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| I'm finally looking at all those pictures I took this summer. This is my barn bed, I've posted in previous years, but now you can see how it's changing over time. I've let it get a bit overgrown by the gold thugs, and need to thin a lot this spring. Am considering a lot less black eyed susan, and perhaps introducing hot pink and red?
(BTW I'm cross posting this to the cottage garden forum, the other forum I follow.) The barn is a little ways from the house, and I usually walk there through my vegetable garden. Well, it's got some vegetables, but the gloriosa daisies have seeded in and they were so pretty I let them be. For this year.
It's late to get started, peaking in July, August and September.
July
euphorbia fireglow and poppies
July - lilies, poker plant, maltese cross, gaillardia
The south end is soft yellows in early July. I've hardly changed this at all over the years, the plants are well behaved and don't spread too much. One day I want to change this to hot colors, but I never have the time and it's pretty as is, and low maintenance.
By late July this bed is quite overgrown.
My bench is almost hidden, but accessible from a small path running through the middle. The paint is fading, I'm thinking of going with dark orange. Or dark blue. What do you think?
When you ask a boy to smile, this is what you get
In October, I've still got grasses, and the maximilian sunflower.
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Follow-Up Postings:
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| Absolutely LOVE IT! Reminds me of mine! |
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| Gorgeous! So cheerful and uplifting :0) Love those bright orange poppies! |
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| um, yes, the poppies caught my eye too. Shivering here in Cambridge, a glut of gold is always welcome and yours is particularly well executed. |
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| What a nice surprise to see this post, I love the colors and combinations! Maybe there is alot of black eyed susan in the beds but I would hate to see the rudbeckia path go away! I was never any good with gold in the garden..... but I was thinking of doing a big goldsturm bed next year so I guess I'm going to try again. I might try blending in some strong purples and blues into my bed, but I don't have a brown barn to consider. I'm not sure if I like the idea of hot pink in front of the barn.....but if you put them into a certain red bed I think it would look great! |
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| Lovely, and inspiring at this time of year. Thanks for sharing them! |
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- Posted by prairiegirlz5 (My Page) on Sun, Feb 5, 12 at 18:54
| These are so beautiful to look at, that "boy smile" is a real gem, thanks for sharing!! Would you mind telling me more about the lilies you have? I'm trying them for the first time this year. I like BES and not least because they're so easy. At least, for me; maybe not every single plant, but they're pretty tough. My neighbor plants them with AJ sedum along the strip (could be ditch, etc) that separate our driveways (asphalt) in full west-facing sun and they look great! And have withstood a little damage from "traffic", too. A low-growing or burgundy-leaved grass or any purple-leaved plants look great with them too. |
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| Simply gorgeous! Wow. I just made a new lasagna bed this fall and I am planning an orange, red and yellow bed there. I'd pay for a plan of your bed, it's so beautiful! Thank you for sharing! |
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| Beautiful pictures! I love your lush colorful beds. Thanks for sharing them. |
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| What a great sight in the middle of winter. And it looks like you did a really great job on planning/composing the border, love how some clumps are repeated, giving a pattern/rhythm. What a pitty I havent got the space myself. Have fun re-editing and fine-tuning your amazing border. Bye, Lin |
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- Posted by pam_whitbyon 6 (My Page) on Wed, Feb 8, 12 at 13:34
| Gottagarden, your garden is so inspirational. Thanks for sharing! |
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- Posted by faerygardener z7 Sunset7 (My Page) on Mon, Feb 13, 12 at 20:00
| Your gardens are always drop dead stunning! From your south end no maintenance "soft yellows on the south end" - do you know which small daisy in along the front of your bed? |
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| thanks for this, inspiration me toad |
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| I like how the range of colors evolves over the course of the season, sometimes more pastel, sometimes with more hot colors. It does have more gold than when you started, but is still lovely. The depth of the bed really contributes to its effectiveness. Is the small gold-foliaged plant in the third photo, lower right corner a gold-leafed spirea? I don't know if you are looking for opinions as far as possible additions, but I am not a fan of any shade of pink with gold. I'd be inclined to add more orange, red, white or even a shot or two of intense blues or purples. |
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- Posted by gottagarden z5 western NY (My Page) on Tue, Feb 28, 12 at 13:06
| Thanks for all the kind comments! nhbabs - yes, that is spiraea thunbergii 'ogon' aka "mellow yellow". One of my absolutely favorite shrubs, it goes with everything. I have put in dark purples before, but they tend to get overwhelmed and lost. There are not many dark purples that will mass like the oranges. Thanks for prodding me - I have a big clump of campanula glomerata that could replace some BES. faerygardener - the small gold daisies are coreopsis 'zagreb'. the small pale yellow daisies are coreopsis 'moonbeam'. easy-peasy indestructible. linaria and diggerdee - I did repeat clumps at regular intervals of certain backbone plants for a cohesive effect. Daylilies actually snake a big S back and forth the whole length. Huge clumps of shasta daisies are repeated every 10 feet. Other repeats along the back are outhouse flower, rudbeckia herbstonne, maximilian sunflower, and now some ornamental grasses. Other repeated clumps are asiatic lilies and white swan echinacea. The front row is coreopsis moonbeam and zabreb, gaillardia, and california poppy. In between I fill in with a variety. |
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| Gottagarden, I am wondering about some of the more vigorous plants - daylilies, max. sunflower, even the daisies. Do you have to keep on top of them so they don't spread too much? are you doing a lot of digging and dividing, and if so, about how often? And what is the pale yellow lily with the red sprinkles (looks like paprika on the lilies, lol)? It looks familiar - I think I have it, lol, but can't remember the name! Thanks! P.S. I've been studying your photos more now that it's getting closer to spring and my new red/orange/yellow bed will be ready to plant! |
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- Posted by buyorsell888 Zone 8 Portland OR (My Page) on Sun, Mar 4, 12 at 16:46
| Love the garden. Just love it. I'd paint the bench purple or royal blue. :) |
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- Posted by gottagarden z5 western NY (My Page) on Tue, Mar 6, 12 at 8:25
| The yellow lily with the sprinkles is supposed to be tango honey bee, although my sprinkles don't seem to be as dark as what I see on line. This is my low maintenance bed, and I haven't divided anything. I planted about 6 years ago, and I probably should have started thinning about 2 years ago, but I never got around to it. They seem to be just fine crowded - no room for weeds! When I planted I gave them all a lot of room to grow, and they have simply spread out. I now have 3 foot clumps of everything. The trick is to use those tough, impossible to kill type plants. They still bloom profusely (as you can tell) even when crowded. I am going to pull out a lot of black eyed susan this year. Everything else just clumped out bigger, but susan seems to have spread into all the available gaps (probably by seed). I did remove daylily Kwanso. While most daylilies clump out, kwanso spread by runners and it was going crazy. YANK! I have many different types of garden beds. This is the ONLY one I would say was low maintenance. (well, this and the peony bed) |
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- Posted by steve1young 7a (Long Island) (My Page) on Wed, Apr 18, 12 at 17:34
| Truly amazingly beautiful. You are so incredibly talented. Wow! |
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| Very beautiful, what a cheerful walkway. My theory is also the thicker the plantings, the fewer weeds. |
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- Posted by swontgirl_z5a 5a (My Page) on Wed, Apr 18, 12 at 20:37
| This is just gorgeous!! I have a red, orange and yellow flower bed too-I just love those colours together. Mine is just daylilies, lilies and I add tall and short snapdragons and portulacas around the edges. I would do the bench bright red or orange so it shows up and replace the Black-eyed Susans you are going to take out with some tall spidery red or dark orange daylilies-but then I am biased!! Thanks for posting-so many great ideas about mixing plants with flowers and neat foliage. |
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- Posted by booberry85 z5NY (becky@leadtesting.net) on Thu, Apr 19, 12 at 13:27
| That is so inspiring and impressive! Thanks for sharing. |
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