Starmoon

Your pictures are absolutely beautiful! I also went to the Rotterdam exchange...it was my first year but I loved it and met so many great people. Your gardens must be unbelievable! Thanks for sharing both your plants and your pictures! Jean

VERY pretty, and a wonderful selection. You have a few plants that I wish I could find for myself. :o)

Very nice pictures and beautiful flowers. I'd love to see pics of the whole gardens too, if you ever get a chance. Saw several familiar plants and some that I will have to add to my own gardens someday. Thanks for sharing!

Nice album, Starmoon! You've been busy. I have that sedum "kamtschaticum", too. Now I can identify it - thanks! I would absolutely love to see how you've put everything together. I bet your garden is lovely with so many beautiful flowers!!!

Beautiful Starmoon,
Thanks for the eye candy. I was thinking how great it is that you have a pictorial record of this years crop......I should be so organized. I too would love to see the gardens if you have photos of them. Kareen

Here is a link that might be useful: Our pond and gardens

Hi Guys,

For all that requested whole garden pics, I have posted pics starting in March and going throughout the season. Hope you like my new fence and arbor! Here is the URL:

http://photobucket.com/albums/a250/starmoon00/garden2005/gardenviews/

Thanks for looking.

starmoon *)

Here is a link that might be useful: My Garden Pics

I love you new fence and arbor! Well, actually, I loved everything LOL! What a wonderful job you did on your front yard. Your neighbors must be delighted! It's nice to see the season as it changes, too. There was a big difference between the end of April and the end of May in your beds! Perennials are terrific. Every year, after a long bleak winter they faithfully start popping up all over the place with such color.

Did you get a lot of blooms on your morning glories? I see that they really filled out - almost can't walk thru the arbor :). They bloom really late in my yard - I'm plagued with growing trees and seem to get more and more shade every year.

Loved the little pond feature, too! That's been on my must-have list since I took a trip out to Kareen's house.

I agree with Shimla,you did a great job on those gardens . I too liked the water feature . Kareen

Here is a link that might be useful: Our pond and gardens

Wow...what a transformation from the beginning of the season until now...thanks for taking the time to put that together. Beautiful!!!

Hi guys,

Thanks for the encouragement. I have been transforming this once flowerless yard for the last 3 years. The beds are now expanding and filling in and I am moving things around a bit because I planted some things way too close together. I live in the city so I have lots of squirrels, neighborhood cats and dogs to contend with, so keeping the beds somewhat symmetrical and groomed looking has been quite a challenge to me. As you probably noticed, I have been slowly ripping out shrubs and replacing them with perennials. Not that I hate shrubs. The way I see it, a shrub should be useful for food for birds or wildlife or have pretty flowers or berries. Most of the ones I ended up with were primarily a haven for spiders and slugs.

When I first moved here 4 years ago there was a typical "practical guy" landscaping job out front. There were lots of ugly yew and pricky juniper shrubs, thick landscaping fabric, oodles of mulch with sandly dead soil underneath and loads of asphalt and cement in the side and back yard. It's taken me so long to get rid of that darn landscaping fabric. Just hate that stuff. Don't know what to do about the asphalt in the side yard other than to rent a jackhammer. : ) I am hoping that the lily of the valley planted along the fence will eventually break it up enough to get it out. : ) That plant is pretty tough and strong too!

I have a lot of dry shade and big trees so keeping things watered has also been a little crazy this year. Most of my yard is reached by my in-lawn sprinkler system which came with my house. (One of the best perks of this property!) The part that is not covered by the sprinkler happens to be the dryest part of the yard, right underneath a huge black locust tree. I have been using a soaker hose in this area instead of trying to keep up with it by hand. Next year I need to get another one to cover more area. Gotta love soaker hoses.

This was my first year lasagna gardening and wintersowing. I am in love with both. I will never rip out sod to make a bed ever again. As you saw, my new beds filled up quickly with my clumps of wintersown babies. The soil in these beds is the richest and best in my garden. I am considering redoing the rest of my beds this way in the next year or two. Big job. I have to take out more lawn with lasagna beds first though. I plan a big wintersowing project this coming winter as well and have to have someplace to put the stuff! Plus I plan to have plenty to share with my sister for her new gardens and all you guys at next year;s exchange too!

Shimla, My morning glories started blooming fairly late. I grew mostly the regular old grandpa ott's and fuschia varieties which also seem to be the most vigorous ones. They really started to take off about a month ago though and are doing really well now, blooming their little heads off. The more shady side of the arbor is a little less impressive though. There is also a little bit of cardinal climber and hyacinth bean on the arbor too, which also seemed to take a while to bloom. All these vines seem to need more sun than I am able to provide them with! I am hoping that the MGs will complete their journey across the top of the arbor really soon. Next year I am going to plant a bunch of different colors and sizes on the arbor and see how they do.

Take care and thanks for looking,

Channon