Geez Rita, I wish I had your energy. LOL. Your gardens were spectacular last year. I'm looking forward to more pictures this year. Also of your fish pond.

Dot

The gardens just keep getting better and beter each year. I stsarted years ago with lots of fruiting shrubs (for people) and the kinds for attracting backyard songbirds. After awhile spring was stunning here with all sorts of shrubs and dwarf trees blooming. I remember looking things here in spring bloom and thinking it was paradise. But it settled down to very little bloom in the summer. Thats when I decided to add summer bloomers and started on the roses and adding lily bulbs, catmints and Agastaches. Then came the daylily crazies. By this time I had used up all the level places to plant and really had to get creative if I wanted more plants. And I wanted more plants, especially daylilies. So the terraced gardens started to appear. Adding the roses and daylilies and doing the terrace work was what really started to put the garden over the top. I could never have so many things growing here, nor would it look anywhere near as good, if my proberty was level. Multi-levels require more work to get set up but the results are well worth it.

I had to reorder the hummingbird mints (Agastaches) for the third tier of the terraces garden as stupid me mulched them and they died over winter. The ones in the front yard have been here for three years now. I never mulch them and they are fine. They need good drainage and they do not want they roots to stay wet in the winter or they die. My fault, I meant to get the mulched leaves off but did not do it. Oh well.

I was just out there looking at terraces 1 & 2 of the teraces garden and they look so dull and depressing. After all those lovely pictures of spring projects and all the daffs blooming in other gardens posted, I really see the need even more for spring color. Especially there as it's right near my kitchen door.

Of course, by the time I am posting pictures of it later in the year, it will look great I promise. Last year I relied heavily on annuals there and looks like thats going to be the case again this year.

Terrace one has afew things growing besides daylilies which are roses, catmint, ladyfern and sedums. Terrace two has two sedums also but the rest is daylilies and empty spots. I never filled up the empty spots last year and moved the low growing catmints in terrace two last fall. The blanketflowers died. So all my extra color is gone.

It needs alot more work :-(( but I did order some Butterfly Weed to be added to terrace two.

Rita, Can you grow helebores in your area? There are some really pretty ones out these days, and they are wonderful for color right now. The leaf form is a good contrast with daylily foilage as well. Maybe something to consider for your empty spots--I think they would look lovely on your terrace in early spring. They and my hardy primroses are my first motivators to get my camera out in the spring. These aren't the best pics as my photo ops have been few and far between in this yucky spring, but gives you the idea!

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Can't wait to see the final outcome of all of your hard work!

I don't know if I can or not. Its a plant I know absolutely nothing about. In spite of the fact of a pretty garden here, I actually do not grow anything fussy or difficult. Easy to care for and does well, or I don't have it. There is actually a long list of plants I never had years ago. I tried many new to me and most were a bust and did not thrive for me. But when I find something that does, I tend to repeat it. Like the hundreds of daylilies :-)) Catmint turned out to be like that for me.

Course, there are the about 200 roses but they really are shrubs and besides the roses, I have many, many shrubs.

Well, at least I got all my annuals put in the terraces gardens. You would think they would be finished but I had ordered Milkweed at least two months ago to put in there and it still has not arrived. So its almost fished but its not finished :-((