Hey, Cottage! Great minds think alike! :idea: I did a red, white, and blue theme this year even though our house is grey and it doesn't really go with our shocking pink azaleas! :o :lol: Oh well! :shrug:

Anyways, for the red, I did a combo of verbena and salvia, and for the blue I used Lobelia (sp???) in a dark blue (but it also comes in purple and sky blue) while for the white I used sweet alyssum. Both Lobelia and Alyssum will bloom continuously all summer as long as you keep them well watered. :) They also have a creeping habit and in areas like Barb and Schatzi's, I imagine they last all year and become almost like ground cover--that's what they used to do in CA when I lived there. :D

I've got almost all my purchases from the garden center in the ground--didn't buy too many new plants other than the annuals for the front, but did get a silver mist for the front corner of my corner garden--that front plant dies every year! I also divided and transplanted some of the hostas in the yard...we'll see how that works out! I gave some to a friend as well. :) I'm hoping she'll give me some lillies in return--she has these amazing ones that first bloom as yellow lillies then rebloom as red ones! Wow! Can't wait to have some. My former coworker is bringing over a money plant today (so if anyone wants me to grow them some money on my tree, I'd be glad to! ;) )...my grandmother had one and showed me how to get the seeds when I was tiny. It's a nostalgic plant for me and I haven't seen one in years. I'm so glad she had an extra one to spare! :hyper:

What's doing in your garden? Here are some pics of mine:

Here's the front of the house with the red, white and blue (hard to tell now that they're so small!):
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...pring07014.jpg

This is a close up of some of the flowers and the happy azaleas:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...pring07018.jpg

This is the corner garden I was talking about...the silver mist plant is in the front. I've always killed them before...let's hope it works out here!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...pring07013.jpg

Beachgal, could you grow a little money for me, I'm broke after spending all my money at the garden center! :) I love your house, would you believe it looks a lot like mine? Great minds DO think alike! Lobelia is one of my favorites, I especially like the dark, dark blue, and I usually use white sweet alyssum for my edging. I'm looking for red, white and blue perrenials right now. I took out the Stella d'Oro daylillies to go elsewhere, and instead planted some blue veronica, white salvias, red bachelor's buttons and red penstemon. I still have to fill in some bare spaces, but as the nursery puts out their summer blooming perrenials, I'll have a better selection to choose from. I finally got all my impatiens planted this afternoon, and hope to get all my planters finished tomorrow or Saturday so things will look pretty for Memorial Day.

Those lillies that change from yellow to red sound intriguing! I've never heard of them but now I'm curious. ;)

I got outside and took a few shots early this morning..
here's my garden(s)
http://www.kodakgallery.com/femmecreole

Your garden is breathtaking, femmecreole! Thanks for sharing your pictures with us. One of these days I'm going to sit down and figure out how to post some of my pictures.

My husband I both LOVE working out there. We have had to redo everything since Katrina. The storm pretty much wiped out everything we had spent a couple of years working on. This is what it looked like the afternoon after the storm passed. It was months before we could have that huge tree removed. All the people that you see in the house waiting out the storm are my husband's relatives. None of them knew for several days after this that they had all lost their homes.

Wow! Lovely gardens, Chickas! I wish I could visit them IRL.

I still have some late tulips, masses of lily-of-the-valley, white, mauve and deep purple violets and wonderful lilacs! The picture is of a very special one - Krasavitsa Moscovy or Beauty of Moscow. The buds really are pink and it opens to a lovely creamy white with a heavenly scent. Worth searching for if you are a northern gardener. (Lilacs need cold winters to bloom well.)

The asparagus is growing fast and it's actually dangerous to go into the patch. :lol: The rhubarb isn't far behind and is waiting for picking. Freezing it will be on my task list as soon as I get a kitchen sink.

I have tomatoes, cucumber and eggplant seedlings waiting to be planted and lots of seeds to get in but things are looking good.

Isn't it great to get earth under your fingernails? I've been doing this since I was three years old when my Daddy let me plant the big seeds!

Your gardens and homes are just wonderful..
 

I have a tree peony - a pink one. It's going to bloom soon and I adore it. I bought it years ago for $12,98 but they are out of sight now! I have tons of regular peonies, some of them are ones my great-great grandma brought from Ireland in the 1950's.

Gardening is so good for the soul - and the body!

I have a pink tree peony, too, but I don't remember how much I paid for it, since I've had it a long time. It couldn't have been too much, though, or I would have never bought it. When it's in bloom, the flowers are just gorgeous! I spent the morning filling my planters and flower beds full of dahlias, snapdragons, verbena, lobelia, geraniums, marigolds, dusty miller, tuberous begonias, New Guinea impatiens, Gerbera daisies, and a really pretty new petunia I found called "Raspberry Blast." I definitely have dirt under my fingernails, but I was in my glory! There's nothing I love to do more than play in the dirt. :)
Your lilac is beautiful, Ruth! I just have the common purple lilacs, but I love them and really enjoy the fragrance. Several years ago I had a yellow lilac, but it never did very well and we had to dig it out.

Oooh thanks for sharing all the pics gals! This year I will have to live vicariously through all you Ms Green Jeans!

I really like to go organic too, but living in S. Louisiana (land of bugs and humidity) I have to call in the big guns on my roses. For aphids, I use Gordon's systemic rose, flower and shrub care. You sprinkle the granules around the base of the plants and it fertilizes and controls insects. I use it on my roses and on my crepe myrtles and cannas. It works for about 6 weeks. I spray them weekly with Bayer Advanced All-In-One Rose & Flower Care to control black spot and other diseases. Both work very well for me.
If you can't find either of those (Lowes carries the bayer stuff), check with your local feed store for something similar.

Wow...Cat, your garden is phenomenal!!! :love: I adore all the statues and the roses and callas...I miss that kind of gardening (where plants are there year round!). I'm so sorry about Katrina...what a terrible time that must have been (and I'm sure, continues to be...). How are your relatives doing now? Did your birthday banana make it after all? You really treasure the things that survive...we had a horrible earthquake when I lived in CA...and the little things that made it made such a difference for us. My dad and I ran out during a lull in aftershocks and moved the block wall off my mom's roses...they made it and it made such a difference to us all to see them alive. :cry:

Cotttage, I'm sure your garden looks AMAZING!!!!!! I've never seen white salvia or red bachelor's buttons! Wow!!! I know I got a red version of a daisy-ish flower that shows up near the end of summer, but I've forgotten what it is. :?: :chin: Do you know how to get your pictures on your computer from the camera? If so, try uploading them using www.photobucket.com That's what I use...it's SUPER easy, because under each picture is the HTML code for putting it on here...it's the third one down (or the bottom link).

Ruth, love the story about your dad and the "big seeds" :lol: :hug: That's lovely!!! I used to garden with my mom. Earth beneath your toes and fingernails is wonderful!!! :cloud9: Your lilacs amaze me! I'm glad I'm not the only one who doesn't think violets are a weed. I love them! :love: I got a rhubarb plant at the nursery but it's still a baby...do you think it'll make rhubarb this year or will it take too long to make the season? Also, we planted bare root raspberry bushes this week--do you think we'll get berries this year or that we'll have to wait for next year?

Finished putting in our veggie garden this weekend--we have:

• tomatoes (sweet 100, big boy, yellow ones, roma)
• peppers (green/red bell, sweet banana)
• zucchini
• pumpkins
• green beans (bush and filet)
• herbs (cilantro, basil, dill)
• perennial herbs (parsley, pineapple sage, orange thyme, oregano)
• mesclun mix and lettuce
• carrots
• corn
• raspberries, blueberries, strawberries (most of them in pots)
• rhubarb

It's a big variety this year...looking forward to it! :love: :cloud9:

Some more...

Ahhh, I love hearing your garden stories, Schatzi...but I understand why it's too much this year. :hug: *sniff* I hope that you'll have lots of stories next year! The comic was fantastic!!! :lol: :rofl:

Choices, have you thought about ladybugs? There's nothing better for aphids...they think they are gourmet eating! :T Talk to a nursery about the best way to attract them. :chin:

I've never had a peony, but I'd love them. Choices, I found a lot of cheap perennials at the end of the season last year. That's a great way to get them...plus planting in the fall is a great thing to do! :idea:

Hey, do you guys count gardening as exercise? :chin:

I am completely organic in my veggie garden but find I cannot grow roses without chemicals so..... Spraying damned aphids with rubbing alcohol works but sure is time consuming!

Every spring I seem to buy a new toy that is supposed to make life easier and my garden perfect. :lol:

I just got a B&D Garden CUltivator and am looking forward to using it. It was listed at around $100 but my neighbour who works at B&D got it for me for $53.

What's your favourite garden toy? And does anyone have one of these gadgets?

I wanted to rework my yard this year - I had moved into this home about 3 years ago and the owner had a lot of lovely hedges and plants way way way in the back and I want to move them around. Is it too late - should I wait until fall? Also have some peonies that are about to bloom - I am thinking I should wait until after they bloom then cut them down and move them.

I also have some hedges but I tried to transplant one and even with root tone its not doing well. Any tips?

Planted some annuals and herbs that look nice as well as some cantelope. Not sure how that will fare.

We've been trimming up our trees and mulching. Need to do some major clipping this week. Who needs the tredmill!

Enjoy....Sue