We've got 5 yards of sweet peet sitting in the driveway and it's been raining. We need it to revitalize a couple of beds. Most of the planting areas in the back were cut out of pachysandra and need constant compost infusions. Pat and I realized when we were planting the new front bed that we needed to rearrange a whole bunch of plants. Actually I guess Pat's been telling me that our garden was getting overgrown for awhile. There's a fuzzy line between a little too robust and "hey! it's too crowded" garden. I may have made a few miscalculations. The ligularia that were a couple of inches high 2 years ago and a foot tall last year are all of a sudden HUGE. They even crowd out ferns and I thought that nothing crowded out ferns.
The ground is saturated so instead of a day shoveling sweet peet, I took pictures of the back yard. We had no master plan when we started planting.
It just seemed to take on a life of its own . . .
The grass in the back ground is my neighbor's. It is nice and perfectly manicured. You can tell our yard because of the chaos. 
The dappled willows are wonderful bushes that will grow 10 feet tall, as long as you can protect them from the deer when they are small.
The berm is the sunny part of the back yard. This year everything just came together. There are no empty spaces. Everything grew out. The chives and creeping geraniums are in bloom. A couple of rabbit families call it home.
You can't tell that a couple weeks ago Pat and I were pulling ferns and ligularia out of this patch.
19 comments:
I love your garden! Reminds me of mine! I do know about the overcrowding all of a sudden, we are moving hostas around and ferns! because they were crowding each other out. Don't know what happened, they were fine and all of a sudden they get pushy with their spaces! Lol!
Your hostas look great... amazing in mass! Larry
I love your ROBUST gardens! The more plants you can fit, the better, I say!
Definitely not chaos to my eyes. ...and crowded is much better than weedy :)
I noticed some yellow flag iris. It's another invasive I leave to fight it out with the Ligularia around my pond. Expect a lot more next year :)
Beautiful hosta dream garden! I think it's perfectly lush, not overcrowded at all. (BTW, I use my neighbor's lush, green acre as backdrop to my flower photos whenever I can.)
Overcrowded or not, it looks great, Jim! I hear what you are saying about ligularia. I had two of them in pots. Then, I planted one in a bed. The one in a pot still looks OK, but the other in a bed is getting gigantic!
Your yard is magnificent. Who wants rollon astroturf? Spent the last two days cutting back our Dusty Millers, which were rugby tackling our knees, as we tried to walk the path.
It looks absolutely luscious, really tropical, and it's only May. Yikes!
I love your gardens! I hope my ligularia gets gigantic too!
Your garden is like mine, only neater. Mine is way ahead of me, and I am not sure that I will ever catch up!
Your garden is filling in and looking lush to me. I love the contrast of the ligularia with the greens of the ferns and hostas. I got seeds to start some but it will be many years before mine will look like your, if I can get the seeds to germinate that is. Looks like we are going to have some great weather now Jim.
It looks as though your garden is living up to the old adage about perennials: "The first year they sleep; the second year they creep; and the third year they leap." I, too, have had the experience of having plants seem so many miles apart when I planted them that it seemed I should add other plants in between, only to have them be hopelessly crowded by year three. But, then, getting to divide plants and move them to new places is one of the joys of gardening. -Jean
Your garden is awesome! Love the fern mixed in, it looks great!
Jim and Pat, you are definitely the hosta King and Queen! I can't believe the number of hostas you have. I have a mystery hosta that I will post and hope you can identify.
Eileen
Oh, Hostas are one of my favorite plants that I cannot grow in our area. I do enjoy seeing yours :-)
I love the lush greenness of your garden. All of your hostas and ferns are wonderful!
Your backyard garden is most beautiful! And I can understand your passion for hostas. but everything looks amazing!
Forget the bunnies, you have graduated to jungle animal statuary. Very lush indeed! Maybe your manicured lawn neighbors would like some divisions? One can hope, right?
Christine in Alaska, Ligularias still very small
Jim, it doesn't look like chaos to me! It looks like Beauty.
So your garden was healthy enough to need a little thinning out. I'd say that's a good thing. But anyway, you know by now that I like things a little on the wild side. :)
OMGosh I'm in Hosta Heaven!!! I love the way you garden. And I love this blog. I am a Hosta Freak:)or I'm a freak about everything garden. I can't get enough. I'm constantly looking for shade in my yard to make more hosta places. I like to put in my gardens what I love not stick to any one thing. Your photography rocks!!
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