Here is a tour of Kate's wonderful nursery, Labor of Love Landscaping http://www.labouroflovelandsca... . Thank you so much Kate for sharing your creativity in gardening. valleylynn

And a few more

My Gosh!!!! You don't love Sedums do you?? that is amazing and I love it. You did a great job.

WOW - I'm speechless! I assume you sell them? They are so beautiful around the base of your tree like that. The beds are so nice and high - easy to work in. Spectacular! How many raised beds of them do you have?

Kate I am hyperventilating looking at your photos. I have already found your web site. Do I have your permission to post a link here? Do you know you can post a clickable link in your signature line at the bottom of your post?
All I can say is wow, and how fortunate we are to have you join us. I love the way you have set your beds up, what a great way to do it.
Do you ever cover your beds, or are they continually exposed to the elements?
How do you deal with pests in the beds (squirrels, cats, bird and insects etc.)?
Do you use ground cloth under your mulched pathways?
Also, can I move this to the Tour of Nurseries and Gardens Forum. We would love to see more pictures, even close ups of semps, sedum, companion plants and any outdoor art, anything of interests to gardeners. It would be a mini tour of your place.

Yes, please please post a link - I want to visit too!

http://www.labouroflovelandsca... Here it is. Kate, I am going to move this over so everyone will be able to find it. It is just way to good to lose in a thread. Please add more when you have time. We are so happy to see what you are doing. We would love to see some of your landscaping projects if you are free to share those.

Kate, Charleen and Chris, hope you were able to find this after I moved it?

Wow, It was like out ofbody experience. That was mind Boggling. Yep, I found it and when I enlarged them, Wow!!!!
Isn't it beautiful Lynn and Chris. My gosh! I still can't believe it and so neat and tidy. May have to do something like that.
Charleen

I found it and have been all over my keyboard. This is awesome and I love those beds. That tree is gorgeous with the semps under it. I assume that they grow okay in part shade then. What a wonderful place and please, please do share some more photos. We all have an adiction to semps, sedums, etc.....
Linda

valleylynn said:Kate I am hyperventilating looking at your photos. I have already found your web site. Do I have your permission to post a link here? Do you know you can post a clickable link in your signature line at the bottom of your post?
All I can say is wow, and how fortunate we are to have you join us. I love the way you have set your beds up, what a great way to do it.
Do you ever cover your beds, or are they continually exposed to the elements?

I cover them in the Fall with 80% shadecloth - but only to keep BILLIONS of black locust leaves (the tree with the semps around the base) off. Before I thought to do this I spent 2 weeks every Spring picking the3m out one by one. Tedious beyond belief.

How do you deal with pests in the beds (squirrels, cats, bird and insects etc.)?

So far, the only pests I've had to deal with are moles and voles who don't do much damage because the plants root so shallowly. Every once in a while a dog will chase a squirrel or chipmunk up the tree and do a bit of damage, but they are easily replanted.

Do you use ground cloth under your mulched pathways?

No ground cloth - don't get me started on that subject. I've ripped out hundreds of yards of the stuff on jobs and it always makes more work than the problems it solves. (terrible grammar, but you get the idea)

Also, can I move this to the Tour of Nurseries and Gardens Forum. We would love to see more pictures, even close ups of semps, sedum, companion plants and any outdoor art, anything of interests to gardeners. It would be a mini tour of your place.

Yes, of course you may put it where you think it fits best. Prepare for me to post photos - have hundreds taken at various times during the plus-or-minus 90 day growing season (Zone 3A)

If any of your members would like to visit, my place is open to the public every day during the season. BTW, the Brit spelling of 'labour' is because the American spelling is a common last name in my area.

So Kate, how do you keep weeds from growing up through the mulched paths? I love the way that looks. Right now I am mowing around all my beds (not nearly as many as you have).
Wow, zone 3, the semps are even hardier than I though. What are your summer temps like for highs?
We are prepared, bring on the photos.

Looking forward to the photos, we love pictures. Especially those beauties..

Very nice collection Kate - those must be well established plants to have formed such extensive clumps. I'm off to check out your website!

Spent a bunch of time on your website Kate, and what a great site it is! I see in your post above that you have hundreds of pictures. Bring em on - we love pictures!

Oh, and I haven't welcomed you yet - so welcome and so glad you've joined us!

Me Neither, I forgot to Welcome you. We love your plants and give us wonderful ideas on raised beds too.

Apologies - I forgot about this thread. On to answering questions with some expanding on the whys of it all:

No, I don't use any sort of weed barrier, but I do put down fresh mulch every year. Every third year or so, I remove the composted mulch (using it to fill holes in the field from digging clumps of plants) And then put the fresh mulch down. That way, I don't lose the 16" height of the raised beds.

Since the huge tree with the semp planting around it's base is a black locust, I do put shadecloth over the beds every fall. Before I thought of this, I spent (literally) weeks picking hundreds of thousands of tiny leaves out of the rosettes - often with tweezers. I remove the tall labels and lay them on each clump. but leave small label sticks in each clump in case the signage become disarranged. I remove the shadecloth as soon in the spring as the snow melts enough to take it off. So the beds are exposed to everything EXCEPT the falling leaves, as the shadecloth offers no insulating effects.

I've never had much of a problem with critters - except for the tunnelling inside the beds. Gratefully, the semps are so shallowly-rooted that they don't seem to be bothered by the tunnels. The beds are very close to my bird feeders and there is some birdlime on some of the plants - but it rinses off easily. There are occasional forays by neighbor dogs who are chasing critters, but I just replant.

Yes, I do sell (and trade) plants. I'm continually amazed at how FAST some of the varieties reproduce! I am always trying out new-to-me sorts to see what is reliably hardy here in Zone 3. Originally I had very few plants with names (mostly swaps with folks) but am now trying to keep up with identifications. I feel that it's better for the visitors when they can have more information rather than less. My signage is all done out of my personal Filemaker Pro database and visitors tell me that they think I have the best signage they've ever seen because it tends to be comprehensive and specific rather than generic.

In addition to the semps and sedums, I now have over 800 varieties of plants growing on my half-acre spot of heaven.

I'm always happy to talk shop and welcome visitors - both online and in person.

Oops, forgot to speak to the shade issue about the tree. Black locust leafs out really late in the Spring (early June) here and the semps have had a good shot of sunlight before that happens. Also, it's what would be called 'high shade' as the tree doesn't branch much before 15-20' above ground level.

Thanks for the info Kate. You have such a lovely garden.
Linda

Thank you Kate. Time to go look at your website. See you all there.