FlowerLady, I love it! All of your pictures are special, and you did a wonderful job on your site (I love "Summertime").

Your love for your home and garden definitely shines through~

Hmmmmmmmm hmmmmm hmmmm.
This is me humming Summertime. Stuck in my head all day long. Love the lushness of your garden!! and the art.

georgeanne

Flowerlady, the photographs are just gorgeous! Really beautiful. I love the blue pea vine in the wedding grotto.
Do you get people asking you if they can have wedding photos taken at your home?

GGG

Very lovely pics flowerlady6.How wonderful that you have so many gardens,and the art...I'm so jealous,lol!

Hi Ladies ~ Sorry I've not gotten back in here to answer your posts. We were getting ready for a mountain vacation, going away for a week, been home three weeks trying to get out of vacation mode and back into our normal routine. Now we are having to deal with the threat of Ernesto.

We didn't have a drop of rain the whole time we were on vacation, so I lost a few potted things. Have had lots of rain ever since the day after we got home, so everything is really doing nicely now.

Southernheart ~ Thank you for your kind words. I really enjoyed making the web page. The tune was just right for it. For many years we just sort of didn't do much of anything, then we got the bug and have transformed our little compound. Humble though it may be, there is no place like home.

Georgeanne ~ Sorry about making that tune stick in your head all day. :-) It is even more lush around here with all the rain we've been getting and we're about to get a couple of days of lots of it from Ernesto.

GGG ~ No, people don't ask us to have wedding pictures taken in our gardens or grotto. The grotto is our own special little wedding grotto from when DH and I had a sweet private ceremony renewing our love to each other. I reccommend it to everyone. It was a love and fun-filled wonderful experience.

Missourilark ~ Don't be jealous. What you don't see are all the weeds, bare spots, 'junk' etc. We just used to have a big open yard. Love it so much more now that it is enclosed. The different gardens just evolved with time. We've lived here since the summer of 1973.

Right now the sun is shining, it's hot and breezy. You wouldn't know that Ernesto is down south of us over Cuba heading in our direction with lots of rain and some wind. How much wind we have no idea yet. It was a hurricane, now it has winds down to 40, so it's just a tropical storm. I hope it fizzles out over Cuba and never regains it's strength back. Rains and winds are supposed to start tomorrow. I dread it, but there's nothing to do but wait and see and be prepared. We may or may not board up this time. I was supposed to work all week and now will probably lose two of those days to Ernesto. Dang! I work part-time so was looking forward to this full week.

Anyway, I hope no one suffers severe damages from Ernesto and hope he heads back out to sea.

FlowerLady

FlowerLady - I love Plum Cottage. You are always so positive and understanding in your replies and posts. Your incredible yard is a true inspiration for all of us. You show how your tender care of your gardens gives you such a wonderful special world surrounding your cottage.
Rachel

Good morning Rachel and thank you for your kind and inspiring words. They helped to make this Sunday morning even better. The sun is shining right now, but it's very dark to the east of us, so it looks like we may get even more rain. We've had lots of rain since Ernesto left, every afternoon, heavy, heavy downpours. I need to mow and weedwack but the grass needs to dry some really before I tackle either thing. Vines are taking over the back of the property. When it gets cooler, I want to work back there. Plus all the gardens need weeding, trimming, etc. It's just to dang hot and humid to do more than necessary. :-)

We live and garden frugally, so I don't have all the beautiful flowers I would love to have. I get more plants by seeds, cuttings, and from gardening friends here on GW and other forums. I have bought some, but it's occasionally, not a regular diet. :-) I oooh and aaah over all the lush, colorful, beautiful gardens here and just have to take a step back and remember to be thankful for all that I do have. As gardeners we can get a serious case of envy, and that's not a good thing. Life's too short and precious to waste on envying others for what they have. I do believe the summer heat and humidity take a toll on gardens everywhere and I'm looking forward to the cooler weather when our gardens thrive down here.

I am inspired and amazed at all the wonderful gardeners gardens and projects. Pictures really get the juices flowing and you want to get right outside and start working.

Here are a couple of pictures I took this morning.

FlowerLady

White bougainvilla
{{!gwi}}

Queen butterfly on milkweed flowers {{!gwi}}

How nice to see more of your garden. I posted on this thread yesterday, but the cat made it go a way before I could submit...anything moving is up for grabs with this little guy.

Have never traded plants before. Should go look at the possibilities for next spring. Most of the plantings in my yard are spring blooming bushes/trees. It is a large yard with a mixture of shade/sun, but hasn't been taken care of for years, what small plants did come up was very sparce. I suspect it was a beautiful yard at one time since there is a lot of brick work and concrete paths. Most of this is under a couple of inches of soil, showing up at odd times when it rains. I dug up enough pavers to put in a winding path in the front.

I have dogs too, which limits where plants can go, one loves romping through life. There is plenty of room to create small garden retreats out of their way though.

I love all your buildings and am planning on putting a small shed/sitting porch between two old trees in the back. After reroofing there is a monster pile of wood shingles that have a beautiful aging on them and am using them to side the shed.

While reading another forum in GW, wandered across the topic of outhouses. I always wanted an outhouse in my garden, not a usuable one, something creative...shades of childhood memories. They are such simple buildings and personally think they have special places in gardens. The outhouse thread is a tad funny with many writing about memories of such and a few who think the topic is rediculous.

Our summer is over and flowers are at their end...summer sure flew by this year. The back needs some creative planting, will have to learn what will grow there. Will be interesting to find new plants and learn another side of gardening.

I did get the front yard planted in xeriscape to save on water costs and yard work. Plus the deer eat anything young and sweet, had to figure out what they don't like. Xeriscape plants do well blooming from spring to fall. With the abundance of rain we have had they are growing like weeds and still in full bloom. Am beyond pleased with the results.

Enjoy your day,

Sandy in CO