hello all -

what a wonderful thread - gives me hope for my neglected gardens. I've been away from gardening for several years due to illness but am determined this year to get back to the garden. Looked for familiar names over at DG but didn't see you all....glad to have found some names I recognize.

DH mowed my perennial beds to the ground the last two years plus drought took its toll with no supplemental watering but I poked around a bit this week and see some survivors: poppies, alliums, geraniums so far. This is my entrance garden a few years back:


Catherine

Welcome Cathrine. Hope you copntinue to send views of your garden.
There are many former DG'ers here.

Oh Catherine, What a beautiful picture. Wishing you continued health and happy gardening..

Catherine - what a beautiful garden entrance. Hope many more of the survivors will pop up as the weather warms up and you get back the garden that you had

I sort of know how you feel - one year, my kids were told to help me clean up the garden while I was gone and they dug out everything - including a clump of alstromeria. Those alstromerias never came back.

Hi Catherine, good to see you here! And glad you feel well enough to get back to your garden! My advise when looking out on so much that needs to be done: don't think of it as a monumental task, it's just a bunch of little jobs :-). It's such a satisfying feeling to look over a reclaimed patch of garden.

Neal: That is Sage ( no pun here ) advise about any of lifes huge tasks including emotional recovery.

indygardengal said:I had let my beds get weedy because of no mulching and no Preen..we had a lot of rain earlier and then went on vacation ..oh my I had 2 ft tall poke weed where I would swear there was none when I left home!!! I was so discouraged that I pouted a few days and then went to work..it took a while and especially the last AND biggest one I kept putting it off. Finally got it done and now looking back am really glad I did..It
Did wonders for my moral but was sure hard on my knees and back.

I love love looooooooove these! Can I come over, dig a couple up?

Just kidding, but I really do want these in my garden. How are they this year?

It is too early to tell exactly how they are but at least the lillies survived the winter. I can report most are growing nicely.

Veronica : Lilies are my concern too. I'm in the next zone north and Asiatics are just emerging. I like to keep track of what's missing so I can order replacements late in summer.

Progress continues, and the rewards have been uplifting.

ge1836 said:Veronica : Lilies are my concern too. I'm in the next zone north and Asiatics are just emerging. I like to keep track of what's missing so I can order replacements late in summer.

Good idea, Jo!!

Looking good, Neil!!!

I really like those dark tulips!

Thanks Veronica!

Dianne, those are 'Queen of the Night'. I love the way they produce multiple blooms per bulb in varying sizes, it's such a graceful, cottagy look to me.

The Pomponetts and Sunlover tulips are about to open so of course we are having 30 mph winds and Tstorms .

Love those fat buds about to pop!

Me too. These are peonie flowering tulips and the tops of the buds are so different.They would make a nice subject for sculpture or porcelain vase with celedon glaze.

Glad to have you back to gardening.

When we grew Queen of Night tulips years ago in CT., when had some yellow ones to go with them. Great combination. We have given up on lilies because of the red beetles.

We are thinking of scaling back a bit. Meanwhile we're planning a major new display bed for tree peonies. As planned it will require about 56' of amended bed, that's Holly's idea of scaling back.

My aching back. Thats a lot of turf but it should be beautiful when done and how satisfying to see in bloom.