When I started moving in, in October of '02, there werent any flower beds. The raised bed thats now my shade garden was there, but the previous owner put in annuals every year. 1/2 of my property is hill, which I dream of with no grass and full of flowers.
Ideas and suggestions are always welcome.

This garden i put in mostly so I could grow something tall to hide the phone pole in the summer. I have canna lillies next to the pole.

This is the shade garden behind the house. The hill is covered in lilacs, lilac babies and honeysuckle bushes. I added the stone circle around the hydrangea and theres some lilies in there too.

There are bleeding hearts, columbine, ferns, astilbe,mallow, yarrow, and various bulbs in there. The wild jewelweed comes up in there too. My hummers love the shade garden!

Ahh, my troublesome hill

Those posts at the top are the border to my up the hill behind me neighbors driveway. The circle of stones is perrenials, that fence on the left is the edge of my veggie garden.

My sunny garden, we've enlarged each spring.


from my front door looking at the hill. the circle to the right is the phone pole garden. I put in the border across the bottom this spring. It end at a fireplace.


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Summer Camp '07, July 14th weekend, won't you join us?
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That sunny garden is 1/2 full of bee balm. Cold Z5 here so they dont show much yet. I have some chameleon plant in that dirt spot in front of the stone circle on the hill, didnt know it would do well in the shade. Maybe I'll move some. There are coral bells in the sunny one too. I usually plant a tall annual on the right side which shades them from the summer heat. Last year was cleome and sunflowers.
There are coneflowers, rose campion, poppies & alyssum around the mailbox. I thought a vine hanging over it would be nice too. Maybe something trailing from the planter on the post??
There are 3...or4... clematis on the side of my garage. {I need more pics!}
I would love to put lillies all over the hill, but so would the herds of deer that come through
Do you think morning glories up that phone pole would tangle in the phone lines? I dont want the neighborhood mad at me cause my flowers zapped out their service.
Those posts are abou 2 1/2' tall, no fencing.
Odd you should bring up a fence tho':

this fence, behind my garage is the back edge of my property. Its not my fence. I like the old rickety look of it but I want to plant bird friendly, preferably native, flowering and berry shrubs to soften its look.
another angle

Thanks for all of your great ideas!
I went on a garden tour one year and one girls house had naturalized a field on a hill with conelowers and lillies. It was gorgeous!!

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Summer Camp '07, July 14th weekend, won't you join us?
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Thanks! I've never heard of Oregon grape.

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Summer Camp '07, July 14th weekend, won't you join us?
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Just a friendly word of warning - the deer down here love black eyed susies - my friend down the street cannot grow them at all. The only reason I can, is that I learned to put Milorganite around them many times during the growing season - they hate the smell - so do I unfortunately, but it helps me have some flowers.

Deer also absolutely LOVE my purple coneflowers - I have to use Milorganite there too. Do your deer not eat your coneflowers Wrennie?

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Lynne's knitting journal
"I'm spayed, declawed, and housebound - how's YOUR day going???"

I'm glad they haven't touched your coneflowers, Wrennie!
The first 2 years that I tried to grow them, I didn't get to see a single flower. Now I have babies coming up (I buried a few seed heads last fall next to the mamma plants and I'm thrilled to see that many babies have germinated!) I am keeping the Milorganite manufacturers in business. Sometimes it's difficult to find in the stores though.

The deer ate right through all the things we sprayed with bobbex a few years ago...

Interesting how our deer have such different palates even though we don't live that far away from each other.

You do know that castor bean plants are highly toxic, right? Just wanted to make sure...

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Lynne's knitting journal
"I'm spayed, declawed, and housebound - how's YOUR day going???"

quote:

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The deer ate right through all the things we sprayed with bobbex a few years ago...

Interesting how our deer have such different palates even though we don't live that far away from each other.

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I couldn't imagine having to worry about the deer eating my plants! Just across the other hill there are deer, but they don't come over here. And where my in-laws live 45 minutes away is in the countryside and they have deer EVERYWHERE!!! I'm glad we didn't move out there and build a house now I think about it.

Looks like you have a lot of growing space Wrennie!!! That's great, there are so many possibilities!

quote:

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Originally posted by Wrennie:
I dream of having that whole hill covered in gardens someday. The one in the picture with my truck gets a little bigger every year. My BF says he's going to ask the neighbor if he can rent a parking spot from them 'cause there wont be room for him to park soon!

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Who needs to park anyway????

That hillside would lookk so pretty covered with flowrs.....

Where will Oregon Grape grow? I am in Zone 6. (Northern NJ). I can't find a lot of information about them, and am trying to figure out what I can grow on the highly shaded side of my house.

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Help!!!

You have a lot of great ideas wrennie! I moved into my house last summer and the only plants there were hostas so now I am trying to get started on many other plants and flowers. I have received many seeds thanks to the help of a few people from here. I can't wait until next summer. I am trying to get my bf to make a flower bed for me out of stack stone but that hasn't happened yet. I will get him to do it for me eventually. In the meantime, I have to work with the areas that I have. I do need some of them tilled up for me though.

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All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.

Those are both Bee balm, aka monarda. Hummingbirds, bumblebees, LOVE it. It's perennial, spreads like crazy in good soil. Its a member of the mint family.

My Garden Phlox Nikki is just starting to bloom too. DArK purple, so cool. {Sil's favorite color is purple & her brother who has passed away is Nikki. A little twilight zone there}I'll add pics later.

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Summer Camp '07, July 14th weekend, won't you join us?
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Wrennie, the garden is looking great. I love that Bee Balm as well! Very pretty!

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We are all under the same stars... therefore we are never far apart.

Thanks Wrennie, I had no idea bee balm came in purple as well. Another flower on my wish list... I need to win the lottery so I can afford this new obsession of mine!

Joanne

Netwiz I have red, violet and "blue" the blue is really just a darker violet. Since there in lots of peatmoss the purples are hard to tell apart. I've also seen it in pink.
I think either roots and rhizomes or white flower farm (mail orders) has lots of colors.

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Summer Camp '07, July 14th weekend, won't you join us?
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Oooh Irised. Hadnt thought of those. Good idea.

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Summer Camp '07, July 14th weekend, won't you join us?
summer camp thread 1, 2, 3,4