Fantastic idea for a new bed. Recycle, I like that idea! Lovely, lovely view showing the placement of that bed in relation to the rest of the yard. I just love your stream and pond. I wish I could do a stream, I have always wanted one but just doesn't work in my setup.

Hope you do better with Dahlias than I did. I have tried for years and my Dahlias are always a disaster. Did not even get any this year, I quit with them. But I do love zinnias!

Gosh, that took some muscle didn't it? I know all about ripping out stuff for new beds!! :) It's looking great though and just look at all that room for new dl's!

My AW spireas are beginning to bloom now too. I also have one that is a pale pink, but can't remember the name of it. It doesn't get as large as the AW.
Jan

I know that took hours and hours of hard work, but the results will be stunning. Thanks for sharing the photos of your yard. It is truly beautiful. The placement of flower beds, stream and pond look just perfect together and so aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Good job!

Ann

Fabulous job Michelle, that was a lot of work! Love the stream and your other plants. Is that a Chinese Fan Palm I see back there? I have one of those too, boy they sure are slow growers, huh?

Good gosh...I'm hurting just thinking about all that work. But it will look wonderful when your seedlings start blooming. Your landscaping is beautiful! I especially love the water feature. And I could sure use that big clay pot...you're lucky you don't live next door because it might come up missing!
:-)
Kathy

Nice garden pics. Thanks for sharing.

Julia

Thanks for all the support! Now that I have a ton of sweat equity involved, I only need to do one more thing - find the edgers to keep the jasmine from taking over the bed again. I got the rest of the jasmine ripped out. Whew. Glad that is done! I'll take a picture of it when it is finished for follow-up.

Rita - I couldn't resist the Dahlias when I was in Oregon with my Mom. The guy was SO nice, and they were SO beautiful. I only got 5 + 2 bonus tubers to start. We'll see. I got them from Ray's Dahlias, and he called just this past week to see how they were doing here in my climate. I guess we are both excited to see how they do here! :o)

Jan- I guess the good news is, I can always rip out the rest (behind the tree) and create even MORE room. But maybe I'll leave that until next spring. :o) I really love my AW Sprireas. Beautiful foliage and wonderful little flowers that just make the garden glow. Nice for bushes!

Ann-Thanks for the nice comments! It has been about 3+ years now in the making... so everything is finally coming along to how I would like it. Sometimes I feel like I have a jungle (and the BF tells me so)... but that is kind of how I like it. :o)

Greenthumbfish - That palm is actually a Windmill Palm. Grows pretty fast considering it is a Palm. It has at least doubled its hight in 3 years. I have three of them, and they have done remarkably well considering some of the freezes we have had.

Kathy - I acually have TWO of those clay pots!! And you'd have to get licked to death by my big German Shepherd if you tried to take it!!

Well, I think I am finally done with this part of the bed. I ended up visiting Marietta Gardens in NC when I went to go see family this past weekend. Nothing was blooming, so no real pictures to show. But I did end up buying a few more plants from Faye! What a surprise, right?

Here is the finished (for now) bed.
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It looks really good. Just wait until the daylilies start growing. The other little signs (were I do not see a plant) are for the Dahlias?

Its not that Dahlias should not do well here. In fact there is a local Long Island Dahlia club but for some reason they are always a disaster for me when I try to grow them. My dad used to grow Dahlias here many years ago in the very same yard. So I know it can be done. Its just me :-((

Looking good, especially with the curved edging separating the jasmine. Good work, now don't forget to share more photos when the dl's have grown in and are blooming. :)
Jan

In continuance of the saga of the jasmine bed, I kept staring at all that room *filled* with JASMINE. So, I couldn't help myself, and I started ripping out the jasmine behind the tree. I am going to leave a small patch of it around the tree in an eye shape (since can't plant daylilies under a tree anyway). I REALLY needed to move some of my daylilies that are getting crowded out by my ever expanding KO roses. Plus, I have to have somewhere to put my new purchases, even though I PROMISED myself that I was not buying any more!

But how could I pass up a good deal on:

LIMEHOUSE BLUES
PICTURE IN PICTURE

??? :o)

Very nice.I love the water feature.

Jean

Oh yeah..
Rita - yep, those are the spots for the Dahlias. My first one finally popped up. The guy who sold me the dahlias is really nice and has been giving me very strict instructions on how to grow them properly. We'll see how it goes.

Thanks Jan,
I'll be sure to post photos as those babies mature. ;0P

Fairysoapgirl, why can't you plant daylilies under a tree? I just did that the other day. I sure don't remember hearing that before.

Mike

Mike,
I have found that the roots around the tree really pull all the water and nutrients away from the daylilies. In fact, this new bed will allow me to move some daylilies away from a tree. I noticed that the nitrogen defeciency is so great that the foliage this year is striped (light green leaves/dk green veins). I fixed it by feeding heavily with a 100% nitrogen (+ long term w/blood meal) fertilizer. Roses and heavy feeding large bushes will do the same thing.

Michelle, Everything looks FANTASTIC,and your water feature is gorgeous!! That new daylily bed is going look wonderful when your plants start to bloom. Be sure to post more pics as things start to fill in.

Linda

Thats so funny that you couldn't stand it and had to rip out more jasmine. I love your idea of keeping it around the tree. This way you have not gotten rid of all of it and still have some but have all that extra room for more daylilies.

I never thought there was much to growing Dahlias. Dig hole, plop tubers in and cover. Maybe thats why my Dahlia growing doesn't go so well.

OH KAY!! Yippeee!!! All that is left to do is plant a Clematis or Morning Glory on those trellis!!!!

All the large daylilies came from other places in the yard. Some were seedlings I had planted in random places, but some are named CVs that were so crowded together, you can't even notice that I moved anything! I only had one casualty - Matisse had a beautiful scape. First I broke off three of the mature buds. Then I broke off the whole friggin thing. Doh! I guess that is not so bad considering I moved 25 daylilies and about as many seedlings.

Check it out! (please ignore the dirt clod - working on a sprinkler head)
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Can you see my new delphiniums way back there in the back? I think you can only see the white one.
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I guess I am not really finished - I would like to put some plants in between the daylilies, and I have some Alyssum started... but not nearly enought to cover THIS bed. Alway more...

It looks great. Plus you can always move some more daylilies into there if you need to.

I love the way you did that section in the middle around the tree were you left the jasmine.

That looks great. You've sure put in lots of work on that bed, but it'll be beautiful once the dl's take off and begin to bloom, much prettier than just plain jasmine, right? Isn't it fun to rip out stuff and make room for more dl's? I want to see photos when you get some pretty blooms in there too.
Jan

I haven't had much time to hang out on the forums lately, so have missed tons and tons. I did not see this until today, and very much enjoyed seeing both your project and your lovely yard. What a project you have taken on, and with such lovely results!

I have to share the fact that you made me laugh, though. As I looked at the first pictures, I was thinking to myself..WOW, such restraint! If I had started that project and saw how wonderful it turned out in the first section, there would be no way that I wouldn't just keep going on the other side of the tree as well! Then I kept reading, and Lo and Behold...that's just what you did! Guess your restraint isn't so much better than mine after all! Who can resist more room for flowers when they see the way?

The end result is just gorgeous, and I am looking forward to seeing it in bloom!

Julie

Ok, so here are two blooms that showed up in the new bed!! Guess the transplants like it!

Here is Ava Gardner blooming right in the front of the bed:
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And my very first bloom ever on Neon Pink
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Don't you love it when a great plan come together? Give it some time and that entire area will light up the summer garden. Much better than an entire bed of jasmine.

Fairysoapgirl,
How did you (or whoever) build this water feature? What did you mulch these beds with, or is that your soil? I am enlarging a bed and won't be able to put in daylilies til late fall. So I figure I'll put in good soil and mulch for now, so it will at least look okay.

Lynn,
The water feature is a stream bed and pond dug out of the dirt, then layered with a liner protector and a very large rubber liner (made for ponds/streams). At the top of the stream bed, higher than the stream to create a waterfall effect, there is what is called a bio-falls box/waterfall. At the end of the pond there is a skimmer (that sucks the water back up with a pump). The water is plumbed underneath the stream bed, so that it goes back to the waterfall box... round and round it goes. On top of the liner, there is riverbed gravel, riverbed rocks and very large rocks to line the pond with.

This is very intensive work, not to even mention the plumbing part. If you have never done a pond/stream (with fill valves et al), I wouldn't make this my first project. You may want to hire someone to put it in for you. You can buy kits on-line if you're feeling industrius, but it is A TON of digging. Find someone who specializes in AquaScape (company name of a certian type of waterfall system that works great). If you live anywhere near Arlington, I would highly recommend (which those words do NOT come lightly out of my mouth - I am VERY picky, to the extreme) Prime Landscape. They didn't install my system, but have helped me trouble shoot and do clean outs. VERY, VERY patient, detail oriented and CAREFUL with and around my daylilies.

The beds are mulched with extra fine ground hard wood mulch. I use the fine ground because it degrades faster than the regular hardwood - which I found took all of the nitrogen from the soil. Now, when I mulch, especially if it is a new bed, I amend the soil with compost, then put down a 1"-2" layer of compost on the top, then put down blood meal (or any other 100% nitrogen fertilizer) and then put the mulch. The extra nitrogen helps to break down the bottom side of the mulch (good for the soil), and keeps the nitrogen in the soil, in the soil (for the plants).

Hope this helps,

Oh my gosh! Your landscaping is just fall-down gorgeous!!

What beautiful photos! And what hard work! Anything for daylilies, huh? Yeah, I understand. It is beautiful! I love your yard, and the water feature and are are so well done. Than you for allowing us to see that. (And I just knew more of the jasmine would be going when I saw the first picture with part of it gone :-)) Who needs it when you can have all those daylilies?
kay