Hey, where are the photos of your yard??????

I love the hummers.You need butterfly bushes they love them,so do hummers.I have hostas they like thier flowers,they smell good too.I like ubusual plants.The more the merrier.

Hello neighbor,

I am growing firespike, firebursh, coral honeysuckle, red salvia, jatropha, panama rose, and some pineapple sage to attract hummingbirds,and butterflies. I had my first hummer come by this year. She seemed to like the firespike that was in bloom at the time. After it quit blooming she quit visiting.
Most of plants have only been planted for a little while so I am hoping that by next year's migrating season the little hummer will come back and hopefully a few more. The butterlies seem to really like the jatropha and the panama rose.

Marilyn

Like lindsey, I want to see pictures.
I enjoy growing containers plants and bonsais in my shade structure called a lath house.

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Ron

Ron, the lathe house is beautiful! I love that begonia. Is that Escargot? I wanted it so badly a few years ago, but of course, nobody had it locally, so I had to order some. Can't remember the outfit's name now, but they packaged badly and the plants looked awful when they arrived. Nothing survived.

Is there room for a chair or bench among the plants? I'd want to spend time sitting in the midst of all that, relaxing.

I see more hummers at my red pentas (not dwarf), turks'cap, red salvia, Crimson Trumpet Vine, shrimp plant and cypress vine, than any other flowering plants. The butterflies like zenias best also, butterfly bushes, pentas, cone flowers and lantana. I also plant host plants, any kind of parsley and fennel. For the Monarch I plant milk weed.

Did someone say " Gardeners "
My ear's perk up ! I grow Peonies, this will be the year
I'll find out if I'm good at it. At the moment they seem
to be coming up. Wish me luck!
Olgaflowers,

We moved to our "new" house two years ago. We now have over a dozen raised retaining-wall beds that I had to clear of grass and weeds and replanted with precious plants from my old place. I still have a lot to move up here yet. Had lots of roses, peonies, iris, etc., over 25 years of expanding the gardens and decreasing the lawn.

For the first time, DH is interested in making our new yard all our own, he said last night. He wants to get the raspberries moved up and wants to start a real veggie garden. I'll be most grateful for his help.

Today is the day I put in my veggie garden! I'm off work and the supplemental soil and compost is being delivered soon. (This is not a big garden, but we have other beds that need refreshing.)
Other than veggies and herbs, here are some of the hummer, bee and butterfly favorites; FIrebush, Coral honey suckle, confederate jasmine, Indigo spires, black & blue, cigar plant,salvia Greggi, Mexican oregano, lavendar.

I used to have Coral Vine (Queen's wreath) at my last house - and that was hands down the honey bee favorite.

Happy gardening!

My DH and I both love gardening. He even enjoys mowing! Go figure! We have such a variety. Impatients, periwinkles, begonias, geraniums, hydrangeas, hostas, passion flower, Swedish ivy, Wandering Jew, azaleas, daffodils, morning glories, gardenias, Elephant ears, roses--surely there are more, but we love this. Our yard-1.5 acres will look like a little slice of heaven. I have 2 compost piles I feed year round.

I love to garden. Raised flowers and vegetables when I lived at our old place, but just flowers here. Actually for 3 or 4 years, I've done very little, because my knee is so bad, I have a hard time walking, and I am worn out by the animals that I take care of in rehabbing, but this year, I am starting over, and have put in some new beds. Shrubs...lots of stuff I got at a plant swap last year, and tropicals. I also have several different salvias, daylilies, and antique roses that I grew from cuttings.

My main love tho, is waterlilies. I had at once time, 200 varieties. I just wore myself out, and have neglected them
when my knee went bad. Now I have much less, but still they will always be my favorite.

I have four old concrete water troughs that we moved here, and made into rustic water gardens. We moved two of them this year, into the flower beds and I am planting around them.

I love plumerias, brugmansias, anthuriums, crinums, various kinds of taro (elephant ears) and just about anything that will flower and take our late summer heat.

My computer is on dial up and just now got your pictures loaded. What a beautiful lathe house! I also love the begonia and the table made from rocks. Wonderful!!

Some of my favorites are heirloom tomatoes; Moon and Stars watermelon (don't really have the room here in this house, though), and pumpkins: Giant and Cinderella are my favorites...again no room for them here. ) : This year I want to grow some mini watermelons and cantelope. I increased my garden space a little. I also love snow peas, Rattlesnake beans, eggplant, okra, corn, sweet potatoes, etc...I should've bought a place with more garden space because when I retire I won't have any room for the garden I want.

My tree peony last spring.. I wish this winter would hurry up and end!!!!

and now I'm having a brain freeze what the yellow plant is next to it....a b c d e f g ...grrrrr

I grow just about everything! About the only plants I don't have are ones that require a lot of shade.

In my drought-tolerant perennials bed I have: crocosmia, red hot poker, jupiter's beard, russian sage, yucca, day lilies, Autumn Joy sedum, wild Oregon iris, columbine, heather, and a few others.

In the cutting bed: dahlias, columbine, brown-eyed susan, asters, roses, tulips, a few daffodils, grape hyacinth along the edge, snapdragons, gazania, gladiola, baby's breath...several others.

In the edible flowers bed: roses, borage, bee balm, nasturtiums, day lilies, violets, dianthus, calendula, marjoram, marigolds, tulips, sometimes sunflowers...

In the herb garden: rosemary, sage, thyme, oregano, marjoram, chives, mint, basil, tarragon (sometimes), lemon verbena (once in a while), parsley...

Vegetable garden changes all the time, but I usually grow tomatoes, peas, lettuce, kohlrabi, cucumbers, potatoes, corn, pumpkins, zucchini, beans, asparagus, radishes, squash. I've also grown canteloupe, watermelon, broccoli, swiss chard, and some others that I don't bother with any more.

Also on our property: 2 crabapple trees, 7 apple trees, 3 pear trees, 1 plum tree, grape vines, blueberry bushes, raspberries, strawberries, quince, currants.

And various other plants here and there: feather grass, blue fescue, yuccas, St. John's wort, periwinkle, lilacs, Japanese maples, rhodies, azaleas, snowcap, dusty miller, lithodora, too many other things to mention!!

Here's one butterflies like.

butterflies love lantana

this was a butterfly garden where I used to live. The digital camera I had back then wasn't very good as you can tell.

the vine in the foreground is a hummingbird vine aka cypress vine. It is usually loaded with tiny red flowers the hummers love. I must have taken this one before the flowers were in full bloom.
Linda

Thanks for all the photos,it's cold and rainy here in NY, my garden's still in hibernation!

Hi Marion! Just saw my first hummer of the season on Monday night. He was on my coral honeysuckle! The other plants that they always go to in my yard are the shrimp plants, purple porterweed, firespike, cape honeysuckle and red salvia. I've been moving lots of stuff around this spring. This will be my third summer in this house and the yard is starting to look good. I started with nothing! I've made some mistakes along the way but it's been fun. I moved the blue sky vine to a better spot and it's already putting out new growth and I totally removed a red passionvine that was threatening the entire neighborhood! fortunately it didn't sucker so I cut it back to the main stalk and moved it to a better location. Also tried transplanting some large starburst pentas, two huge porterweed and a large thryllis. I think the pentas and the thryllis will make it eventually but the porterweed could be lost. Everything gets so much bigger than I think it will. And faster too! Maybe I will learn that someday:)

OT - Marion - manature (Marcia) and abendwolke (Evelyn) are coming up to my place on Saturday and we are going to try to dig out a large camellia that I have and don't want. Evelyn is thrilled to give it a shot. Looking forward to meeting those two wonderful ladies!

~Betsy

I'm a gardener! In fact, I usually hang out on the Cottage Garden Forum. I also spend time on the Butterfly Garden and Carolina Gardening Forums when it's the season. I also blog about my garden.

Our garden is a NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat and a Certified Monarch Waystation. Our garden was started in 2005 when we built our house, so it's still emerging, expanding and getting rearranged. I envy the photos of the "mature" gardens.

Since I -have- to share my garden with deer, I focus on deer tolerant and drought tolerant perennials.

Cameron

Here is a link that might be useful: my gardening blog

Cameron, I just went to your blog. The pictures are beautiful. I love the snow scenes as much as I do the colorful ones.
I feel the same as you about wishing I had a "mature" garden. This will be my third spring here and after acquiring a Great Dane dog who has trampled over a lot of my garden work from the previous couple of years I am going to have a lot of do overs to deal with this year. It doesn't really matter that much though because I have one flower bed I had planned to redo completely anyway. I've moved the bird feeders and the bluebird house so I had to move some plants to accomodate that move. If I wasn't doing that I would be doing something else out there. This will be the first time I've had in years to actually have lots of time to spend out there and I'm looking forward to it.

Linda

Thanks Donna and marilyn.
Yes, that's an Escargot begonia. The table rock required all 4 of my sons to get it loaded in the back of my truck to haul it home from the fence row that I found it in. The larger half is still there. There is a settee and a bench in the lath house. Now, if I'd just have time to sit down....
Kathy, what variety of heirloom tomatoes do you like? Bigbaby and I have tried many varieties but always come back to the more modern ones.

Ron

msmarion, If I ever get to Florida again, I am for sure going to expect a tour of your yard. Gardening for and seeing gardens for birds and wildlife are at the top of my list of things to do.

My gardening is limited to small beds that I can manage from my scooter. On this 3/4 acre DH has prepared 9 island beds for me, plus the foundation planting area all around the house that is narrow enough for me to tend. All these areas are filled mostly with flowering shrubs and/or perennials. I have a few areas preserved for some annuals. My little gardens are filled with plantings that I choose for the birds, bees etc. In the 10 years we have been here we have also planted 15 trees that bear food and/or shelter for something. In 2006 our yard won the local garden club's "Garden of the year Award".

If the weather and condition of the yard are fit, I am outside puttering, zipping along on my scooter from bed to bed, weeding, clipping, rearranging, etc. etc. I have a little trailer that I pull with my scooter for tools, or a bucket, watering can, or a flat of plants. There is not enough time or energy for me to do all that I would like, but I keep trying. I know about and keep records of everything that goes on in my garden world. Geeze, I wish it was time to go out there right now and get down and dirty. There is about 6 weeks to go yet.

My favorite annual. The "Gazania"

Two kidney shaped beds in back
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The front island last spring
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pkguy - it's the perennial alyssum. I'm growing some from seed this year for my garden. I have a garden blog with my seedlings. Just had the snow removed from our roof last friday - my garden is now under an 8 foot snowbank. But my active imagination has new garden beds, square foot veggie gardens planned, a hot garden bed for the front, lots of new lavender, lupins on year 2 from seed that will be taking up permanent resident in sun/shade areas, dark purple millet grass in the hot bed. And new garden books too.

Here is a link that might be useful: Queensharbot