Your beds are nicely edged, with some appealing circular paths. Growing above the bricks are little green marigolds? It's some small plant. All with nice markers too. How could one possibly see dead violas amidst all those daylilies and in pictures that size?

It is all so beautiful! I am very glad you shared these pictures of your garden.

Good grief, it looks very nice. Your beds look lovely. I like your two dogs watching through the window. Very cute. And you have a huge garden. I so understand the need to reduce the size of the garden, but I am removing more iris than daylilies...but some daylilies are going. It's hard though, isn't it?
kay

There are advantages to small pictures, I suppose! I'm not sure why Photobucket is reducing them quite this small...something I am undoubtedly doing/not doing.

That's allyssum, Mantis. I always intend for it to be all the way around, but haven't made it yet. :) There's still 2/3 of a flat on the driveway. Good intentions. Last year I alternated the small creeping white zinnias with the allysum. Have a couple volunteer zinnias this year.

Thank you, Rita. High praise from someone with a wonderful garden and hardscaping I love!

It is tough, Kay. I have said for years that I would reduce, but I find now that I must. Oh well. At some point, I have to return my yard to something that someone else can care for...most likely very simple. When the time comes, I hope to move a number of things, but realistically, who knows.

I loved my walking tour through your garden. Rudy and Lucy are adorable (and great names, too -- I've had pets with the same names). The brick edging makes everything look so tidy.

I'm in the same boat as far as downsizing goes, but I think I've managed to reduce my daylilies by more than half (perhaps 400 now). If only you could clean the beds and weed once in the spring and call it good for the rest of the summer, I'd be happy to add thousands more.

So lovely, thanks for the tour! Beautiful gardens and cute pups.

Thank you for sharing your garden pics. Always a pleasure to see other forum members gardens.
Love the dogs in the window.

For Photobucket, you can check your Upload Options (Under the User Settings) and click on Customize Upload Options to see what size is checked. You can change the option to several options Photobucket has listed and then save your settings.

Julia

Rudy and Lucy are just too cute wondering what their mama is up to out there. Your gardens are beautiful, and I really enjoyed the tour. I especially liked the beds that have brick around them. I very much understand the need to downsize. I also have around 700 daylilies and I would like to reduce the number to 350, but it's very hard to decide which ones to move out. Many of mine need to go because the neighbor's trees put too much shade in my yard. And, as I get older, weeding that much is just too hard on the joints.

Debra

Your dogs are adorable. They look like such a sweet pair.
You garden looks fabulous--so neat and well organized. I love touring gardens. I sure understand the need to downsize. I'm going through the same thing. I don't have as many daylilies as you, but I have more than I can handle 500+ registered and then seedlings. I'd like to get down to 300 so I'm trying to eliminate ones that I don't "love", but it's not easy.
Val

great yard what part of Va are you in?

Really lovely garden and I understand the need to downsize we are all guilty of getting to much but then the next pretty bloom comes along and we just have to have it.
I to want to downsize but it's just so hard to do I keep saying I'm only going to keep the one's I really like and get rid of the rest but you know how that goes, the old well maybe I'll give it one more year and maybe I'll like it more.
Linda

Thank you, Julia. That sounds like the problem. I just went and moved it up a size; hopefully, that will fix it. You are so clever!

Well, hokierustywilliamsbu, I am in Stafford. My daughter is a Hokie (graduated a couple years ago).

The doggies are young and so quite the handful right now...especially the lab. But, they are sweet and amusing and I know will grow into wonderful dogs. Who needs that perfect wooden spoon that Lucy ate last night??

We garden folks seem to also share a love for animals (well, non-vermin-garden-wrecking-ones, that is).

Thanks so much, everyone. We all do seem to struggle with finding the right balance. It's all good, though...the whole journey from newbie to extreme collector to reality of what one truly can manage.

Plus, we can always come here and enjoy endless photos, right?