Friday, May 2, 2008

A Few Blooms From the Garden

We did indeed get the drip system finished for the garden and I can’t tell you how wonderful it feels to know I’m not going to have to drag the hose for three hours a day in the hot Alabama heat this summer. Yay! Everything is set up for automatic watering, the beds, the planters, hanging baskets and even the birdbath fills itself. We had enough materials left over that I’m going to run another drip system for the trees and bed in the front yard and for the shrubs down the side of the house. We can leave for vacation this year and only need someone to check the system to be sure it comes on and goes off properly. If you still have to drag around a water hose in the summer I highly recommend you make this a top priority on you list of things to do. You will absolute be convinced that the small amount of money and time it takes is well worth it and anyone can do it.

We are really satisfied with the way the garden is coming back together. Although it bugs me tremendously that the neighbor’s houses are still visible. When planting the fence line I didn’t take into consideration that everything we planted was deciduous, so even when it grows up over the years in the winter months it will still be visible. I’m sort of at a loss for what to do at this point. There isn’t any room to put any evergreens on that fence line now with out packing everything in there tighter than sardines. Some of those pencil trees would work, but those things are really expensive. I’m really looking for suggestions here, so put on your thinking caps and help me out. A privacy fence is really not an option I want to consider, so we can strike that idea.

Okay, on with some pictures. Here are the things that are blooming in the garden right now. I'm sorry about the © at the bottom. I recently found almost all my pictures reposted online. As soon as I make up my mind about the font, it'll be a little less obvious. It isn't that I mind them being used, but the least they could do is give me credit or mention Creating Our Eden. Anyway, we will start off with the little rose we just purchased a couple of weeks ago. It’s a miniature that is considered a ground cover, but everything I’ve read about it so far suggest making a small climber out of it. The tag says it blooms from spring until frost.

'Red Cascade'

Red Cascade


We still have daffodils blooming this late in the spring. The ‘Yellow Cheerfulness’ just started this week. The blooms are only about the size of quarter, or maybe even a little smaller.

'Yellow Cheerfulness'

Yellow Cheerfulness


We have put together a rather large daylily collection in the past couple of months. We currently have 40 different varieties. When this spring started we had three. Can you tell we went a little Daylily crazy? Anyway, get ready for lots of pictures of them to come.

'Sound of Silence'

Sound Of Silence


'Daring Deception'

Daring Deception



The Stellas are doing well this year.

'Stella De Oro'

Stella De Oro


Last winter Lowe’s had marked all their bulbs down to like twenty five cents a pack. I took full advantage of the savings. I think all together I bought over eight hundred bulbs. I’m glad I did, because had I not we would have almost nothing blooming this year. Unfortunately, some of the bulbs were packaged wrong, but I think I’ve managed to identify them. Here are some of the Dutch and Bearded Irises.

'Carmen'

Carmen


'Casa Blanca'

Casa Blanca


'Sapphire Beauty'

Sapphire Beauty


'Telstar'

Telstar


'Hello Darkness'

Hello Darkness



'Canned Heat'

Canned Heat



This is an actual photo. When I took it there was all kinds of junk in the background like hoses, stepping stones and peeling paint on the storage room. So I spent all this time in Photo Shop removing all the visible clutter and now it looks like a beautiful print or post card. Later, a friend said, "I would have just hung a back drop." Duh! Leave it to me to over look the obvious. Oh well, I had fun working on the picture. I was feeling really Zen while doing it.

'In Your Dreams'

InYourDreams



Jamie liked these Angelonia, so we got a couple of them, we bought some once before for a planter and they bloomed all summer. I hope these do as well.

'Serena White'

Serena White


'Angelmist Orchid'

Angelmist Orchid

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

No need to feel bad about putting your copyright on your photos. It's necessary to protect your work from online thieves. And your pictures are so nice I can see why people want to appropriate them as their own.

You have done an amazing job recreating your garden in such a short time. It looks great, and I'm glad it's a source of joy to you again. And to us.

chuck b. said...

I had Angelonia last year and I actually thought, "Too many flowers". What can I say, it just too showy for me.

Good for you for setting up a drip system. I really should do that too... One thing I was told: run it all year long to avoid jams and clogs. Just dial it down to a 1-minute runs in winter.

Phillip Oliver said...

Great photos - the iris shot is just gorgeous.

Tell me more about the drip system. I'm assuming that this is more elaborate than just a soaker hose? I should look into it. Dragging hoses around gets old fast and my garden is so difficult to water.

Wayne said...

great photos!
I'm afraid your only option for not seeing the neighbors, would be evergreens. I used Arborvitaes.
They do have some very narrow varieties, but you'd have to plant them very close together, and that type is very slow growing.

Anonymous said...

Wayne's idea is great about using arborvitaes and I think they're beautiful, but any literature I found on arborvitae plants says they will not thrive in southern regions. I looked online and they're only zoned for zones three through seven. :0( We're zone eight here in our part of Alabama. I wonder if that's too much of a change to grow them? Any suggestions?

Anonymous said...

I found one, I found one! It's called the American arborvitae and it is native to Minnesota. It lists zone eight in its growing area!

Connie said...

Great bulbs...love the Angelonia. I started some from seed this year, so hoping they look that good.