Your old garden was simply stunning so I am sure you will make a new stunning garden at your new home. All that work though. I can't imagine starting over.

Beautiful!! Take a day at a time! Can you just order a load of compost and then use that around your pots until you have a plan? If you could just get all your lovelies safe for the winter you might feel better. Then All winter you and dream and plan.

Those are so beautiful, I love the Hosta gardens also, are those Painted Ferns? I know how you feel Karin, but my gardens were not that big or beautiful. We moved into this house 4 years ago and the yard was a blank slate. I was glad because it was all mine to do with what I wished.
I also painted the first two years, every single vacation has been a working one, including the one I am on now!
Take one day at a time and it will get done somehow.

Karin, my house needed cosmetics inside and an overhaul outside. I have MS which has set pretty rigid limits on what can be done at any one time, especially in the hot months. So, seven years later, although the inside is mostly finished, I am still working on the front yard. The side and back are still in dire need of attention. BUT, I learned a little patience when I might really want to do it all-right-this-very-dang-it-minute, and it all does come around and things do get done and there is beauty, too, in watching the garden *slowly* come to fruition.

My house and gardens are a work in progress, I doubt if I will ever finish. and I agree with the others, a day at a time ( with some time out to play too)

I have alot of the older registered daylilies that I will proubly never hybridize they are for around the house.Its an older 1940's cottage home so yeah going for the old english cottage look.
In fact I have alot of oldfashion plants and seeds that will be used around the house next year.

My home is a 1940's also and I have planted daylilies all around the house. I have a cottage style garden, because everything is acceptable. Nothing formal.


Karin, I will share my idea with you. I took pictures of the blank yard and printed them out in low resolution and drew what I wanted and where I wanted it. It helped a lot.

Susan, good idea.
(my house was built in 1940 )

Karin, You might do well to see about hiring a teenager to help you do the heavy stuff, such as digging or using the tiller(if you need) or just hauling soil and plants around the yard. You might ask around at a local nursery or new neighbors??? If time is against you getting this done before winter you might consider building a big berm, using a truck load of soil or compost and just heeling in your pots or plants. then you could start next spring putting everything where it needs to be. I don't know how bad cold it gets at your home, but daylilies put into a big mound of soil(I'd lay them over, not upright and not completely on their side), and then cover all of the lowerr part of the pot with the mulch or soil. I just really believe they would do fine. Ok, all you folks, speak up if this isn't a good idea. I certainly don't want to suggest something bad.

If you have big shrubs to plant, that would be where I would start, and with that you will need help. All of this is just ideas. Maybe some of the others will come up more. Mona

Thanks everyone for the kind comments and encouragement. I agree with Debra, I think the best way to handle all that needs to be handled is one day at a time. Tomorrow I'm going to go buy myself some alfalfa pellets and start planting a few of my real favorites as there is a spot that I can start planting. I have also found a few spots to start planting some of the lilium. The martagons will look good at the edge of the woods. The new house has a lot more sun and once I get over the shock of moving everything, including myself, I will forge ahead :thumbsup:It really killed me when I had to dig up my huge clump of VANILLA GORILLA The old rototiller has broken and can't be fixed so we are planning on going out this weekend to buy a new one. I'm very fortunate that my hubby likes to garden and does a lot of the heavy work for me because I know my back would never make it.
Susan, yes, those are painted ferns, I love painted ferns and they did very well in the shade gardens. I love ferns and grew many in the hosta garden, another favorite that did well is the hardy Maidenhair fern, so delicate looking yet so hardy. I love your idea about taking some photos of the areas and using them as a sort of template
Springcolor, I'm on the lookout to find a quantity of compost and will hope to use some of it to heel in some of the plants over the winter. As I am in zone 5 all the plants that don't get planted would benefit from some protection for sure. I will hope for good solid snow cover this year.
Mona, your idea of finding help is a great idea, I'm thinking of putitng an ad on Craig's list. My husband has a big backhoe up in NH and if he can bring it down to the new place in time it would prove very helpful in getting plants heeled in for the winter. I'll keep my fingers crossed. Life is just going to be crazy for awhile.........I have to plan my new kitchen and bathrooms also as they are totally gutted right now. When I go to sleep at night I think about how I would like to plant my gardens...... ......thanks again for all your support.

You are very

Good luck! When you have time keep us posted on your garden.

Karin, keep scout troops and volunteer organizations and church groups in mind, too, for garden help. Badges, and community service hours, and such can be earned pretty quickly in a garden. There are a few young men at my office who all started with us out of high school. A couple are getting close to COLLEGE graduation, now, which just throws me everytime I think about it. I have had arrangements with a few where I would pay for text books or--these were teenager boys, remember--traffic citations. They would exchange for labor at my home at one hour of work for every $10 paid on their behalf. A couple still come help just because they are good guys--these two.




Hopefully, an option like one of these will be workable in your new home.

I just stumbled onto this thread.
I like it.
I'm not about to hybridize anything.
I will propagate until I have my garden populated.
From seeds if necessary.
Then I will sit back and enjoy, digging and dividing as necessary, but otherwise only weeding as I age.

I like daylilies, asiatics, and irises because they do multiply, but digging and dividing is enough work for me!

lovemyhouse said:Me, either. Have given away some dozen over the last year for not performing in a way pleasing to me. But they are doing just fine in pleasing their new owners. Look for form--simple is best for me. Color--reds and purples, but have been given some bonuses on other colors that I would never have picked and that are beautiful keepers. Temperature tolerance--hot here even if NOT in a drought year. Name--have a range of B monster movie names like Dracula and Bela Lugosi. Have Oz names like A Little Fire, Scarecrow, space opera like Flash Gordon, and music like Crossfire Hurricane and Crystal Blue Persuastion names on the wish list.

Seeds might be fun later. Have only had a couple form seed pods in the last two years, so not anything to do right now.

Have at least a few perennials mixed in with all the daylilies and vice versa. Use some as memorials, like the Joshua Cullins daylily. Finally got it planted last weekend. Didn't realize the rocks were placed in the shape of a rough shield until I stepped back. Appropriate, so I left it.

House, I have to ask. Google didn't help me. "Rough Shield"??

Juli, thanks for this thread. I am loving the pictures and hope to have some to add in a week or so when my daylilies are in full swing.

Every time I think I'd like to give hybridizing a try, I wimp out. It sounds so exciting to create one's own hybrids. Maybe someday...

critter, Josh was on military leave from the Los Angeles Police Department when he was killed in Afghanistan. When putting down those rocks, I didn't realize until it was done and I stepped back that it formed the shape (roughly) of a shield or police badge. Someone else called it a wreath shape, which would be appropriate, too.

Jill, do you know about Tim Herringtons Oz series?? You wil have to look thru to find them, but he has some good ones for sure. Not that it i an issue up there, but he also breeds for rust resistance. A big plus!!
http://herringtondaylilygarden...
Debra, it does look like a shield. Perfect.
PS...the picture in my avatar is a seedling from Tims Halloween Green