Nice! I'm going to try getting some pictures this weekend... hope they aren't too dissapointing, I was going to try last week, got the photobucket account, but then didn't have anything worth photographing... plus what I did take was blurry...
There's always something.
(didn't realize you had so many iris!)

I can't figure out how to get my photos small enough for uploading....here's a webpage with lots of photos from my garden. Gerry, your garden looks GREAT!

Here is a link that might be useful: my garden pics

Wow Gerry, that looks great! And you've only been gardening in that spot for two years or so, right? (You did an exchange with me two years ago, so I remember).

I don't have a whole lot to show yet, but maybe posting some pictures will give me the motivation I need to get out there and really get things going more. I've just been so exhausted this spring with my DH travelling so much, the two kiddos, and lots of birthday/baptism/preschool celebrations.

I'll try to post something when DH gets back in a week with the digital camera.

What gorgeous flowers you all have. My roses are going great guns but the other gardens are still not at their peak yet. Here's a picture looking out on part of the rose garden and the other picture is my mixed border although you can see not a lot is blooming yet.

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What lovely gardens! Gerry, I would be insane about those irises, too. And MWoods, you remind me that I need to do more with stone. Something about the combination of roses and stone that really speaks to me.

Here are a few that I took just for myself the other day. Starting with a view of the front yard. Each year I let the hesperis bloom all over the place, and then pull it out of this bed (as best I can!):

A highly fragrant bulb whose name I forgot long ago:

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A closer view of the front bed:

A 20-year-old Gertrude Jekyll:

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A two-year-old lupine:

First bloom from Cherries 'n' Cream rose, new this year:

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Mountain bluet:

Susan

How beautiful it all looks. I have never had luck with lupines and yours are just wonderful as is the whole feel to your front yard.It looks like a true cottage garden.

Isn't June in PA wonderful? Your garden images are lovely! My garden beds aren't quite as well manicured.
A shady area
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A sunny area
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A combo I like
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I finally got a chance to get back to the post, all the pictures are so nice...it is indeed a wonderful time of year here. I am also getting some great ideas to use myself!

Keep em coming guys and gals

Gerry

Here are some from my porch
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Here are a few pics I took a bit earlier. The cherry tree was blooming early May, the rest I took early this month while the peonies were in bloom. Realize I should keep going out to take pics as the lilies bloom.

Susan, beautiful pond and peonies!

Ronnie, I love your porch and will probably be stealing you lattice work idea.

Marcia, I love that combo also, I have the blanket flower and salvia, but mine are way to far apart, like 15 feet :-( Is that an easy livin' rose in there? I have also seen your pics on the Rose Forums, I am going to have to beg some cuttings from you, if you do not mind sharing?

Alisande, Lupines are so nice, wish I had better luck with them, and I love your Gert rose!

Mwoods, so nice to have a wooded area near the house, I always dreamed of living in the country. What is that rose in the upper left of your picture, a New Dawn?

Thanks for the pictures!

Kato, I don't see any from your yet.....hmmm????????

Gerry

Gerry you're killing me. I thought if I kept quiet people would forget...

My "garden" is pretty depressing. I might have to do flower closeups so you don't see the rest! But then on the other hand I can always be that person that makes everyone else feel better about their own yard!

I hope to post them soon!
Some great pictures by the way (and talented gardeners!) there are so many nice flowers this time of year.
Ronnie, I see brugs in your pots, I'm jealous!
Kato

Wow, more beautiful gardens and landscaping. Love your pond and cherry tree, Susan. I just bought a post-type Japanese lantern (concrete) that I'm trying to find a spot for.

Gerry, it is a Livin' Easy rose. It doesn't get very large, since it's about 5 inches tall every spring! But it does usually have flowers and/or buds on it. I'm sending you an email.

Here is another part of my garden. Anyone like walking onions? :-)
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Ronnie1 - You have my patio. Feel free to bring it by anytime. :)

I love it! You've created almost exactly what I've pictured for my deck. I have to show MDH your photos. We face due west and we're building a deck, but I wanted to do a pergola over the deck with latttice along the side closest to our neightbor and stop after the corner for extra shade.

Everyone's pictures are great. I wish I had a backyard to show off. Right now I have a immature garden with the current highlights being a Whisper rose bush and hollyhocks just about to bloom. Soon I'll have a hydrangea and gladiolas in bloom.

I'm glad I took that picture of the lupine when I did...a few days ago we had a torrential rain that absolutely flattened itÂbent in every direction.

Gardening does have its ups and downs, as we all know. :-)

Kato, I am hoping to see at least one flower this year or they are not getting back in the house for the winter!!

Elongrad that made me laugh!! That pergola was a very nice suprise from DH 2 years ago, right after my dad died.

Here are a few pics of my front yard. Sorry about the quality, hope to get a new camera soon.

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Sorry for the quality of this photo, but I tryed many shots and for some unknown reason they are not sharp.
This is a small bed, approx. 17' x 4', off of the back porch which seems to change each year. Starting at the far left is a three-sided trellis with Venosa Violacea, and Arctic Queen, followed by 3 Pink Knockout roses, 1 Betty Prior, a copper trellis with a bush clematis similar to Sweet Autumn, a bush clematis (little blue flowers), 2 Lilian Austin roses (a top 3), 3 Elle rose bushes, and wax begonias, and Starfire phlox. The statue at the upper left is a Christmas present from DH and is either a garden fairy or garden angel, and there is a little girl w/bird at the lower left. The annuals are wax begonias, and Blue Morn petunias, with heliotrope in the center. There is some open space, but my DH likes a more minimalistic look, my large garden is a different story. : ) More photos later.
Jane
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Here is my iris Mulled Wine. It's done blooming now.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1110250}}

Wow. I thought posting pictures would be hard, but Photobucket makes it really easy. Here are a few selected views...... edited for content.
I must say the pictures look a lot better than I thought they would considering how 'yucky' my garden really is. I guess low light and low camera angles help.
Now all I need is a new camera!!
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Here is the the left side of the garden. Nice white astilbe in the back and some catnip I bought just because I was depressed about my lack of blooms. I love the iris and my rhododendron is looking healthy. Not the chewed up roof that still needs replacing :(
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Top view. That's the rabbit house in back (Casa de Bobo). You can see the only other color in my yard is the pink knockout rose....
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This is THE "Tropical Garden". I love my tropical garden. It's about the only permanent bed I have, everything else is probably moving somewhere else somewhere down the line.... you would think I'd save myself some trouble and plant the perennials THERE and not have to move them again.
Not.

I definately need a new camera.......

All of these beds are absolutely gorgeous and magazine cover worthy!! How nic to see them, thanks for sharing. I have a pic of one of my flowerbeds if you go to my page and follow the link. I'm on my lunch hour at work, and if I try to get the pic in here, it would take me more than my hour! The pic was taken a while back. The flowers are pretty much the same, but I have a new, fatter bottle tree that I really love.

Kato

How lucky you are to be nestled in a cozy, lush hillside. The plants are the icing on the cake.

So many photos of aspiration worthy gardens!

This is my little space of... garden bliss, or something like that. Actually, I'm somewhat less than slowing taking over the entire backyard. I've succeeded in my "no grass policy" to the extent that no areas of 'mowable' lawn exist in the backyard at this point.

This is my second year of gardening, foreground of the photo below are my herbs, then within the blocked area I have tomatoes & peppers, along the right side is a bed of dahlias, and toward the back with the bench & birdbath I have the rose garden.

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It's definitely a work in progress, still working on that pathway, finally put down some more broken concrete today. ;) It's my "poor man's" flagstone.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1110252}}

Lavinia- I do like the hillside, the only problem is it's got a northern exposure, all the fowers face uphill away from the house! ... so I plant spiky stuff and other flowers that don't face one way or the other. (sunflowers are out! they would have their backs to me all summer)

Wow indiboi, looks good! The dahlias look like they're on steroids. I took a look at the before pictures, you have been VERY busy.

Everyone's gardens look wonderful at this time of year! What inspirations. I'm trying to bring my garden back from being descimated by the landscaper when putting in a new patio. Maybe this year will be the before and soon I'll have some after photos!

Karen

Thanks for sharing. Here's my little peice of Paradise.

Here is a link that might be useful: Nettie's Garden

I feel a bit intimidated by how beautiful everyone's garden looks -- but like with skinnydipping, its best to just rush in...

These are from the spring

Springcherry

Here's my garden, happy from last night's rain:

The yucca/boxwood combination

climbing rose, either eden or new dawn

motherwort, one of my favorite herbs in the garden

the massive bed of monarda is about to burst into bloom

a cute kitty pix, near my favorite perennial geranium

Wow - you have all made me feel jealous and inspired! lol! I wish I could post some pics. BEAUTIFUL!! I can't wait until my gardens mature the way yours has.

Gerry--I think your Clematis is Blue Angel- a very pretty one that blooms early and long.

mgood4u

Indi your garden is a real inspriation to me as I am right in the middle of a rehab of my yard, heading towards the "no mowable grass" goal. It's nice to know how far someone can come in a couple of years of sweat. Speaking of sweat, did you do the patio by the bench? What's the compostion? I see what looks like pieces of stone, but I can't tell what's in between. What is it laid over? I'm right now contemplating doing an area of my yard about the same size as that.

My patio, what I've been calling my "poor man's flagstone" is actually broken up pieces of ugly concrete sidewalk pavers, roughly 2' square, about an inch and a half thick. We had them left over from when we redid the front walkway, so I decided to at least make some sort of 'good use' of them. A few blows with a heavy hammer and they shattered into usable pieces.

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The construction, if you will, is very simple. I put down a hefty layer of newspaper, place the broken concerete pieces (face down, as they're much more 'natural' looking on the underside), then fill in around them with 'top soil' (bagged at $1.17 per cubic foot from the evil blue store - so much easier than finding a place to dig it up, and easier than getting rid of the grass & weeds to put them into the existing ground). The soil, while a playground for weeds, helps to stabilize the concrete blocks quite well. I then topdress the whole thing with an inch of cocoa bean hulls. I like the cocoa hulls because they have an appearance of stone, but will biodegrade. The hulls are hideously expensive as compared to shredded bark mulch, but each bag does 24 square feet, so... it works out nicely. Total cost for what is seen in the above photo, $15 for cocoa mulch and bagged dirt.

I've run out of the concrete pavers, unfortunately, I'm tempted to buy new ones to finish the path. ;-) I think it looks a bit funny at the moment, please pardon the redundancy of the photo:

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I'm linking my 'progress' gallery below, if you're interested in seeing where I started this year, versus the previous photo from 2003. :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Progress 2005

My Courtyard...

Pond & Pool area...
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Indiboi, thank you so much for posting those great pics and for taking time to spell out how you did what you did. As you can see in this post, I have some concrete pavers waiting for a good home. I'm thinking about turning this area into something like you have, on a smaller scale.

This is the azalea album.

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These are figurines amongst some annuals.

Here is a link that might be useful: Figurines

These are my coneflowers and one of my pots:

Sally