Here is my rock fountain. View from my patio towards my screen porch. The birds love this fountain. My dog and grand-dog think it is their water bowl.

Love seeing all of these gorgeous gardens!

Here are more of the containers. The tomato plants are quite tall in the pots. Dragon Peppers and mini eggplants 🍆 looking good.

Harder to see but a bird built a nest in one of the front hanging baskets

gsciencechick Your BLT looks awesome. We are growing tomatoes too but they seem to mostly have become a buffet for the local neighborhood chipmunks :(

jmck_nc I love that fountain! It is awesome! Did you do that yourself or having it done? I really like the sound of moving water in a yard. Your cone flowers look great too. And the dogs are adorable :)

arcy_gw So pretty! Everything is so lush and full. I really like your bird house too!

IdaClaire your beds are beautiful! I love how the stone and brickwork defines the different spaces and how your lovely tree kind of creates a backdrop framing the garden. So nicely done!

We live in Seattle and the flowers are beautiful right now. My photography skills are not the best.

Another view of my back garden

These are all so gorgeous. Beagles, the pool looks wonderful.

My veggie garden is winding down-it is getting too hot here. Here is my latest harvest. The largest tomato is a Belgian Pink-my first time growing.

The Lucifer in DH’s “hummingbird garden” has finally started blooming.

The Rose of Sharon in the border of my lower garden. About 2 years ago I'd thought it was declining, and I pruned it back. It's now about 12 feet tall, and blooming enthusiastically! Unfortunately, it's not sterile, so I need to be vigilant about plucking volunteers.

This is a part of my walled garden off our MBR. Walled to keep the wild horses, deer, rabbits and snakes out (LOL)! There’s another section behind me and another off to the far left. June is our hottest month of the year here, and with temps every day from 94-106 degrees it’s difficult to keep things looking and feeling fresh! Our monsoon season starts soon, though, thank goodness!

* (edited to add) And the big tree you see there to the right is my Honey Locust. I’ve strung it with hundreds of tiny lights, as we love to sit out here after dark in the evenings. It’s magical!

Beautiful gardens across the country! Wouldn’t we all love to see all of these in person?

Here is my vegetable garden plus some sunflowers and zinnias mixed in. I am picking lots of tomatoes now and some cukes. The tall sunflower in back came up from seed dropped last year. It is huge.

This is from a few weeks ago when the daylilies and hydrangeas were at their peak.

Beagles, the rock fountain was made by my landscaper. I picked out the rock at the rock yard and he drilled it and installed the reservoir, surrounding rocks, etc.

I've gotten into growing dahlias over the past couple of years. Here are some from this year.

I've always gotten a lot of inspiration from pictures over the years, but I think it's only fair that we state from the beginning if we have a gardener who does the work and not us, other than watering.

I did something deliberately and went on strike regarding my beds. Long story but it was finally noticed and taken care of, but too late to plant anything else.

The grasshoppers were unbelievable, they ate everything including English Ivy, first time in 35 years.

We did have lots of corn on the cob and the usual garden veggies.

I've posted this picture before, all that's left are stems because of the grasshoppers. They didn't touch the Lavender.

Gone. Sorry if I sound like I'm angry because I am. I've put in years of blood, sweat and tears for my once beautiful beds, and my right arm is scarred beyond repair for nothing.

Oh Oakley, how incredibly sad to have grasshoppers decimate your entire garden! Even the ivy, OMG! I’m so sorry! You’re lavender looks lovely, though.

As for our gardens, we’ve designed, planted, cut and laid the flagstone, etc., and take care of everything ourselves. They’re not perfect by any means (LOL), but they’re ours and they make us happy.

Photos from here in Maine.

This photo is why I finally decided we can't do my screen project; the key to making it look good from outside was nice double wooden screen doors flanked by lights. From inside the porch, the screens would disappear so that'd be fine. But then I realized how much my double door entrance, albeit made of screen, would ruin this view:

Both here and at home, my default answer to planting is; Hyrdangea. And, to go with that, more Hydrangea.

Here is a side garden (neighbor painted house gray; it was red ... made me so happy).

Garden bed by "back" door

PS We do not do any of the gardening work. But I am still doing my own housework, in both places! I like doing it. Do I get any credit for that? : )

Gardens are almost at peak here in Buffalo, NY

Cottage garden

Hosta bed

I do all my own gardening, including design (for good or ill), execution, and upkeep. I also do a fair amount of propagation of plants, mostly hydrangeas. When my children were young I hired a gardening service to do spring cleanup in the garden and was so unhappy with the results, have never hired anyone again.

Bonnie I love a cottage garden! I have a list going for periennels I will order for a new cutting garden. We'll be planting it this fall. My landscape colors are always white, blue, purple and pink. I like to through some silver plants into the mix. It doesn't matter to me who does the gardens or the work, I enjoy the pics.

Oakley, could you not spray for the grasshoppers? That sounds like a plague or something!! Corn and green beans have just started here the last couple of weeks and you can always plan on tomatoes near July 4th, so lots of veggies still coming in. Last night I cooked a big pot of green beans, corn, tomatoes, cukes and cantaloupe. Made a small skillet of cornbread. Nothing like fresh veggies!

Kkay, I think I recall shots of your garden in re a wedding you hosted there? Just so lovely and lush and the color of your hydrangeas is exquisite.

Mtn, thank you for your kind words. Interestingly, this year the hydrangeas on that particular bush were pink! I don't do fertilizers, but I do prepare my own compost, so maybe that was responsible for the color change.

Our son got married in a tiny backyard wedding (in lieu of the big June wedding they had planned), but it was in March, and it was in his fiancee's parents' back yard. Nary a hydrangea to be had! But it was just a beautiful gathering.

Who was it who hosted a small wedding in a backyard this year?

Everyones gardens are so exquisite and so unique.

Oakley, very sorry to hear about your garden. So frustrating. We had a bunch of deer come in and eat our cone flowers right when they came into bloom and I was upset enough at that, I can't imagine having the whole garden decimated.

As to the gardener question -- the plants around the screen porch were planted by a gardener. But all of the landscaping around the pool (including most of the rocks up on the hill) were done by us (obviously the pool was put in professionally as were the very large rocks). We also mulch ourselves. But we have someone come in every week to weed, deadhead, feed the plants, and mow.