Here are a few pics I just took...
This is the new garden...


As you can see, I still have yet to add more topsoil, compost and the pile of river rock is for the grooves in between the paver stones which helps to keep the compost and soil from washing away during the storms and when watering the plants. As you can see, I've got a lot of work ahead of me. The bird feeders are in a "temp" area til I'm finished.


And here's the big 7 section garden with a few sections I'll be covering tonight. I still have a long way to go. The sticks you see on the left, along the back of the middle section is to indicate where the Scarlet Runner Bean seeds are that I sowed. DH is going to buy 3 - 10' T-stakes and I'll be putting up a nylon fence to support them next week after they germinate.
Although the very corner section looks "gray" in the pic...it's just the reflection from the glass window.



Susan Louise
from Branford CT/ live in Lincoln NE
Zone 5

Susan Louise that looks just beautiful even without any plants!

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

Susan,

What vine is that in the second picture? How do you "cover" such a big area? I'm assuming you are covering because of frost warnings or other weather??

Nice job BTW. Your gardens are always so neat! Looks like alot of work, oh my aching back!

Pam NJ 6B

Hello Penny and Pam,

Thanks...

Pam,

That's a row of Honeysuckles I planted last year. They should really be taking off this year. In that garden is a row of 5 of them...
3 are 'John Clayton' and 2 are 'Blanche Sandman' and I planted them altenating them along the nylon fence with T-stakes DH put in for me. We also have a 'Coral' Honeysuckle in our patio garden. They all are about 4-5 days from blooming. The buds are just starting to turn their beautiful colors.

Susan Louise
from Branford CT/ live in Lincoln NE
Zone 5

Susan Louise when those honeysuckles take off you are going to need something much heavier to hold them up. My one coral honeysuckle took dow my large trellis. I had to wire it to the fence just to get through the season last year. It only took two seasons to topple the old wooden trellis.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

Penny,

Those solid steel T-stakes are virtually indestructable unless a truck crashes into them. DH pounded them in the ground about 2'. The nylon fence is pretty deceiving when one looks at it. It's tied very securely onto each of the stakes. I do plan on taking a few branches from each and doing some moderate pruning toward the fall...after the hummers leave and before the 1st hard freeze. I do want to be able to clean leaves behind the fence every Spring.

Susan Louise
from Branford CT/ live in Lincoln NE
Zone 5

Susan,

I love vines and just had to ask. Nice!


Penny,

While pruning my Goldflame I came across the original support. It not even in the Ground anymore but hanging inside the vines! Luckily the 4 foot fense supports it!

Pam NJ 6B

Pam,

I forgot to mention about how we're going to cover the tender plants tonight. Well, I have several 36" wooden stakes and some bamboo ones about the same height. I'm going to surround the outside perimeter with them...about 12-18" apart with a few stratigically placed in the center of the few areas I need to cover. Then we'll be placing old bed sheets over the stakes and area and holding down the sheets in the corners and sides with some small paver stones to hold the sheet in place so it doesn't collapse on the plants.. I'm not going to cover the perrenials...just the annual Salvias, 'Tithonia Torch' Sunflowers and the Nicotiana in a few areas.
If you look at that 7 section garden, it's the very right section that has the 'LIR", 'Subrotunda' and 'Praeclara', the very back of the section to it's left ('Tithonia Torch' seedlings), and the section on the left side of the birdbath which has 'Coral Nymph', 'Strawberry Fields' Globe thistle, 'Stan Dreamsicle', Nicotiana, and 'Dwarf' Cosmos.
I'm grateful I didn't plant any more seedlings/plants yet. We wouldn't have had enough sheets...HA!

Susan Louise
from Branford CT/ live in Lincoln NE
Zone 5

Sheets aren't always complete protection, a week or so ago we had a feeze just at dawn that froze the heavey dew the sheets had absorbed damaging and/or killing a couple hundred plants. I should have gone and gotten the blue tarp.

Hello Ward,

WOW! Thanks for the great FYI...OMG! Thankfully we have a couple of them...hopefully they are big enough.
What did the temp drop down to that night? Here it's supposed to drop to 35...

Susan Louise
from Branford CT/ live in Lincoln NE
Zone 5

34 or 35, but on the ground it was freezing or below. It was very still that morning which allowed the cold to settle. The Tropical Milkweed took a fairly heavy hit and a couple of dozen David Verity now have blackened leaves but may recover. Salvia macrophylla was crushed and Yvonnes heavily damaged. Thank god there was plenty of DV yet to be put out at that point and an additional 9-pack of macrophylla. The nine macrophylla plants will be plenty for my purposes because they grown huge, 6 feet or so by about 4 feet. I just thought they would be fun for a few others to try with their squash-like leaves and pretty much true blue flowers from early August to frost.

Ward,

It was good you had plants to spare. I'm still sorry to hear of the plant loss though. that's still a lot of work and money lost. I'm going to go back to the nursery before they close and pick up some more stakes. I don't think I have enough to support heavy tarps. The wind is supposed to remain between 10-20 mph overnight, but I'm not going to take any chances. We have a few of those plants to spare, but not enough to replace them all if the didn't make it through tonight...
Big Sigh...AGH! What a pain...
Thanks again Ward!!

Susan Louise
from Branford CT/ live in Lincoln NE
Zone 5

Your garden looks great Susan! You've been working very hard!

Carol

Carol R
Tennessee
USDA Hardiness Zone 7
Heat Zone 7

Susan,

This is why I wait. I mentioned to Ward the other day that the 90 degree weather was giving me quite an itch, he said don't scratch just yet!

I saw a woman buy several hundre dollars worth of Annuals today....boy, that could be disasterous!

Pam NJ 6B

I agree with what Ward told Pam. It can be really risky right now. Lord knows I have planted as early as March and my plants have made it but most were winter sown outside in the elements which makes them just a bit hardier. This year I didn't do much wintersowing because most of my seed was for more tender plants and I am itching to get out in the garden but I know only too well that haste can make for a lot of waste and more work in the long run.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

hello Carol R,

Thank you very much...

Penny and Pam,

Yes, I know I took some major risks planting so early, but with having to squeeze in making a new garden and trying to get the other gardens prepared...and at least start planting to some degree, I wouldn't be finished until the end of May. Next year I can go back to sowing a bit later.

My health is also a big part of my scheduling too. If you watched me, I probably do things at a much slower pace than most others because of my lung capacity being less from having had the lung cancer. It didn't help either that I fell in our driveway late January, falling square on my left knee.
I've had a swollen knee ever since. My husband teases me (lovingly) and calls me Gimpy. I didn't break bones, but I did mess up the acl or another muscle which I will go to the Dr's about after all the gardens are complete. I don't know if I have to have surgery or not...and it's very upsetting for someone as independant as myself to be on crutches or having to be immobile for any length of time. Just the thought of it is harshing my groove.
I'm hoping when I do finally get checked out that if I do need to have surgery that I can pospone it til the end of October...after the hummers have left and when the gardens have been put to rest for the winter. Well, I didn't mean to ramble about my problems...sorry...

Susan Louise
from Branford CT/ live in Lincoln NE
Zone 5

Susan Louise
I am never finished by May or even June sometimes LOL! I have learned to do what I can when I can and then do the rest another day. Yes we do all want our yards to be planted and pretty as early as possible but in some years we can't even get outside to clean up until May. Even without planting you have already accomplished more than I have.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

Susan Louise your gardens are so well planned. I would hate for you to see how my plants are placed. Not too much rhyme or reason.

Dianne
Southeast Alabama
Heat Zone 8
Sunset Zone 31

Like Dianne my plants are 'placed' where there is a spot of soil left LOL! I did start out with good intendtions of having it very orgainzied but that when out the window after I started doing so many of my plants from seed.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

That is the way it often happens. Some years I have a better idea of what to do than other years, and I like to at least try to put some thought into design. Fortunately the beauty of the plants overcomes even my worst ideas. We've haven't spoken very much over the years here at the forum about how to put these plants together in the garden, presumably no one is interested.

LOL! We are probably ALL interested Ward but by the times plants come in and seedlings are busting out of their pots and the temps are heating up we all have one thing on our minds....to get those plants into the ground! I think we should have Susan Louise come to each member's home and landscape for us What do you think?

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

It is a thought.

Susan,

Your gardens are going to be fantastic! I can't wait to see them later in the season.

birdlegs
zone 5
S.E. Lower MI.