? Do you know if it's OK for Monarchs and such? I've just begun to attract them to our gardens and don't want to deter them. They actually used our property for their migration south this year!

Great thread! I've got spring fever and I'm busy planning what to change/add next year. Gottagarden was my inspiration to change our front flower bed into an annual spotlight that I will change color schemes every year. this year is going to be a red garden inspired by her lovely red border. Here are a few pics of our garden that I like.

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This is so nice to view - snow is blowing outside and it's subzero. Thanks for starting this thread - so many great photos! Here are a few of my gardens:
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Jan- is that your garden? It's stunning! Could you tell me what the clump of blue flowers is in the center of the 2nd photo from the bottom. I can't quite make out the flower shape well enough to tell. Campanula? Blue Flax?

I also LOVE The Rose covered arch in the above post. Just gorgeous!

Yes, thank you, they are my gardens. It is blue flax - does very well here and is one of my favorites. I especially like it's vase-like shape and the fact that it blooms a long time.

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wow, what inpiration. We moved into our new house on 2 acres with little to no landscaping. Needless to say we have lots to do so I love this thread for ideas! I have been keeping a powerpoint show going on my computer of nice ideas and I got tons from here! Here are a couple of my favourite spots I managed to accomplish over the last two years:

My bird sanctuary created this summer (only the hydrangea and blue spruce were there before):

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Some fall colour:

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In the blues:

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Much more to go!

Sharon

Sharon,

Your garden and yard look so relaxing and beautiful! You remind me why I sometimes long to live in the East, where you can have a thick hardwood forest as the backdrop to a gorgeous backyard. I tried to get my wife to agree to a job offer I had in upstate NY a year ago, but I just couldn't get her comfortable with moving so far from home. Too bad for us!

Steve

Steve, thanks, but your might not say that when it's -18C outside and a windchill of -30C!

I know, I know. I actually lived in Ontario for a couple years in the 80s. Spent one winter up in North Bay. I sure was glad when spring came! Anyway, I'm in love with the entire Great Lakes region. It's such beautiful country! Maybe I could get my fix if we just took a summer vacation there every couple years. :-)

We do like the amount of sunshine we get here in Utah. And our coldest night this winter was -7 F. That's the worst we've had in the six years since moving here. Not bad, I suppose.

David_5311 (or someone else who knows) please can you tell me what plant is the yellow one on the right of this picture? Thanx, and congratulations for your stunning border!!
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Phlomis russeliana