Knock em dead!

Don't forget to throw your banana peels under your Rose Bushes.

Peonies to make you smile!

Starting to take off.  The first Peony bloom of the summer.

Wow, what a beauty. I think it is Sorbet. I have had it

for a few years now.  It is a herbaceous peony.

Here is a link to the different types of peonies..

http://www.peonysenvy.com/peonycare.html#type

This is my newest addition, (Cheryl eat your heart out).

Her name is, Bartzella Itoh, she costed me $35 at Lowes. Ouch!

Do not tell my husband. She is a transectional peony.  All of the Itoh

peonies are amazingly beautiful.  I am dying to get my hands on one named,

Kopper Kettle.

I also am salivating to get a tree peony, but they cost upwards of $100.

More to come........

Irises to make your heart sing!

The Irises are starting to bloom!

In full swing.

This is a new one for me.  A friend of mine let me come and dig up some of her Irises. 

She has a ton!

This one took many years to bloom.  I bought it in bulb form from Walmart. 

I believe its name is Ceaser's Brother.

More to come.....

A walk through my yard

Here is my Snowball Viburnum bush that I bought at Lowes off of the clearance

rack.  I was super excited!  I have been growing it for years but now it

is huge! It is running over my hydrangeas. It must be pruned!

 Here is my prune job. It will be a snowball tree now and my hydrangeas can breath!

There is a Sensation Lilac to the left.

It is like snow on the ground. It makes me smile.

Here is a picture of my hydrangea in bloom, 2011.

 I also pruned my Wisteria Tree. It was basically touching the ground.

 I dug this particular one up out of my friend's back yard woods.

 Beautyberry alternated with Red Fringe. I am not sure if this is the small version of the fringe bush,

but I haven't had any problems with it becoming huge. I do prune it some. My beautyberry on the

other hand gets huge! The birds love it, but the berries end up all over the porch. I have to seriously

hack it back every year. Grancy Greybeard tree in far background.

The Lily Bed. 

My Asiatic Lilies are intermingled with Stargazer oriental Lilies.  The oriental lilies have yet to bloom.

The taller ones with more spaced out leaves are Oriental, The fluffier shorter ones are Asiatic.

This year I gathered up the Easter Lilies that were thrown out around town and threw them

in the ground here as well.

 

Here they are in bloom, 2011 (Bought at Walmart, on clearance)

 I Love the clearance racks,  but who doesn't?

New for 2012

My newly planted Japanese Maple trees planted along the fence line.  I pulled these up out of the ground

from UNC Charlotte. They had hundreds of seedlings. They are about 2 feet tall now. I have been growing them for about 4 years.

My husband was not happy about the start of this bed.  He said he wanted his "man" building to

stay manly. Oops, lol. I am expecting Red Cannas, Elephant Ears and Banana Trees.

I think my son will like this garden. If the Walmart bulbs do not rot.  I have about a 25%

success rate with Lowes and Walmart bulbs. Maybe because I wait to buy them when they

have gone on discount.

 This is another new bed for 2012.  It is my shade garden. 
I want to put a sign up that say,"Made in the Shade."

Calla Lilies (Not sure if these will come back in zone 7),
Hastas, Elephant Ear/Black Runner, Blue Fescue Grass,

and Red Astilbe

 The brick work I slaved over for 2 weeks. Why yes I am a proud momma.  I also thought I'd have to

hire someone to do this. I thought it would look sloppy if I did it.  However, it turned out pretty nice.

I think it can stay.

 Pencil Boxwoods, Laceleaf Japanese Maple, Knockout Roses Red in Background, Yellow in Foreground.

My yellow knockout rose in bloom.

 Iris Bed and more brick work.

A Spring for Spray Painting

I finally decided on what color I was going to paint my yard items.

Valspar Seascape Spray Paint. I think it turned out nice! This hear is

my herb garden.  I started them last year, 2011. I am petrified to put them in

the ground, for fear of takeover. Maybe with time, I can find a spot for them.

I love the smell of herbs, running my hand over them, they are heavenly. I suppose

if they escaped into the yard, mowing over them would not be a bad thing.

That is a August Beauty Gardenia and a Japanese Fringe Rubrum behind the bench.

My Lady Banks Rose, that I have to heavily prune every year.

I hear it can be a monster. Growing up to 30 feet. I am not sure why I planted it this close to the house.?

Check out::  http://www.goldcoastrose.org/articles/tombstone.htm.  To the right of the chair is my Spanish

Lavender.  Don't prune it too much or it will die. That is why there is a bare spot to the left.

Don't forget Henry the Toad, he seems content on his rock.

On the other side, "Wilber" the pig hides in the Lavender.

 This is one of my new beds this year. My neighbor gave me some irises that she had thrown out in the woods.

I painted my butterfly Rustoleum SunRise Red. The stakes twig is an English Dogwood. 

I dug it up out of thewoods. I am eventually going to have to move it, it will get huge.  I have a problem with planting stuff to closetogether. Impatience?  My Russian Sage is lovely when in full glory,

and the red yarrow is new.

 The gate belonged to my husband's mother that passed away at 45 from a massive heart attack.

I painted it Sunrise Red as well. I think of her everytime I look at it. I planted some asiatic lilies bulbs around it and a Rosemary bush to the left.  Butterfly bushes in the background.

From that to this!

This is the house my husband and I had built in MAY 2007, and this is what we started out with, dirt. When it would rain we would put walmart bags over our shoes to get to our cars. It was a horrible mess! I honestly did not think I could make a beautiful yard out of this, I was ready to pay someone else to do it.

This is what we have accomplished over the years.  It has taken a lot of hard work, but those

who work the soil, love it!  It is so rewarding to see the results every spring and to plan more!

My yard is my therapy!  The following picture is from APRIL 2012.

It still has a long long way to go.  I love the cottage garden feel.  I am not sure how I am going to

 accomplish that feeling with all this land??  It still feels very formal to me. My plans are to just keep at it. 

 I will be a granny working in m yard with one of those traditional sun hats.  God willing!