My Garden Photos

God's Warrior · My Garden Photos

The Beauty in My Garden

I would like to share with you a few of the photos that I have taken this year of my garden. I am not an accomplished photographer by any means but I do have an eye for the beauty growing around me in my garden refuge. I have been a gardener for what seems like forever in my life and have always gotten great joy in raising many different kinds of plants in my garden. Many of the plants I raise have come from friends over the years and it is a delight to me to enjoy the plants that still carry the names of the original owners in my memory.

Through the years, I have tried to label the plants that I raise with the right "common names" that they bear. (I have never mastered the propernames however. I have pretty much given up on that effort.

Too many things can happen to destroy labels and I think I have experienced most of them. Thererfore, most of my pictures will NOT tell you the proper names but will bear a simple title such as, ROSE, etc.. I have never mastered the art of learning the proper botanical names. I did try but must admit that I was a miserable failure at doing that. Smile

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My Japanese Red Maple is one of my favorite trees. It adorns the area next to the driveway in my front yard.

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The Honeysuckle that wraps itself around my mailbox provides nectar for the hummingbirds. I love to watch them from my living room window as they dart to and fro partaking of the nectar that it provides.

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The beautiful old White Dogwood in my neighbor's yard. It has been there for many years and I always love viewing it in the spring when it puts on its spring dress of lovely white flowers.

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This is the Orange Pyracantha that is under my bedroom window. Judging from the many blooms that it had this spring, it should be full of berries later on this year.

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Years ago I thought that Hybrid Tea roses were the grandest of roses. Althought I still love them, I have stopped planting them and as they die off I don't cry over them. (At least I have never resorted to shovel pruning them....Not yet anyway!) They require a LOT of work and these days it just isn't worth the trouble to me to do it all. We still fertilize them and faithfully spray them for black spot. I don't dead-head them often like I once did nor do I pick off each and every diseased leaf as I so painstakingly did for so many years. The David Austin roses are not as much trouble to raise and I recommend them over Hybrid Teas for busy people.

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A few of my roses.......

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Over thirty years ago my college student daughter went to a friends's house, dug a shoot of this old fashioned rose and gave it to me for Mother's Day. This rose blooms faithfully for me every Mother's Day and gives me new joy each and every year. It is truly the gift that keeps on giving.

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Some of this spring's iris blooms.......

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Old Fashioned Iris

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Some of my Clematis:

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A Close up view of the last one...

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Other favorite plants in my garden
Butter and Eggs

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Dusty Miller

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Dwarf Bamboo

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Shasta Daisy

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Lamb's Ear with Dwarf Bamboo

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Money Plant

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Mexican Primroses

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White Peony

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Azaleas

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Azaleas and Money Plant

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White Lilac

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And still more pictures.......I hope you are enjoying the tour. You didn't have to suffer from the heat or any other bad weather conditions and you didn't even have to spend money on gas to get here. One nice thing for me is the fact that you didn't see any of the weeds. Smile

Lamb's ear and Ladybells...

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A Close up picture of Lady Bells blooming..

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Lamb's Ear blooming...

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I have Larkspur scattered throughout my cottage garden that once was a vegetable garden. (The only remaining vegetables are tomatoes and okra.)

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Morden's Pink Lythrum and Ribbon Grass....

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Red Hot Poker from my dear friend Melody

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Russian Sage

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Oak Leaf Hydrangea

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Bishop's Weed...

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Sun Drops

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A close up view of Sun Drops....

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Moss Rose in porch planter boxes...

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Close up photos of two Moss Rose blooms...

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Some of my lilies...

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Hollyhocks

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Volunteer Sunflowers - I have volunteer sunflower plants that have came up under and near my bird feeders and all over the different garden areas in my front and back yards.

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A close up of a sunflower

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I am standing looking up at this one! Awesome!

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Now that some of the sunflower blooms are starting to dry a bit all sorts of birds are starting to eat them. A squirrel broke one down the other day trying to eat the seeds. I guess he figured that if the birds could do it he could too. I wish I had been able to get that shot but the camera wasn't handy. I probably should sit and watch the blooms all day long with the camera in my hands since so much activity is starting to take place around them. Smile

I love it!

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Gooseneck Loosestrife

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Shamrocks

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Coral Bells Blooms

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Sedum

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Amaranth

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Coneflower

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Spirea

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Looking upward at June Wysteria Blooms

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Yucca

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Bee on yellow butterfly bush

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Hydrangea blossoms

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Mary

Elena, thanks for the tour. It's beautiful.

Would you like to trade a start of your old fashioned light blue iris for another oldie that is almost white with just a hint of blue?

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I am glad you enjoyed it, Mary. I have had a whole lot of fun taking the pictures and posting them. I think that made me even more aware of how pretty some of my plants are. I have taken lots of them for granted since some have been with me for such a long time.

You have got a trade, my friend. That would be fun. Many of my plants are very special to me since lots of them came from friends. I will be able to add your iris to that special list. We can work out the particulars by email.

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View taken from the driveway looking toward the front of my house.

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Spider wort

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My young golden raintree in bloom .

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A bloom on my favorite butterfly bush

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A lily with an amaranth in the background.

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A butterfly enjoying the nectar from the lilies

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One of my crepe myrtles

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Hardy hybiscus

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Jewel of Opar

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Jewel of Opar blooms against the perfect holly background

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Baby's Tears

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Old Fashioned Phlox

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Four O'Clocks

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Cosmos

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The first two were taken in the very early morning.
Angel Trumpet

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[ Black Eyed Susan

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Canna

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Cleome

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Bench with Amaranth - Four O'Clocks and Crepe Myrtle in background

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Painter's Palet

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Hardy Hybiscus

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Pee Gee Hydrangea

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Three Althea Varieties

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Blackie Sweet Potato Vine in fountan basin

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Canna

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Monkey Faced Orchid

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Roadrunner

I loved the different colors of Iris...You have a nice yard...comes from a nice heart!! Love & Hugs

Roadrunner

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Thanks Jo. When you were here things had just about quit blooming and looked pitiful because of last year's drought. I am glad you got a chance to see what it looks like in the spring and summer when we actually have RAIN.

Aloe

Wow! You have quite an assortment. I enjoyed the visit.

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Hi Kelli. Many thanks. I have always loved many different kinds of plants and not had a tendency to stick with any one type. I am glad you enjoyed the visit. Come back and visit again as I will continue adding pictures for the rest of the growing season. Smile

CajuninKy

Love the clematis. Your yard must be a beautiful refuge for you. Thanks for sharing your pics. Do you have any daylillies?

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I am glad you enjoyed the visit. I hope to keep posting pictures until old man Winter closes out the growing season.

A few of my day lilies are in the second thread.
http://thegatheringplacehome.myfastforum.org/ftopic2744-0-asc-10.php

I love day lilies but didn't get pictures of all of mine this year. I have lost lots of them because of so many years of drought. They have pretty much been forced to either make it or die as has been the case with the iris. We just have too much to water and I figure those are pretty tough and have to take their chances. I thought about going back to last year's pictures and posting those but that didn't seem fair because some of them might be gone now.) Oh well, such is the life of the gardener, huh? Smile

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Blue Morning Glory

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Pink Morning Glory

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Crepe Myrtle

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Aster

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[Cat Mint

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Cypress Vine

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Japanese Anemone

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Summer Poinsettia

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Love Lies Bleeding

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Ageratum

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Amaranth

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Naked Lady Lily

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September Garden Scenes

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October in the Garden

Amaranth showing its fall colors

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Swamp Sun Flower

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Spider Lily

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Blackie Sweet Potato Vine bloom

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Elephant Ears

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Painter's Palet

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Toad Lily

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Butterfly Bush

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Usually I make my pictures small with the ability to click on them to make them larger. I am so tired of winter and so thrilled to see some signs of spring that I will make these large just to celebrate the coming of spring. Can spring be far away? I found these blooms this morning when I went out to the mail box.

A yellow crocus peeking through the grass

A lavender crocus in a flower bed

My hellebores telling me that winter is almost over

Sharran

Beautiful journey through your garden, Elena, thanks for the tour!

In spite of the 9 days and 37 minutes of a horrendous ice storm recently, I have lovely little green things peeping up in my gardens. Makes me smile.

I am guessing that if they can survive such traumas as Mother Nature keeps sending us, then I can too!

When I have blooms again, I promise I'll share them here.
(If I can get the hang of posting photos, of course. Baby steps here.)

CajuninKy

How big is your yard? It looks great. Do you have a pond?

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I am glad you enjoyed the tour. I look forward to seeing your pictures. I hope you will start a thread of your garden and KY area just as soon as you get everything uncovered limb-wise, etc. It is funny, because i go out and take pictures of the same things year after year. It never seems to dawn on me that I must have exact duplicates plus or minus a few bees or butterflies stored back in my files somewhere. It doesn't matter though because each one is NEW at the time. One sparrow or bluebird looks just like the rest but each is a NEW creation that the Lord has made and that we enjoy again and again. None of that matters when we are taking our pictures. I sometimes wonder what the neighbors must think of me running all over the yard chasing a butterfly from bloom to bloom. I hope they see the camera I am holding. They probably think I am the blooming idiot in the neighborhood. So be it, when I have my camera in my hands I could care less! Laughing

CajuninKy

Here is the latest pic of my favorite flower. Laughing

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Cajun, my yard is 3/4 of an acre and we plant as much in it as is sensibly possible. I must admit that each year we are trying to cut back on what we plant. We have created an enjoyable garden that has really almost made slaves out of us. Smile

Each time one of us starts talking about new plantings the other is supposed to try to reason with the person who can't seem to control the desire to plant and plant and plant some more.

I will look forward to seeing many of your pictures this spring. The flower you just posted is by far the fairest in the garden however. How could anyone ask for anything than more perfect than what I see in that precious flower you posted?

Mary

Elena, thanks for the cheerful little crocus flowers.Yesterday I found the first crocus shoot poking up out of the ground where the snow had been a couple of days before! Before long there will be some tulip and daffy leaves, and then flowers! Spring is starting to happen! Today's high is forecast for middle 30's and tomorrow into the 40's. Last year at this time we were completely snowed in, plowing the driveway was impossible, and after hiring a neighbor who has a huge tractor mounted snow blower, and having storm after storm undoing his work in just a few hours, we just quit fighting it for a couple of weeks. This year we had a more normal winter.

Cajun, it might not be long before I can get a horse out of the pasture and start to do some riding!

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I am beginning to get the feeling that we don't have much longer to wait and I am glad. You folks who have had such horrid weather surely do deserve an early break from the cold. I hope you can get to ride really soon. I know how much that means to you.

CajuninKy

We are hoping to go camping and trail riding in a few weeks. Have to haul a load of hay today. I have already gone to the dump twice this morning and to the thrift shop with a truckload of things my DD left when she moved. Also a few boxes of things I thinned out of my book shelves and closets. My house is small and I can't stand this clutter any more. It is depressing me. I still have several boxes to get rid of and a few more things to go through. Then I can store neatly what is left and I will feel much better.

We have had a hard winter but hopefully it is coming to an end. I'm sure we will will have a few more rounds with it but I think we are winning the fight at last. I am so tired of this cold. Planning my Spring garden has been my therapy. The horses are starting to shed their winter coats so that is a good sign. You can't pay much attention to the weathermen but a horse will never lie. Laughing

Elena, I think your patio needs one finishing touch. A water feature. Maybe a simple one just so you can listen to the peaceful sounds of the water as you drink your coffee. There is nothing like it.

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Shoot, girl, I have fountains all over the place. Actually we have to blow them out about every 3 days with the leaf blower because of the tiger mosquitos that multiply so rapidly. We have it down now to 3 fountains and 3 bird baths and they are a lot of trouble to keep clean. I have one more that I bought (A hanging one) and decided that I didn't want another one to clean after all. I am trying to think of how to use it inside now.

CajuninKy

If you don't have fish or plants in them you can just put a bit of bleach in them and kill the "wiggle tails". But if any of them are large enough you can just put a few gold fish in them and they will eat the mosquito eggs.

Have you posted pics and I have missed them?

I had a 300 gallon pond with a water fall when we lived down the bayou in mosquito heaven. The fish kept the wiggle tails eaten with no problem and I only had about
10 of those feeder goldfish, 2 algae eaters and 1 perch my DS caught out of the bayou. It would take crickets out of our hands.

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Hubby he prefers blowing them out because he likes the water to be trash free. Our birds are very particular about where they bathe. Smile

The first post in Trash to Treasures is one of my fountains. http://thegatheringplacehome.myfastforum.org/about2127.html
That one was actually a trash to treasure find also. I found it at a close out house and yard sale out in the yard, half covered with a trash, dirt and leaves over the years accumulation. It was in seperate pieces and we actually dug it all out. I need to add that to the discription over there. It was in terrible shape and we repaired the huge crack in the lower one and I printed it to match my others. Yes, the statue was buried under the debris too.
Strangly I have never posted pictures of the others since I am always trying to show something else. Surely I have some in old photos. I will make a search one day if I can remember it.
All of my outside chairs, tables, etc. have been trash to treasures finds. Guess I need to pull that together pretty soon and show those. I seldom buy anything new or at regular price. Very Happy

CajuninKy

Was the fountain dry in that pic? Great find. I go more for the simple rather than the ornate. I still mourn for the pond I left behind but life goes on.

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It appears to be dry. He lets it dry out completely before adding water back because those larva hide out in the tiniest bit of water.
I always went for simple too but you can't beat almost free. I work my decor into whatever comes my way.