The new iris bed progress

Here is what is done so far. I have nine rows in. Each are 40 feet long. I extended another five feet at the one end too.



On Sunday I went to my friend Lynda's and she dug 19 new varieties for me. Probably 100 irises in total, if not more. So now I have to plant all those as well! Two boxes and a paper bag full. They are gorgeous rhizomes. Large and very healthy. Can't wait to see the show.




Here is Lynda's amazing farm. These are updates to the photos I had posted a few weeks ago.


One of the large barns, the greenhouse and her new gazebo. Behind the barn is a chicken coop as well.



The border near the house. You can see the other large barn in the back.


The flower beds along the stream.

New Garden Bed

It's all done. The manure and leaves are in. Here are some of the plants that will find their way into the new bed. Not all of them though. Making several more beds for that.



This is the bunch that I paid $38 for.


All Heuchera's.


A couple toad lilies.


Hakone Grass.


A whole mess of stuff including, primula, astible, umbrella plant, rodgersia, pulmonaria, dwarf solomon's seal, etc...and a dirty foot.


Four different epimediums as well. .40 cents each.


All these plants were on clearance. Run out and check your local garden centers, hurry!

Gourmet Garlic

Looking for a great source for gourmet garlic? Here you go. Great prices and customer service. Organic and sustainably grown.

Gourmet Garlic Gardens

Wide selection plus an extremely informative website. All positive feedback at Garden Watchdog as well. I'm placing my order for the Hardneck assortment today since it is the best choice for northern gardens.

They carry around 20 varieties plus 7 different assortments.

Note: This post is unsolicited. I just wanted to let you all know about this great garlic source!

My Dream Yard

These are some shots of a friends garden. This is just one small area of her yard. I for some reason didn't take more pics when I was there. She lives in a beautiful old farmhouse complete with several large barns, two cabins, and several small storage buildings, a greenhouse, sauna, and gazebo!

A small portion of her wonderful primula collection. Many are from seed from England.



A glimpse of one of the large barns.


The sauna and stream.

Is It Over?

The season isn't far from over here in MI. Night's have been very cool and I've seen some Maple's turning orange already. I only work five more weeks and then it's back to NC. Lot's to do till then.

Still waiting for tomatoes. Squash is prolific, when isn't it? The phlox, agastache, herbs and hydrangea's are blooming. Did I mention that I bought three new hydrangea's and a wisteria? I have, in three weeks, come home with a total of 111 new plants for under $100. Now that's how it's done!

Here is an Allium from earlier this year. It's either gladiator, globemaster or gigantium.

My Car Full of Plants

Here are the pictures from this past May when I loaded up my car and headed back up to MI for the summer from NC.

This is about as full as a cobalt can be. The whole trunk was just plants. Much of back seat was too. I had them in bags and boxes. Slugs, spiders and ants started crawling around with us during the trip.



Everything in this pic is plants.


See the greenery now. The canvas garden tote you see is all seeds! That empty space you see was filled after this shot. Its where we put my back pack and my brothers stuff.


I had 30 tomato plants, 9 hostas, 10 heucheras, 15 astibles, 5 hellebores, veggies, herbs, assorted perennials, etc.... I have a problem.

Season of Sales

I stopped at a local plant nursery on my way home from work last Thursday. Just to look around i told myself. Then I stumbled upon the clearance area. Here is what I bought.

umbrella plant
astilbe color flash
a. delft lace
a. erica
a. unknown
Sensitive fern
Royal fern
Burgundy lace fern
corydalis chocolate stars
c. berry exciting
Heuchera lemon chiffon
h. encore
h. rosalie
h. burnished bronze
h. chocolate ruffles
white epimedium
pink epidmedium
dwarf solomons seal
clematis barbara harrington
anna belle hydrangea
jap iris agoga kujuo
pulmonaria raspberry ice
rodgersia
tiarella spring symphony
t. pink bouquet
echinacea double delight
trycertis lightning strike

In all I walked out with 50 plants. Mostly one gallon size. Guess how much. $38.

New Garden Spaces

This is my freshly tilled new bed for my 09 iris orders. I have over 200 coming. I'm not sure what the measurements are but its around 40x40 feet I'm guessing. I will be adding another further back in the yard as well.




Here are the new shade areas I have to work with. I plan to do some raised beds in here and put in lots of hostas, hellebores, astilbe, heuchera, bulbs, etc.

We are ripping out these shrubs to put in Rhododendrons, azaleas and other shade plants. I would love to attract lots of birds to this window too.



You can see some plants just waiting to be planted. These are just some of the plants that made the trip from NC this past spring.


This is my mothers little fountain that she has been working on. Right now its just kinda sitting there but once we get some landscaping on that little hill it should fit in nicely.

I Love....

Blue skies and fluffy clouds.


Views

Old barns

and manure

It's Cherry Time

The cherry crop is huge this year. One of the biggest we have had in this area. These are sweets. They will be starting harvest this week in most areas.






Here are some Montmorency tart cherries.