Lovely Neil. Absolutely lovely! Thanks for sharing. My own garden is looking rather spectacular too at the moment but so very different from yours design-wise. I have just under an acre with large oak trees so the contours of mine are rather different but I've worked hard to design with them in mind. Along with the hard work, it's so much fun, isn't it? Give yourself a job-well-done pat on the back!

So relaxing to listen and watch...

Your garden looks terrific! Was the pergola over the patio there already or did you build it?

Thank you gardenweed! I'll make another video when other plants have bloomed.

mxk3, yes that's the pergola I built! :)

I have a thread here somewhere in gardenweb about my patio/pergola build. I posted pics from day 1 to end. I'll search for it later.

BEAUTIFUL!!!! Thank you for the tour.

Poetry in plants and music. Lovely!

Thank you so much marquest and sweet_betsy! Glad you like it! :)

Beautiful plants! Thanks for giving us a tour of your garden.

You are very welcome April wine!

I sooo enjoyed that, you have many of the same things I do, some are good spreaders! I love the smokebush pic with the two story birdhouse and white boulder...do you cut back the smokebush each year? Love that red!
Lovely place you have!
We have had lots of rain this year, so my gardens are looking nicer than usual...and transplanting/splitting things is much easier AND successful. The temps have not been over 80 much, which is very unusual.
Thanks for sharing!

Yup, I cut the smokebush every March and leave about 2 inches only. :D

Yup, nice weather. I'm going out later to fix the positioning of the russian sage plants.

Thank you so much! I'm so glad you like it. I will make another video maybe around August. I still have other plants that haven't bloomed yet and some are still growing. :)

Wow! You built that!?! I'm impressed! I'm one of those who feels the most valuable tool in the toolbox is the checkbook - a hire it done kind of gal all the way. DH is sort of handy, *maybe* just *maaaaybe* if he had time he could do something like that....but I don't know... I admire people who can build things!

myk3,

This is the thread about my patio pergola build. However, most of the links that are on this page are dead. Unforunately, we don't have Edit feature in Gardenweb.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/design/msg0802193616658.html

But I still have the pictures stored in my personal web server.
http://neil.privatedns.org/patiopergolaproject/

:)

Looks great!!!!

Great video skills, the quality is great. But would like some pics of the beds rather than closeups.

Your gardens are lovely V1! I remember all the winter sowing, pergola building, baby Catalpas, etc. and they are looking great. It looks like your yard has filled in quite a bit.

And your milkweed plants look like Common milkweed to me.

Oh my goodness, what a treat that was. I could just feel your love of even the simplest of plantings. That each plant you have is appreciated for what it adds. Absolutely lovely.

Thank you so much David, Miclino, Terrene and Patty. :)

Terrene, yes, wtrsowing rocks! I'll do it again this year. I would like to add more Penstemon Husker Reds. They are tough and lovely plants.

About Milkweed, I just noticed today that it send out different suckers 2 ft away. There was another one that wasn't in the video. I'm thinking of removing at least 6 inches from it so it doesn't droop around September. What do you think?

miclino,

Here is your request. :)

I looked at my library. Unfortunately, these are the only pics that I have, mostly are close-ups. It's from first week of May(first 5 pictures). Most of the plants haven't showed up yet on those pictures. My crabapple tree looks great here but not on the video.

You can click on the picture to display actual size.

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Below is the latest one from June 2. When I get a chance this weekend, I'll grab more pics.

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How beautiful!! Loved the video and your gardens are lovely!
Joann

Thank you so much Joann! I'm glad you like it!!! :)

Very nice! Now post some updated pics lol

Will do. I actually should have been watchful especially with my Weigelas. I'm not sure if it's going to hurt my Siberian Iris. Last year, they weren't being covered by the Weigela plants. Now they are :(

By the way, can Siberia Iris withstand more than 10 hours of full sun?

Neil - it's been my experience since I began gardening here on the old family homestead that killing Siberian iris requires either a backhoe or K4 plastique explosive. Consider the name--it comes from Siberia and could probably survive the advent of a glacier.

Also, the weigelas (unlike arborvitaes) don't have dense foliage so they don't completely block the sun--the iris would still get dappled sun through the leaves. I have WS Siberian iris growing in full sun, half-day sun and dappled sun and they all perform uniformly well.

You are correct about Weigelas, they are not completely covering the Siberian Iris. Happy to learn more info about the toughness of Siberian Irises :D

I still would like to know if I should trim my Weigelas. It's because it's long. I'm thinking of removing at least 1 foot. However, the flowers are talking to me "Please don't remove me!!!!" LOL!!! It is so beautiful! :)

Thanks again!!!

Cut them back after flowering (next week or so in the UK), like you would with philadelphus or rambling roses - the new growth they make this year will flower next year so don't be afraid to cut back quite fiercely.
I rather like them although they tend to be a bit underused these days (although, I confess to hating the tri-coloured ones such as 'Monet'). I have abelia for the other end of the season.

What a treat to view (and listen to) your garden video while sipping my morning coffee just now! The movement of the leaves and grasses in the breeze enhanced the experience; you chose the perfect day, with the optimal amount of breeze.

You have a real talent both for creating gardens and for filming them! Thanks for sharing, and enjoy your beautiful garden.

Thank you campanula for the tips. I will follow what you said. :)

I'm so glad you like it gardeningmusician. Thank you so much for the kind words! :)

Neil - I cut back my weigela each year because I planted it too close to my walkway, thinking (erroneously) that it grew to a very minimal (2 ft.) height. It actually gets 5 ft. tall & wide so it's a bit of a problem where it's currently growing. I prune mine back each year after it finishes flowering and, as campanula pointed out, thus far it doesn't appear to suffer from that. It's thriving in fact & currently has rather a wide habit. Even pruning doesn't keep it "in bounds" as much as I need. I've observed that each season it grows back to it's maximum height & width so I offered it to my neighbor next door. I tend to tend her flowerbeds in addition to my own.

As for the Siberian iris, the biggest concern with growing them in dappled shade might be diminished blooms but so far I haven't observed that to be the case in my Z6 garden. It's been my experience they're pretty much indestructible and bullet-proof as well as pest & disease-free.

I agree with miclino - more pictures of the overall garden, rather than close-ups of specific plants, would be good. I remember your thread on building the pergola and the garden. It looks like everything is growing and filling in well so I would like to see pictures that show how it is shaping up overall... DH has a tendency to take all garden pictures as close-ups too - unless I specifically state ' you have to include [whatever] so I can see the context' :-)