cwheat000

Magical place. The only thing more beautiful than your garden are your babies.

Tractor1- I think the corn like plant is an ornamental millet

Nancy, beautiful tree peonies. I have not seen those varieties before. For the record, I have not found tree peonies tricky to grow at all. I only have one yellow one,however I don't fuss with it at all. My mom has several and she too never feeds or fusses with them. Some varieties are quite pricey, but there are many reasonably priced ones that are still amazing. I got mine at an end of season sale for around 20 dollars. My only complaint is, their beauty is fleeting. They are worth a space in everyone's garden. If anyone is within driving distance to Litchfield County CT( that would be you Nancy), try within the next week to see the tree peony gardens of White Flower Farm in Litchfield,CT and Cricket Hill in Thomaston,CT. Amazing!

I wish I could take a lesson from this super cute pair. We all need to sit back and really enjoy the garden, once in a while. We need to feel the sunshine on our face, watch the shadows change, watch the bugs do their thing, etc. The joy and the curse of a garden, is the work is never done. I have been working on a large, weedy and overgrown garden,( with some great features)of an antique house in Connecticut. The work is nowhere near done, but I will try to share some pics later this season. My English pointer is like me. He has a hard time sitting still.

Hi everyone. I think it is a petasites. I love that plant, but it is one that should be contained underground ( with a lot of moisture , it can get a little to happy). Lovely garden Ann. I went to high school one town away from your town.

Beautiful garden. I am guessing the red leaved plant next to the asters is an itea 'little Henry' with its fall color? Meander 1 get well soon. So sorry to hear you are in the hospital. My grandmother had her gall bladder removed in her 40's ( in the 1950's) and lived to her late 90's. Apparently, the gall bladder isn't too critical to survival. I hope you at least get a lot of nice get well plant gifts. Speedy recovery!

i have often found that people who love gardens and dogs are great people. Both your garden and your pups are wonderful.

i have created several large mixed borders, but have hardly made a dent in my over two acres of lawn. Most of it is large pasture behind the house . I either need to get some farm animals to graze it or I need this book.

meander1 , I guess that does make you the Paula Abdul of garden judging. Don't worry, you definately don't seem that loopy. I would probably be a Paula Abdul, too. I love your philosophy on life. Don't go changing. We love you just the way you are. Tractor1, thanks for the pruning tip. I already do much of what you said, but it never dawned on me to leave a little drip eave above. That makes perfect sense.

Happy birthday Michelle. Thank you for bringing us these beautiful pictures every day. I open this E-mail every day, even though I only have the time to comment now and then. I always love to read meander1 and tractor1's comments. Yes, tractor1's comments. I think its wonderful he has the guts to speak his mind freely, even if I don't always agree( I liked yesterday's garden tractor1). Tractor1 is the Simon Cowell of garden judging. I mean that as a compliment. I'm not a huge fan of American idol, but the show is not as good without some hard criticism. Tim's shade garden today, is way beyond average. Nice job.

This year my new year's garden resolutions are to fill the gaps in my garden beds with plants that will be truely interesting for at least 3 seasons. I want to put in perennials and shrubs with great foliage and contrasting textures.I want to try out some combinations in some of my containers I usually reserve for annuals only. I will plant the winning combinations in the garden at the end of the season. I want to allow some annuals and tender perennials back into the garden for some strategic pops of color, even though they will require work or replacement to come back. They offer so much for a little work and money.(I am only thinking about 20% or less of the bed space.)I resolve to not get so busy working that I forget to put on sunscreen (or not). Lastly and most importantly, I want to plan some cool and fun projects I can share with the love of my life, my little girl( she will be 3 next June). She is already a great garden buddy. She makes me mud birthday cakes with twig candles all season. She collects whole worm families for me with mommy worms, baby worms, daddy worms,uncle,aunt,grammie and cousin worms. And she eats all her veggies before they even make it inside. Happy gardening to all of you and your loved ones out there, in 2012!

amazing seed pods

Lovely design Jan! In response to the first comment, that garden must have deer fencing or use deer repellents. I went to high school in the area. It is about an hour train ride out of New York City and the deer are highly concentrated there. The area is surprisingly woodsy for being still in commuting distance to NYC. Do check out the blog. It is a wonderful garden.

This hedge is awesome and I think I've seen it before. I stayed at a friend's family beach house out that way when I was 18. This hedge looks identical to one I took note of, when I wasn't even in to gardening. If its the same hedge, it must be really old, because I am 40 now. I also drove by the same pumpkin people photo of the day, a day or two ago, when I was traveling south from the town green of our un-named northwest, CT town.
Small world! We must be neighbors and have a similar eye for gardens. I will have to post some photos of my local garden. Thank you for all the great photos.
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