Welcom, Lily51. Your garden sounds neat. I'd definitely like to see some pictures.

Lily- Welcome to the forum! Your garden sounds very pretty and how nice that your son built your raised beds for you. What a great Mother's Day gift :)

I would love to see pictures of your garden. The "path of thyme" with the sundial is a great idea. We live in the country, too. What zone are you in? I'm just wondering what perennial herbs grow well for you...I'm in zone 4 and just starting herbs this year.

I'm in Ohio, Zone 5. lavender is great after the first year, oregano gets gigantic, thyme, lamb's ear, mints,
dill, chives, cilantro to name a few.
basil is an annual that i plant lots of, but wait till memorial day at least since it is so tender.

What are your gardens like?

Lily- I have started too many gardens this year (LOL) but the herbs are in the kitchen garden/potager. It's evolved a lot, since I originally started laying it out...but I guess that's natural for a garden :)

I have a black metal arbor with two benches facing each other that I found on sale and it's the focal point of the garden. I love that we can sit out there and look down at the creek in the evening. I've planted morning glory and moonflowers on the corners, but they're still fairy small. Hopefully they'll grow fast and give us a lot of shade by the time it really gets hot in the summer.

I have tomatoes planted (with basil and marigolds) behind each bench, with grass paths (right now they're dirt) going around it. On the perimeters are purple raspberries, lots of blueberries, strawberries growing under both and forsythias (eventually a wind block) on the third side. On the inside of the blueberries and forsythias are two vegetable beds (kind of an L-shape) that are for beans, carrots, cabbage, lettuce, etc. with a bean pole and sunflowers in one area. This is my nephew's area, which will be in a different garden next year, but we're "sharing" for now :)

Next to the benches/arbor was supposed to be a mini-potager, but the space ended up being smaller than I had imagined, so it's an 8' round bed with a birdbath in the center. I'm putting that bed in right now, with salvias, marigolds, zinnias, coneflowers, daisies, cosmos, etc. that will hopefully attract butterflies and bees to the garden.

Behind the round bed (the perimeter closest to the road) I have pontillia shrubs with herbs on one side and eventually asparagus on the other. I'm starting the asparagus from seed, so this year they'll be in a nursery bed and I'm putting watermelon, canteloupe and zucchini in that bed.

The garden is a big rectangle, so in each corner I have a John Cabot rose, with butterfly bushes on either side and catmint behind the roses. Two Therese Bugnets are on either side of a wooden bench behind the birdbath garden and I have snow pavement roses at both entrances.

I love the garden and all the flowers and fruit make it so inviting. Next year, my nephew's going to get a bigger garden area (he thinks it's all his anyway LOL) where he can put the bean teepee, pumpkins, melons, potatoes, corn, etc. I think we'll do the Peter Rabbit theme there, instead, as there's even a "potting shed" nearby :)

I will post pictures as soon as I get the last few beds planted, but I may need some help with posting...I'm pretty new to digital cameras!

Lavender -- If you're not sure about posting a pic. Search on embedding a picture in message. Lots of folks have posted how-tos. I usually post mine on the garden galleries here and then embed them in the post. We want to see those pics.

It must be so relaxing to sit on your arbor benches. I took the morning paper out to the garden this a.m. with the intention of reading it on my arbor bench. Instead I wound up huntin' bugs. Still haven't read the paper.

lily51 --A couple of pics of my garden are on the "Blending in with your surroundings" thread.

Hi -

I really got into redoing our potager this year (from the one I started two years ago.)

Our potager is about 12' x 24' and is bordered on the west by a picket fence, on which I have mandarin honeysuckle vines growing. There is a three-panel trellis at the end of the north side, for our green beans. So far, the east side is open. I am working on a plan for our home's foundation to serve as the south wall (being that it is in just the right place, would just require a lot of work.)

We have pea gravel paths that criss-cross, with the center path longer, and two raised beds on each side of that path. In the front two beds are sunflowers, tomatoes, peppers, red onions, alyssum, kale, cucumbers, lettuce, carrots, bee balm and bachelor buttons. In the back two beds are cauliflower, tomatoes, lettuce, squash, lavender, black-eyed susans, purple coneflowers, shasta daisies, and catmint. Also there are marigolds throughout all the beds to tie things together.

There are also four large blue and green pots with cherry tomatoes and herbs in the side paths, along with two cobalt blue old fashioned metal lawn chairs. And there are a few decorative fairies flying around amongst the plants.

I also planted a dwarf red delicious apple tree at the edge of the back beds. It seems to be doing okay! And there is a bird bath about 10-12 feet from the edge of the garden.

So that is our garden - hope it's been interesting.

- Donna

donna
thanks for the description of your potager. The pea gravel paths sound like a good idea...i just use heavy mulch, but have to re-do each year.

You have a nice variety to your garden; and i do love blue accects in pots, etc. my blue accent is a birdbath (always remembered my grandmother's).

What is your secret for good cauliflower?I quit growing it because it never turned out very good.

Enjoy your garden this summer.