.

I did plant a few seeds. Red corn poppies, but they're just coming up. The columbine just bloomed, I planted those from seed. Cat mint is another. My big thang, mass plantings of Iris. I've picked them up FREE off CL. The deer don't eat them.

I've been having trouble posting photos for a few months - for some reason it worked tonight. These were taken in early spring and we still have a lot of site work to do. Obviously this isn't the place for a formal garden! DH had the landscaper arrange the rocks and in early fall when the topsoil is delivered we'll add shrubs and sow the wildflower seeds. There are 2 lonely lilies and a few holly bushes in the top photo.

I bought a ceramic toad house, it's peaking out from under a hosta. I've seem my toads actually use it, and that's just too cute for words. 😆

Maire, that spot looks like heaven on earth.

The hosta form has a thread about ripping up the front yard going with wild flower/butterfly attracting species. #1DD tore up half of her front yard aiming for a 'cottage garden'.

I can't imagine where she got that idea! HAHAHAHAHa

Thank you Ally De - we think of it that way too. Since DH retired we've been able to spend more time here and removing the diseased and damaged trees is giving us an opportunity to add a different visual interest. The property is heavily wooded and so rocky that it's hard to plant. We used a crowbar and a mallet to plant daffodil bulbs one fall. Now that DH has created his rock garden we'll focus on that area and in the fall plant a few hardy shrubs, perennials and sow the wildflower seeds.

Trail your garden is lovely and so unique. Two questions - do you have something climbing on or protected by the woven tuteur-like objects or are they just beautiful and decorative? What is the tall white flower behind what looks like Russian sage?

@DLM2000-GW the tall white is a Monarda , I got them last year in a pint pot! yes its a dwarf Russian Sage. i think the Monardas like their home here. I got the willow tuteur from Monticello garden shop here in VA. They each have a new clematis in them. Will train them up as the years go by. I have each staked down as the wind blew them over.

Here are the front beds. I dug out more of the front yard to extend across the whole street side. slightly less wild but I keep adding more. Lots of varieties of sedums which i collect and many yarrows. Three serviceberry trees. more lavender and milk weed.

You are such enablers, but I too just bought a toad house for Thurber (and I have determined that she is a lady Gulf Coast toad). I absolutely love this ... the pink reminds me of all the sweet little cottages in Suffolk, England.

Can't believe I just spent $40 on a house for a toad, but I certainly did. 😁 Even if she doesn't use it (she may prefer a smaller opening?), I'll enjoy seeing it!

Love the toad houses. I keep hearing some sort of toad/frog at night, and I don’t know where it is. We are not really that close to even a small creek.

Love the flowers. I got a package of flower seeds from a local realtor who left a flyer at the door, so I planted them. There are a couple coming up in the back, but I think in the front the birds ate the seeds or the squirrel dug too much in the planter box.

Also, some finches have built nests in my front hanging baskets.

Gscience, I bet it's a frog you're hearing. If it croaks it's a frog. I saw a small one in my flowerbed and they can jump like crazy.

Lots of little lizards here too.

Ida, look up both TX and OK wild flowers and you can grow both. DH's seeds bloomed the first year which is the picture above.

It was a few years ago when there were a zillion toads around here, everyone had them. When it got hot I kept water for them to sit in. Someone told me I was breeding more toads by doing that. I didn't care, I mean who can resist baby toads?

Except the toad that came in the backdoor a couple of weeks ago and no one's found it.

Omg, omg, omg! Those bebby frawgs! 🥰🐸💚

Ida....LOVE your toad house!!!!

Trail....WOW! So perfect!

Oakley....baby frogs....sooooooooooooooo adorable!

We have spadefoot toads.....haven't seen any THIS year....but it's raining every day.....soon....

Trail, your beds are so very pretty! They're a bit on the wild side, but still manage to look quite stately. It's all definitely magazine- and swoon-worthy! (Oh, and I covet your bottle tree.) Did the results come by trial and error, or are you trained in gardening? I would love to mimic the look you've created, but there does appear to be a planned rhythm to what you've done.

Maire, that's such a beautiful backdrop with the trees and rocks. You're going to create a very special spot with the plants.

@User I got the bottle tree many years ago at a small shop in Opelika AL. I used to see them frequently but not much anymore. My DS and DIL had the YellowHammer Restaurant in Waverly AL back then and gave me the blue bottles after people drank the wine 😬.

Thank you for your kind words. I have zero training. It is all trial and error. The weather and soil here in VA seems to agree with me plus I have a lot of time on my hands …..

I have two neighbors also who pass along tons of plants as they thin out their beds. I love ” pass alongs”.

Last year I harvested 3 gallons of Lavender flowers and shared them. I have way more plants this year so I will be making bunches and placing the tied bouquets in a bucket on my front steps ” take two and pass along one”❤️.

Thanks Ida - we still have so much to do. I'm thoroughly enjoying all the inspiring photos that have been posted .

Trail - What a kind gesture to offer your lavender bunches. I have a few varieties planted in the border at our home. I love the color and they are a great complement underneath the red leaves on the Japanese Maple but for some reason I don't care for the scent.

That is an absolutely beautiful gesture, Trail! You're going to brighten the days of others, for sure.

❤️

Beautiful gardens @User. Your gardens work so well with the style of your home. I see homes sometimes where people don't take that into consideration. I love your colors too as our plantings are pink, blue/purple and white along with non flowering plants in different color foliage. I love silver foliage!! I also love lavender and it does smell good! I have long wanted to do a bottle tree, I'm not sure why I haven't! When I worked, I would drive the "back way" and there were two different houses where I admired their bottle trees. I need to do one with green bottles. I have seen them done using a large piece (branch I guess?) of a tree and have also seen the pre-formed ones you can buy. I believe they even have them on Amazon. I think I am going to go for it!!

When we first traveled to the Big Bend area of far west Texas, I fell in love with the very strange ocotillo plant that is native to that region. When I saw an ocotillo bottle tree there on some remote property, I instantly wanted one for myself and still do!

The real plant:

Ocotillo bottle tree:

Speaking of wild gardens, is anybody else dealing with teeny tiny burrs, about 1/8 inch or less? My garden doesn't have a lot of weeds, thanks to drip irrigation and mulching. However, I was out there this morning trimming this and that and my clothes were covered with those little buggers. I can't figure out where they're coming from.

Bunny, yes! NOC has been covered in them, and like you, I get them on my clothes. Never dealt with them in this yard before.

Another question for those of you who have lavender: I bought some to plant in containers, and one is not growing at all and the other one is maybe growing. Am I better putting these in the ground? I used fresh potting soil meant for containers and beds.

Jinx, thank goodness it's not just me. Well, sorry it's you, but maybe someone else can help us figure out what and why. I've never dealt with them before this year. The other day I was with a friend who has a mid-size poodle that got huge clumps of them in her soft fur. They cling to my shoelaces and seem particularly attracted to fabric that has some percentage of synthetic fiber. I HATE THEM!!!

I'm not traipsing through fields and untamed areas. This is in my very small front yard full of intentional perennials.

Exactly! It’s somewhere in my lawn. How they’re living through 486 degree weather and no water is baffling, but they seem to be having a great time out there!

Beautiful gardens everyone! Here's a small slice of ours from a couple weeks ago...seems I haven't been the shutterbug this year with all the current events going on.

Is it burdock that is the source of the burrs? I take so much burdock in capsule form I wish I grew it myself, but then I think about how the burrs on burdock were the inspo for velco being invented.

gsciencechick, big containers? Around here lavender is mostly planted in the ground. It likes a lot of sun. I used to have a bunch of lavenders not far from a Japanese maple, but as the tree has grown and provides more shade, the lavenders in that area have languished. They are very drought-tolerant.

My house is being eaten presently by my front garden. It is out of control and I am waiting to redo the steps before doing anything since we will need to start anew.

Back yard is only slightly better but it is staying. I swear that pine that is taller than the garage was not there last year.

I planted the skinny oak and maple and grape vine in my campy secret garden fire put area two years ago.

I planted a living fence of trees a while back for I wanted to feel like my small village lot was more forest like. It is very over grown and filled with birds, chimpmonks and bunnies now. None of the trees behind my pool were there seven years ago.

Side yard pretty wild too

Bunny, and others, the containers are more decorative, so no, not big containers at all, so more of a medium pot. I thought I could grow it and be able to contain it, no pun intended!

Absolutely gorgeous gardens, Sea and roarah! Wow. I'm having some pretty serious garden envy, but in a good way! Your beautiful outdoor spaces are all so inspiring.

My lavender is in a glazed pot in one of my planting beds. I've been saying it's Spanish lavender, because I'm pretty sure that's what was on its tag (it came from Lowes), but I can't be 100% positive. It does well in full sun and seems to like daily watering, but anything would here when it's been an average of 237 degrees for weeks on end it seems. It smells absolutely divine. It has, of course, a lavender scent, but there's almost a clean, soapy finish to the aroma. If I could bottle it and wear it as perfume, I would.

Ida, I think your potted plants are going to need more watering than those established in the ground on a drip. My English lavenders are fine with 2-3 waterings a week. I'm biased, but I think they smell even better than the Spanish varieties.

Gscience, I stole a pot of Lavender from the greenhouse and put it in a large clay pot with a hole in the bottom. Full sun and if it's young water it and put mulch on top...per Jinx and it works. No need to fertilize. The following year I decided to move the pot and the roots went into the ground. It's thriving still after a few years. Through ice and frigid temps it still comes back.

It has to be cut back every spring.

I'm going to help Rorah with her garden then stay for a few days and make sure the pool is feeling loved. Beautiful.

Lavender, wish I could help with that. I've tried a few times here, in the ground, but they never were happy even though we get plenty of sun. Lavender is so special if it's happy with you.

The columbine were planted from seed. The iris is from an "Iris Society" sale last year.

^^^ Ohhhh. Those delicious colors!

So all you fancy "toad abode" owners out there, did you mail order? Like I said, I really want one but worried about mail ordering and then it coming broken. I'd really like a ceramic or fired clay one, not that plastic resin stuff, which degrades too fast for my taste. I've been stopping at garden centers on this road trip I'm on, but so far haven't seen either a toad abode or a gazing ball that I like. I have been looking for a specific kind, one with a mosaic on it of a cardinal. For years I was seeing them everywhere but not buying because I didn't have a spot. Now I have a spot and can't find one. The folks at the garden center said that they were getting sparse supplies of some things, and gazing balls were one of them. Probably made in China. Snapdragons have been another sparse plant. Used to see gads of them but not anymore. I think they are not popular because they bloom and then have to be cut back to rebloom so they have a period of not blooming. Pansises too.

This is not my "wild" garden, (that's still a work in progress) but a tiny little garden just by the steps leading off of our deck. It's kind of a literary homage garden so far. The first photo is a garden pun, a dragon among the snapdragons but they look "meh" right now. I should have gotten more when I could. Next year I will try and find some "dragon's breath" celosia to start from seed.

The second one is a little fairy next to my Mom's fairy rose.

Pink - I did a mail order for my ceramic one, many years ago.

If you are ok buying from Amazon or even Walmart, if it arrives broken they will refund/exchange it so your risk is low. I buy a lot of stuff from both places, and rarely have an issue with breakage.

However coincidentally my instant coffee from Walmart arrived smashed to smithereens just like 2 weeks ago....however a quick chat with customer service and all was right in the world again. (Normally they package breakable or leak-able stuff really well - but they really had an off day when the packaged my coffee last time.....)

I ordered my toad abode from an Etsy seller. She messaged me almost immediately and said she was shipping it that day. I've ordered so many breakable things via mail (all of these dishes, for instance):

Out of all the breakable items I've ordered by mail, the amount of breakage has been insignificant. Of course, it's always painful to have it happen, but I've been successful at having payment refunded, so really don't think twice if there is something I want that's delicate. I had a teapot arrive all the way from Assis, Italy I'm pristine condition.

Your dragon and fairy are wonderful, Pink!

Here they are. The one in the brighter pot is older. The other one seems to be doing a little better and actually growing.

Checked out some toad houses on Etsy and Amazon. They're quite expensive and nothing really rang my bell. I think I may go old-school and just bury a clay pot.

@Oakley, that is like what happened with our mint. It grew out the pot, put down roots, and is growing everywhere. I thought lavender did the same thing, so I’m surprised it isn’t growing. . Also, our chives spread from the pot and grow wild, but that’s a good thing because I love chives.

Look what else is growing in our yard. And there is another one that is super tiny. It’s a fawn nursery here. 😍

Awwww! What a dear little deer!

Our toad abode arrived, and as you can see, our toad (in her burrow next door) is not yet a convert to modern housing.

Oh COME ON. That’s too cute for words!!

Ida maybe you are to blame for all the really cute toad houses on Etsy being sold out. Maybe this post sparked a run on them!

Ida, have you noticed anyone setting up in the new house? Decorating, inviting friends over? 😄

Such beautiful gardens everyone.

Ida, you’ve created a beautiful space in your small backyard. Love your Vitex. We have a million toads, most the regular variety I find in pots and burrowed in the ground. I have seen a leopard frog and we have a lot of green tree frogs. I put out a toad hoise but never found a toad using it. It is fun to find the million itty bitty toads in the spring hopping around.

And Trail, I can’t say enough about your gorgeous spaces.

I have taken too many photos this year, but here is one I took a few days ago when a cloud came over.

Sharing some of my messy wild garden

Oooo, yes to messy gardens! :)

One summer I tossed handfuls of Sweet William seed into a grassy field next to the parking lot at work. The next spring it was loaded with gorgeous flowers! It looked so nice that the guys who mowed the field made a point to leave them unmowed, :)

Here are bits of my messes this year….

and for jinx, one of my NOCs :)

@User...That toad and toad house rocks! 🐸

@localeater...& @party_music50.....WOWSER! Love ALL the flowers! 🥀🥀🥀