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My Gardens

Last Updated: 7/26/10

Snow iris on 3/18/06.

There are many gardens on our land. It takes all year to try to weed and mulch them, and I never finish. The plants do very poorly. This is because the deer eat everything with few exceptions, the soil is poor, and most of the land is now pretty shady. I put cages around most of the plants to keep the deer off. If it is not caged, it is fair game. If it is caged, they can still kick it off or run full force into it by "accident" and then eat the plant. The cages are made of chicken wire and vinyl-coated "dog" fencing. They are anchored with metal "sod staples."

My gardens include:

Big Pond Garden
Peony Garden
Front Iris Garden
Back Iris Garden
Tree Garden
Original Garden
Other Gardens
Individual Plants

Gardening Links

I have just started adding information in 2006 on terrestrial plants so this page may grow.

On my songbird page, there is a photo of the front yard with a pileated woodpecker (under the woodpecker section).

Big Pond Garden

This is the large garden surrounding my 1800 gallon pond, both built in April, 1997. My pond pictures page has dozens of photos of that pond. They were taken for the pond but in many photos, you can also see the garden.

Here are photos of the standard iris and blue star flowers blooming at the pond garden on 5/10/10.
Light purple standard iris
Orange standard iris
Blue star flowers
Blue star flowers - close-up

I took these photos on 5/1/10.
Stripped creeping phlox
Burgundy dwarf iris - not a true dwarf but not full size
Veronica - I just got this plant; it is so cute!
Helloborus

These photos are from 4/11/10.
Ajuga in bloom by the waterfall. This one was supposed to be "chocolate" but looks like my regular Ajuga or bugleweed. Those are lemon balm leaves on the left side of the photo. It is taking over parts of the garden.
Creeping phlox by the pond. This one was called something like candy cane, and you can tell why. Half the plant has reverted to 100% white though.

Here are some snow iris and crocus in bloom at the big pond's garden on 3/21/10:
Snow iris - what a clump; I think these are called Katherine Hodgkins or something like that.
Orange snow crocus - love orange!

Orange standard iris with the pond and fish behind them on 5/26/07. Those iris are one of my favorites.
White flowers - they are some sort of wild flower we got, on 5/26/07.

I took these photos on 4/29/07 of the pond and the garden around it since I had just mulched a lot of it so that is about as good as those gardens get:
Pond facing southwest. The red bud tree is in bloom. The red beech tree in the distance has just leafed out.
Pond facing west.
Pond facing northeast
Pond facing northeast (further back)

Iris on 5/25/06 by the big pond.

On 4/19/06, I took these photos of the pond garden after I mulched the south and east sides. Unlike my pond photos, these were taken to show off the terrestrial garden. Not much was in bloom but a few daffodils.:
View of the east side, facing south
View of the east side, facing northwest
View of the south side, facing north
View of the south side, facing north - slightly further back than the last photo
View of the southeast side, facing southwest

Peony Garden

The peony garden includes two old gardens that were joined together with the creation of my 153 gallon pond. One garden was a rose garden with three roses (one died). Another was the peony garden with three tree peonies. In between them now are three ponds - the 153 gallon on the east side, the 20 gallon tub, and a buried 50 gallon tub on the west side. A few other plants were added later like two regular peonies.

Photos are listed from oldest to newest:

Snowdrops near my 153 gallon pond on 2/24/06.
Glory of the Snow in flower next to the 153 gallon pond on 3/30/06.
Peony Garden on 4/26/06, facing west. The biggest plant is a butterfly bush. The 153 gallon pond can be seen and the red peony in bloom.
Peony Garden on 4/26/06, facing north. The red and pink tree peony flowers can be seen and a yellow dwarf iris as well as the ponds.
Iris at the rose portion of this garden on 5/25/06.
Peony flower on 5/25/06. This is one of the regular peonies.

I mulched the front part of this garden on 8/6/06. Here is a photo of the garden right after mulching.

The snowdrops in 2007 bloomed almost two months early because it was so warm! Here is a photo of the snowdrops from 1/6/07. That same day, I took a photo of the vinca flowering down by our garage.
Glory of the Snow in flower next to the 153 gallon pond on 3/29/07.

Glory of the Snow in flower next to the 153 gallon pond on 3/21/10.

White tree peony on 5/1/10.

Red/purple standard iris on 5/10/10.

Front Iris Garden

The front iris garden is small and my only fully fenced garden. I wish they were all fenced! This garden includes iris, daylilies, grape hyacinth, and a few perennials.

I weeded this garden on 10/29/06 finally but most everything had died back by then anyway. I did not have any good mulch to lay down (it is all rotten). I bought some bagged mulch for the first time in my life and mulched this garden on 11/5/06.

Daylily flower in the front iris bed on 7/11/10.

Iris in the front iris bed on 5/26/07.

Iris in the front iris bed on 5/27/06.
Iris and a pink daisy on 5/27/06.

Front Iris Garden on 4/26/06. The grape hyacinth are in bloom.

Back Iris Garden

The back iris garden was planted with iris in the late 70's by my mother. The iris are so close together that they almost never flower and cannot be divided (too solid). I have added a few perennials in and around this garden over the years. I will list some here later.

I mulched half of this garden on 11/26/06 and the other half on 12/3/06.

Here is a photo from 4/26/06 of the back iris garden. The rabbit hutch is in the back of the photo.

I took these photos on 5/1/10 of shrubs at the back iris garden:
Sweet shrub
Pink variegated weigela

Old purple standard iris on 5/10/10 in the back iris garden which is named for these standard iris planted in the late 1970's. The flowers are much smaller than the newer standard iris.

Tree Garden

The tree garden contains 11 caged small trees in a partially shaded area. All these trees were added in the 80's and 90's but are stunted. There are also a few daffodils.

A list of the 11 trees and shrubs can be found below as the first group of plants in the mulched list. The oak tree is the oldest, planted in the 80's. It is maybe two feet high. It is sort of like a Bonsai in that the limbs are thick. It died in 2010. Shade, very poor soil, and deer eating anything that sticks out of the cage is why the trees are stunted.

Tree Garden on 4/26/06, facing northeast.

Pink weigela in the tree garden, 5/10/10.

Original Garden

This was the first garden that the house had that was put in by my parents in 1977. It started off with bushes and lots of perennials and various bulbs. Today, all that remains are two huge evergreen bushes (they have little flowers in May that the honeybees come to from miles around), a different large evergreen bush (more yellow), a huge cedar tree that blocks my bedroom window, pachysandra, and one surviving daffodil. On the west side of this "garden," there is a smaller area with a daffodil, and my mother still plants a few plants and vines there each year but they usually do not live long term. The vines grow up a line on the side of the porch. That is about it! This is one garden I have not weeded since the bushes are huge and full of various stinging-insect nests.

The blizzards of 2010 (see photos here) destroyed the 33-year old cedar tree in front of my window which you can see in photos on the blizzard page. In March, I planted a dwarf variegated pink Japanese dogwood where the cedar tree was. My mother bought a globular blue spruce bush and planted that in that area as well. I added a few daffodils too.

These photos are from 4/3/10:
Front of the house
Front garden with newly planted dwarf variegated pink Japanese dogwood and blue spruce bush. The older ground cover there is pachysandra.

Other Gardens

I have so many gardens to tend to that I forgot these ones initially!

By the front porch, on the west side is a small garden with a mini rose bush (huge plant though!), yucca, iris, and hardy hibiscus. The hibiscus died in 2004 but I just planted more on 5/14/06 (did not survive). I mulched this garden on 7/4/06.

Here is an iris at that garden on 5/25/06.

Here are photos of the huge yucca in bloom by the west side garden on 6/21/08. The huge "mini" rose bush is also in full bloom:
Yucca in flower
Yucca in flower

Purple standard iris on 5/10/10 in the yucca/mini rose garden.

Near the electric box are some iris and a small garden that I let go to pot that had some mint, fragrant mini daffodils, and the other plants I think are goners.

By the back wildlife pond, there are three astilbe plants in cages. Because I mulch a general area there, it almost qualifies as a garden.

Around the main animal graveyard in total shade, there is one of our three azaleas in a cage that flowers pink, a liriope barely alive in a cage, a hosta barely alive in a cage, various daffodils and other bulbs, bluebells, and a few other plants.

Individual Plants

Nearly 100 individually caged trees, shrubs, and a few perennials are on our land. There are thousands of uncaged trees and shrubs that were planted back in the 70's and 80's so they were able to grow before the deer became so prolific. There are also some uncaged individual plants such as the snow iris below. I try to weed, fertilize, and mulch most of the cages each year. It takes almost the entire year.

Photos of some of my plants that are planted individually:

2010:

Yellow calla lily on 7/11/10.

Red calla lily - our first calla lily flower after the deer chomped on it on 7/4/10.
Anise hyssop in flower on 7/4/10.

Pink lily - for the first time ever (since 1977), the deer let a terrestrial lily flower on 5/26/10! In the past, they always ate the flowers even when caged (the flowers invariably stuck through the wire). Amazingly, about four lilies put out lots of flowers for the next week. The deer are falling down on the job! The girls are busy with newborns but still should be eating what they are not supposed to!

Multiflora rose bush - this invasive Asian rose, better known to us as sticker bush, is great for the week that it flowers. Here is one cascading over the weeds by the edge of a mowed area on 5/19/10. It smells so good. The birds like to eat the small red rose hips in the fall and winter.

These photos are from 5/10/10. Note there are two other weigela photos I took this day that are under the back iris garden section and the tree garden section as we have four weigelas total.
Unknown plant in my mother's deck planter; one of many.
Red weigela out back.
Pink weigela out front.

I took these photos on 5/1/10:
Wild aster
Ground ivy or creeping Charlie, better known as the purple weed around here.
Free plant - the neighbor dumped this house plant in the trash, and my mother rescued it. I repotted and fertilized it. Do you know what it is?

This photo is from 4/11/10.
Cherry tree in bloom. We had a weeping cherry tree which was grafted on to an unknown species of cherry tree. The weeping part died but this tree sprouted up next to the tree from the roots so it is the stock tree. This cherry tree has white flowers and small green cherries that form.

This photo is not from my gardens but I really wish I had one of these!
Kwanzan cherry - at the Tidal Basin in Washington, DC on 4/8/10.

These photos are from 4/3/10:
Front yard - forsythia and flowering almond in bloom.
Butterfly daffodil
Flowering almond in bloom.
Striped squill - a spring bulb.

Snow iris on 3/21/10.

2009:

Flowering double Japanese yellow rose on 4/27/09.

These three photos are from 4/25/09:
Flowering ornamental plum tree.
Flowering red bud tree by my big pond.
Flowering red bud tree out front; a few years old, from a seedling of the previous old tree (about 30 years old). The yellow is the forsythia bush just finishing its bloom.

Daffodil on 4/19/09.

Giant crocus on 3/21/09.

Yellow snow crocus on 3/8/09.
Purple snow crocus on 3/8/09. The cage is there to try to keep the deer from eating them.

2007:

Orange puff shrub in flower on 4/29/07. I did not know what species this was until April of 2009 when someone finally told me. It is a double Japanese yellow rose shrub.

Daffodils in flower on 3/29/07, far away, also the swing in the back yard. Notice how the deer pruned the Leyland cypress.
Daffodils in flower on 3/29/07, close- up.
Snow iris in flower on 3/29/07.

2006:

Grape Hyacinth in flower on 4/26/06.
Bluebells in flower on 4/26/06.
Giant snow crocus in flower on 3/18/06.
Flowering almond in flower on 3/18/06.
Snow iris in flower on 3/18/06.

I wanted to get an idea of how many plants I actually have that I mulch. This does not include thousands of mature trees and shrubs that are not mulched. To care for the following, I remove the cage if present, weed, fertilize, mulch, and replace the cage if there is one. I try to do this once a year. Below is a list of just a very few of our plants. Because these are the ones that are caged, they are mostly small. We do have some big plants! By the end of the year, I should have a tally for plants I mulch that are NOT in one of my gardens.

Key:
First letter = T for tree, S for shrub, P for perennial
Second letter = C for caged, N for not caged
Third letter = B for big, M for medium, S for stunted (small but old), T for tiny (young, not stunted)
Forth letter = F for it has flowered at some point, N for no flowers
I would add in the ages of the plants but I never wrote it down when I planted them from 1977 to today!

11 plants in the tree garden, done 4/9/06? (weeded November 2005 so just mulched):
Douglas fir (T, C, S, N), 2 white pines (T, C, S, N), pawpaw (T, C, S, N), holly tree (T, C, S, N), red cedar (T, C, S, N), mimosa (T, C, S, N), oak (T, C, S, N), weigela (S, C, M, F), rose of Sharon (S, C, M, F), and Bradford pear (T, C, M, N).

10 plants out far front, done on 4/19/06:
Colorado blue spruce (T, C, S, N), 3 butterfly bushes (S, 1 C and 2 N, S, 1 F and 2 N), maple (T, C, S, N), beech (T, N, M, N), wild plum (T, C, M, F now for the first time!), rose of Sharon (S, C, M, F), pear (T, N, B, F), and apple (T, N, B, F).

15 plants out far front and along the road on 4/26/06:
Bradford pear (T, C, S, N), Washington hawthorne (T, C, M, N), weigela (S, C, M, F), raspberry (P, C, S, N), 2 pawpaws (T, C, 1 B and 1 S, 1 F and 1 N), crabapple (T, C, M, N), some perennial plant (P, N, S, N), gum tree (T, C, S, N), purple smoke bush (S, C, M, N), yellow rain tree (T, C, S, N), azalea (S, C, S, F), double Japanese yellow rose (S, C, M, F), crabapple (T, C, T, N), and rosy summersweet (S, C, M, F). I removed three dead cages from my last rhodendron and two pussy willows.

4 plants out front on 4/30/06:
Redbud (T, C, B, N), crape myrtle (S, C, B, F), flowering almond (S, C, B, F), and an unknown tree (T, C, S, N). The redbud was only transplanted from our one adult tree's offspring a few years ago and is already some 8 feet high! The crape myrtle and flowering almond are both about 10-years-old and pretty big. The cages cannot come off (they would have to be cut off). The unknown tree was a spot where baby trees kept dying so I would try yet another one. The leaves look like a persimmon so it could just be self-seeded. I am not sure. I love the flowering almond (photo above). Most people do not know this but the fruits are edible. Each year, only a few of the flowers turn to fruit but they are like little sweet cheeries.

9 plants out front on 5/7/06:
Lilac (S, C, S, F), crab apple (T, C, S, N), 2 red currants (S, C, M, F), 2 blueberries (S, C, S, N), yellow rain tree (T, C, M, N), horse chestnut (S, C, S, N), and a royal paulownia (T, C, M, N). The currants shrubs have about 13 fruits on one this year and 30 on the other. I love eating currants! Another blueberry bush and some old raspberries were all dead. I used to mulch a white button spirea next to the royal paulownia but it is big enough now and has runners all over so that I did not mulch it. I found a dead catbird that I think hit a window on the house. I also found a 10 foot beech tree in the woods that I did not know we had! We have two that I knew of that we planted. Most of our adult trees are 50+ feet high. When we moved in in 1977, there were only a few trees.

10 plants out back on 5/29/06:
Butterfly bush (S, N, M, F), variegated pink willow of some sort (S, C, M, N), cherry tree (T, C, M, N; baby offshoot of deceased weeping cherry but the baby is not weeping as it is the graft host species), wisteria (vine, N, S, N), crab apple (T, C, M, N), Washington hawthorne (T, C, M, N), holly (T, N, B, male "flowers"), butterfly bush (S, C, S, F), variegated forsythia (S, C, M, F), and a Leyland cypress (T, C, M, N).

6 plants out back on 6/18/06:
Peach tree (T, C, B, F; used to be one of those 5 fruits on the tree trees but the other parts died; it has peaches on it), yellow rain tree (T, C, M, N), red yarrow (perennial, C, S, F), hazelnut (S, C, M, N), hazelnut (S, C, S, N; just planted, barely alive or visible), pyracantha (S, C, M, F). Also, I removed the cage from a multi-colored (my only one) butterfly bush that was fine last year but is now dead.

10 plants out back and far back on 7/23/06:
Variegated weigela (S, C, M, F), inkberry holly (S, C, M, F), Leyland cypress (T, C, M, N), red rose (S, C, S, F), weigela in the same cage with a multi-colored spirea that I planted together and never separated (S, C, M, F), 3 astilbe (perennials, C, S, F), and a mini rose way out back (S, C, S, F). The weigela/spirea and rose are in a small garden of their own.

19 plants (7 groups) in the old garden out back on 8/27/06:
Unknown bush (S, C, M, N), Canadian hemlock (T, C, S, N), Canadian hemlock (T, N, S, N), 5 baby trees (T, C, S, N; 1 rain tree, 1 crab apple, 1 dogwood, and 2 unknown trees), 6 baby redbuds (T, C, S, N), 4 trees (T, C, S, N; 1 crab apple, 2 Bradford pears, 1 regular dogwood), and a pink dogwood (T, C, M, N), The last four listed were all trees that came in groups of 10 from the Arbor Day Foundation. I just planted them as a group because I did not have the time or ability to individually plant them all. It is survival of the fittest among the groupings. There is no one willing to dig the hole or make cages but me. Plus, they always send the free trees during a drought or after the ground freezes.

8 plants in/near the animal graveyard out back on 9/3/06:
Yellow ground cover of unknown species (P, C, T, F), Virginia Bluebells (P, C, T, F), yellow wood poppy (P, C, T, F), hosta (P, C, T, F), liriope grass-like plant (P, C, T, F), azalea (S, C, M, F), and two trumpet vines that are at least 6-years-old but under a foot high (vine, netted, S, N).

2 plants on 11/5/06:
White butterfly bush (S, C, M, F) near the garage and a willow tree and butterfly bush that I transplanted out of a pot that had seeded themselves. I kept those together (roots intertwined) in case only one lived and planted it where water pools when it rains by the road out front.

So far, that is 92 cages or plants that I mulch individually. I have half a dozen or so left so my guess of 100 was about right! I still need to do the white butterfly bush and some smaller plants. My mulch has gone all fungusy. My father refuses to get more. It is getting cold. Time is running out!

Additional mulching records:

2007
2008
2009
2010

I took a bunch of photos of our woods and some with the deer on 1/6/07. The trees are dormant but some of the photos may be of interest. The front of our land is the south end.
Woods - out front right, notice the grape vines.
Woods - out front left.
Woods with deer - out front left.
Woods with deer - out front left.
Woods - out back left.