Sounds wonderful. Get out your camera and take a few pictures for us.

JoAnn

Yes, photos are a must! It looks like someone's been doing quite a bit of shopping at Maryott's. :o)

Yes, lots of shopping at Maryotts. But I still need to do more shopping at Maryotts.

Just finished watering my newly planted Daylilies.

Sounds great! It is hard work though. Please do post pics.

Betsy

Lots of work and lots of money. I had not only the plants to order (and they were quite a bit) but I had to have the hardscape done, both in the front yard and the back.

Had those stacking block walls made for me, needed to buy topsoil to fill them and pay to have the dirt put in. The front yard partly sloped wasn't so bad for them but the one in the backyard is literally upstairs so the blocks and then the soil had to be carried by hand up a steep flight of stairs to get to the top part of my backyard.

This place has so many levels I loose track. Makes for a very interesting garden though.

I wish I could plant in the fall but with the florida evergreens and my zone that is impossible. Most of the growers I looked at down south are finished shipping for the year anyway.

I do see lots of ones on the Lily Auction being offered for fall planting but again, not for me because of my zone.

The two big farms I know ship thru the summer are Maryotts and Marietta. Since my yard is going to look like an advertisement come flower time for Maryotts intros, (I have so many, ordered some and received lots of others as bounus), I am wanting to look at some other hybriders stuff to add also.

One in particular in florida I just flipped for is http://ledgewoodgardens.com/
Ledgewood Gardens of intros by Gunda Abajian. Of course they are not shipping anymore this year.

Now when I go to any hybridzers site I see intros of theirs that I like. Some sites I see only a few that I want, others more. But this one is the exception. I could buy 90 percent of their intros, I just flipped for their stuff.

Going to the opposite extreme, upstate New York, I had also flipped for the intros of -
http://www.northcountrydaylilies.com/index.shtml
Melanie Mason and North Country Daylilies at Longlesson Farm. They are in zone 4 so you know these are going to be hardy and do well. Again, not shipping anymore for this year.

I am really tired of the garden projects. I have really done much more than I intended this year. My plan for now is to finish up the empty spots in the two rows done as I feel they need to be filled to finish at least that part and then wait and see so that I have time to decide what to do with the other two rows.

I want to do something with lates and I also want to add lots from the two daylily farms I mentioned so I am just going to take a step back and think on it for now.

I am thinking I could put Julie Newmar in the back row in one of the empty spots. Do you think it would look ok? The others are just regular shaped daylily flowers and Julie is so big and rather ususual looking.

Anyway I was looking at the pictures trying to pick something out but just couldn't decide on anything. I am on daylily overload. My brain is mush yesterday and today trying to decide and getting nowhere.

Long Shot from near the back of the garage of the backyard daylily garden. You can really see the fact that its a raised section by itself.

The daylilies to the right are a row of Winebery Candy put in from pots bought last fall. They have been blooming now for almost three weeks. Excuse the sticks, I tied them back when work was being done extending the lower block wall so that they would be out of the way.

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This is a shot of the same plateau daylily garden taken from the opposite end. There is a little section on top were I have planted Sunflowers for this year. The bricks and sticks are for me to figgure placement as I am lousey at this stuff.

My Daylilies are infested with mites. Do you have any suggestions on treating them?

YAY - pictures finally!! You've been teasing us - with all the fabulous DLs you've been buying I've been dying for pics of the garden. It's going to look fantastic next year!

Yes, but that was the point. I have been buying daylilies but the best I can show are some green scapes. No blooms really. Next year will be different.

That plateau is 26 feet long by 6 feet wide. There is no way I am going to get the last two rows (middle two) in this year.

The big grey retaining wall is my neighbors property line. No big surprise that my neighbors are uphill from me since my property goes uphill on a few different levels.

The newer looking not as high cinder block wall I had put in at the same time as the big plateu planter to make even ground. So the sunflowers are actually planted on my neighbors property, not mine but its the back of their garage and they never go there. The actually have there yard fenced (which you can see above) and have no access to that space.

The green leaves sneeking into the last picture on the left hand side are my tomato plants because that is were the veggie garden is.

newyorkrita, I think you have done a fantastic job and can see why you are tuckered out. We, of course will want to see these beauties in bloom...Ellie

Don't I wish they would all bloom but I will probably have to wait until next year.

I got more daylilies in the mail today so I am working on the project again.

Looks really nice. You could break up the rose with something that has a different kind of foliage and/or bloom season for variety's sake.

Got those pesky last spots done and am working on more rows since I have so many plants. I got my Maryotts order on Thursday and I figgured a would have a double fan of each and start working on the middle rows. But I have so many four and five fan plants (one order) that I am having to rethink some of the layout.

Oooooo, I love that stacked wall. I have five cubic yards of a compost soil blend coming on Monday and am just going to have it dumped in the corner of yard. Wouldn't I love a gorgeous raised bed like that! My first bed was a hard pan nightmare of double digging, gravel picking, by the bag amending exhaustion. I did lose six pounds though.

Here are my Russian Easter dayliles planted in a section of the backyard which is also on the top level about 30 feet from the big plateau planter. They are just down from the Strawberry Candies I bought from RR this spring.

Here is a far view of this area. The plateau planter is directly in back of me, or at least the end toward the garage is. You can see I am upstairs because you have to look down at my house.

Here I have planted most of the daylilies from Bettys Country Gardens. Row of Moonlit Masquerade in back row and Autumn wood in front row.

A view of this area from the alleyway at the far side of the garage.

This is being done at the fence that you can just see off in one of the pictures futher up this thread. The stone paver I need to dig level, then my birdbath fountain goes there. Bick edging needs to be set and then Mystical Rainbows get planted near bricks and I clump of something I have coming I will plant to the left of the paver stone inside the row of bricks. It really will look good after the mulch is on.

I just had this section of fence replaced with new and the blocks done holding the trees to make the planter that you can just see with straw on top. So any plants were were dug up or trampled in the work, which is a good excuse for a new daylily section.

Your garden is just gorgeous Rita! You've done so much planning and hard work this summer, I'm so glad to be able to finally see it. You must be proud of it all! Suzanne

the new dls look so happy---WOWI can't wait till spring pic!!!!

co

Have to take a new picture of the plateau but I did get quite a few more daylilies in there so that the middle two rows are starting to fill up.

I also planted some of the rest of the daylilies that I had with the last Maryotts order in an area of my front yard were I have bulb lilies and some old no ID daylilies. Decided to perk up the area some for more bloom next year.

Rita,

Your yard is beautiful! And what a lot of work for one season! I am jealous of the block walls... I have spent most of my money on the plants, so I have to settle for rock borders for now. The blocks finish yours off SO well!

I read in another one of your posts that you have a rose addiction as well. I am in exactly the same boat.. and have switched my interest to daylilies over the last few years, as not only do they require less care than the roses, but the fact that they are easy to share and easy to propigate adds a whole new dimension as well as social aspect to the garden.

Make yourself feel better when you are worn out and admiring your efforts.... think how worn out you would be if you had planted that many roses instead! Another big plus of the daylilies!!!

I love your selection... quite a few are plants that I got from Maryotts last year. The only suggestion I would make is ask for input for Kwanza Gold from people in your zone before you plant in the back row. I absolutely love mine, but it is on the short side for me, and if I planted it in the back row of a raised bed, I would never see it.

Happy planting, and I can't wait to see pics in bloom!

Julie

I really like my roses but there is a limit to how many rose gardens one can do that has nothing to do with space, It is simply a matter of how many roses do I want to care for. It's hot and humid here in the summer and everything needs to be sprayed on schedule. I hate the way roses look with even a little blackspot so I am very good at keeping to a tight spraying schedule. Plus I DID plant about 60 new roses this spring before I even started on the daylilies.

As far as the daylilies, I planted Kwanza Gold in the back row already. I figgure next year if some of the heights are not right, I will soon find out. Plus I love the quality of the plants (and bonuses) Maryotts sends. My yard next year is going to look like an advertisement for Maryotts, I have so many of his intros. I bought some and I received many more as bonus plants.

Julie, look at the Rose Galley to see pictures of some of my roses. Pictures posted on 8/04 and today 8/06.

Ok, now to the progress made in the backyard. Got lots done yesterday.

Here is the plateau planter garden with the other weeks Maryotts daylily order planted. The middle two rows are started. This was already done, not yesterdays project. I just hadn't had a chance to post the pics.

Looking the opposite way.

Longer view. Wineberry Candy daylilies showing in the left of the picture are now finished blooming.

Now a long shot standing next too the plateu looking at the side fence. Here I show the Wineberry Candy daylilies on the left that are now finished blooming. You can see part of the newly ceated garden by the end but you can't see the daylilies already in there from this angle. Brick edging along here is new, yesterdays project. Birdbath was added on a paver pad I leveled and sunk slightly yesterday.

From the alleyway in back of the garage. You can see the daylilies now.

The birdbath was put in there yesterday and brick edging was done here too. I am going to put Mystical Rainbow in front of the birdbath and a clump of whatever I decide off to the left inside the brick. The part thats just dirt in front of the bricks will be the grass path. Have to plant grass!

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Different angle showing more of the brick border. It was a lot more work than you might think.

There is some sedum, salvia and a shrub in the front of the garden in this picture, all of which I intend to relocate so that I can put more daylilies there.

And another angle.

The shrubs you see on the right, planted in the garden now done with the pavers are serviceberries. You can't tell from this angle but I actually have about five and a half feet depth there. In the very late fall or very early spring, I am going to move the shrubs back to the back of there along the concrete. I don't know why I planted them out in front now that they have grown bigger. Anyway, this will give me room for at least two rows of daylilies there and next year that is what I will do.

I want to plot over the winter but I want the second row to be all lates which will extend my season.

Ok, that little Birdbath Fountain garden is finially done.

Well before we had a freeze I thought I would show you how the plateau daylily garden looks now, late in fall.

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The second picture I am actually standing in it looking back. I can't believe I managed to get this whole thing planted this year. The daylilies look lush and green and have grown like crazy.

There are four rows with a path down the center of the four and then in back of the last row, there is a space were I planted bulbs for spring. Tulips and Daffodils. I also planted tulips and daffs up on top were the sunflowers are, in front of the sunflowers. In the spring I will put bulb lilies along those spots too.

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This is further along from the plateau which is my blueberry garden.

This is looking back from down by the blueberries.

This is the little preformed pond I put in this september. It is three feet wide and 12 inches deep. It is already really popular with the backyard birds and I also found a toad in there one day.

Looks fab! What a ton of hard work you did this year! Thank you for the photo journal! I can't wait to see your blooms next spring.

The next post I am going to start is going to be about the terraced garden I put in near my kitchen door. That was the last project of the year and had lots of snaffus. I have been writing a running commentary about it on the AHS e-mail robin.

I thought the plateau garden was a big project this summer but the terraces turned out to be an even bigger project.

I am so jealous! Your yard is really nice. Maybe next year I can get serious with mine.

Betsy

Betsy- I have been working on this yard since 2001. I mean seriously working on it. This year I had done lots of hardscape projects that I needed doing but just haven't done until this year. Plus the daylilies inspired me. Even so you might get the idea from reading the daylily forum that my yard is mostly daylilies but I can assure you that isn't so. I have so many bird and butterfly attracting things planted that I loose track of everything here. I also have lots of edible bush fruits, a big veggie garden that is mostly planted in tomatoes and over 150 roses.

If you look at the picture of the pond, that woodseyness in the backround is part of the shrub border that runs all along one side of my property line. The neighbors garage and driveway is in back of there but you can not see it except in the winter when all the leaves are down. In the summer it feels like you are at the woodlands edge. It took lots of work to get that effect and I haven't even counted all the shrubs planted in there.

Bumping this up per request, since someone asked to see your gardens.

Oh yes... I can't wait to see the beds this year...

This is absolutely breathtaking. The brick bed is fabulous. I noticed yoru daylilies look closer than eighteen inches apart. I was told to do that, so they look rather bare right now. Did I do the right thing? Even your grass is gorgeous. Our Florida grass is ugly, but can usually deal with the heat, and dogs don't make it brown. The pond is adorable. If I had your yard, forget about planting another thing, or working, I think it would be a full time job in and of itself. How do you find the time? this is a wonderland.

Yes, you did the right thing planhting 18 inches apart. My daylilies on the plateau pictures are too close but I was too impatient and hated the bare look so I spaced them close in mostly groups of three. I will have to enentually take out every other group.

This year I planted my daylilies 16 to 18 inches apart in the new daylily beds I made and I planted annuals in between for now to fill in. One area has a flat of Cosmos that I bought and planted between the daylilies.

IN the terraces gardens not pictured here I put lots and lots of zinnias in between the daylilies plus there are other perrenials in there too.

You would not believe the difference this spring from the pictures last summer. The view towards that fountain garden in back of the garage looks smashing with just the fact that the path is now green grass (hadden't seeded it yet in the pictures) and the daylilies that are growing at the base and around the fountain.

The daylily plateau, which is what was referred to as the brick planter, looks even better this spring. I need to get a chance to do some weeding on it and put more mulch but it really looks good.

The plateau is a pure daylily garden. Its going to be attention getting in daylily bloom season and then its just green the rest of the time.

Wow, I can't even imagine how hard you worked to do all that. Planting bare root daylilies, I have found out, is a lot of work, and then you did all that other planting and hardscaping yourself. Wow. I am trying to figure out plants taht I could plant between my daylilies that can stand our Florida summer. In the winter it is easier. I think you mentioned having a late daylily garden. I am having trouble finding lates for Florida. The heavens smiled on my daylilies today. It rained a good rain, just before I finished the last of my planting, the first time in weeks or maybe months!

Please forgive this bump but it was on page 67 next to last and I wanted to keep my saga of the backyard plateau and all the work that went into it on the forum.

So glad you bumped this thread, or I would
have missed the pics entirely.

I love the tiers. And the pond & fountain.

Mary

Yep! You surely can't comment on me doing a lot of work in the yard. Compared to yours, mine is a 5K next to a marathon! I like the formed blocks, but I love the stacked rock! I absolutely love rock anyway. DH doesn't see the charm..Too bad for him.

Your yard is beautiful, and I cannot wait to see the new pond with the rocks around it. Pictures Rita, Pictures!

kay

Here is the backyard showing the plateau as it looks today. You can see my tomatoes in my veggie garden and a section of the cosmos garden in front of them. Thats were I have most of the Phil Korth Daylilies.

The little quarter pie garden today that went up top in back of the terraces.

Beautiful planning, awesome results, Rita! I love your hardscaping that you did to your yard, back and front. It looks really well planned out and put together. With all the blooms next season, you will have an incredible view to see each day. Bet your neighbors are jealous with your yard. If not, they certainly should be, or else, it should spur them on to keep up the beauty of the neighborhood! Well done, Ms. Landscape Designer! LOL Jan G.

I heard my one nieghbor that does no gardening telling someone visiting them that the lady next door had an increadable garden. It made me feel good as I didn't think they had ever even noticed, not being gardeners themselves.

The down side of the multilevel yard is that one has to really work to get new garden beds in. But the up side is that the multilevels looks absilutely smashing. Much better than a garden all on one level.

Rita,

It is great to be able to see the work in progress pics as well as the one year old ones. You should be very proud of the end result!

Your neighbors can't help but enjoy your yard... even if they don't garden. It is absolutely beautiful! I was curious as to how much of your garden can be seen from the street. I know that in the new project pics, there was a sidewalk in the front. It wouldn't surprise me that if you can see quite a bit from the road, you will eventually have people driving by just to look.

There are a couple of houses in our area that do such a wonderful job with spring bulbs/azaleas that I go out of my way to drive by just to admire them, and I can see your yard being that kind of a show.

Good job!

Julie

There is alot of the front yard gardens that are seen from the street. The gardens come right up to the sidewalk and that stacked stone wall accross the complete front of the property is directly (immediately) off the sidewalk. You can stand on the sidewalk and touch much of the Florabundaville rose garden. You will also be able to stand on the sidewalk and touch the Westbourne daylilies planted out front on the other side.

I have a whole bunch of regular walkersby that stop and chat with me and always look to see whats new in the garden. The auxilary police ladies that patrol the park accross the street also often stop by to chat and galk.

Still with all this, one can not see any of the side yard rose garden, those people who have admired the front yard and then been invited in to see the rest were always amazed at all that is here.