Welcome to (more & more of) Dan & Rita's Garden!

The summer of 2002 was VERY DRY but we managed!

We have a few other pages online so click away.
More flowers in Summer 2001!
Let's visit the fishpond.
Summer 2000 was a busy year in our garden!
Go back to Summer '99
Visit our Winter garden on Christmas Eve '99

This page represents the 5th year since we started flower gardening.

Much like last year - rather than taking a formal tour of the gardens - this is another page of photos with some comments on the pictures.

The pictures are shown in the order in which they were taken with a couple of before and after exceptions. This way we can see what caught my eye at the time as we move through the seasons from early spring to late fall.

Enough rambling! Here's what our gardens looked like in '02.


March 14 bare garden

We enlarged two of our beds this season. The center one in this picture was originally 4 feet wide so it could be weeded from either side without having to step in the fresh dirt.

It seemed like a good idea at the time but after a season we decided to make it bigger so it would hold more plants. We just stay out of it when it's muddy and try to tread lightly other times.

Taken March 14 with "spring fever" in full swing!

Middle bed July 15

Here is a similar shot taken in mid July.

Note the grass is already struggling and the sprinkler is out!

Front to back - Elephant ears, red canas, spider flowers and budlea butterfly bush on the far end.

As you can see when the rains stop I spend my time and water more on the flowers. The grass is on it's own!

Dianthus
This dianthus "firewitch" started as a clump in a 6" pot. Also known simply as pinks It's about 8 years old now and about 6 feet wide. We haven't divided it but simply let it spread on it's own. I'm quite sure if we had dug and divided it we could have a much bigger plant by now. The blooms smell WONDERFUL even from several feet away!

This picture was taken May 2, 2002.



Gazing ball and Columbine
May 5th, 2002. Sunlight glinting off a gazing ball next to some Columbine.



Front shade garden This shade garden at the end of our driveway invites you to move from your hot car up to the cool deck and the rear gardens beyond. May 26.
Dense shade provided by a Bradford pear with several varieties of hosta and a few (slightly invasive) unknown ferns backed by a Japanese maple.

Back Garden and Fishpond
After you cross our deck you can step down to the rear gardens and fishpond.

Taken June 22 this mostly perennial area is nearly in full bloom.

Clockwise from lower left - a planter full of coleus, on the ground a clump of alyssum, above that orange common day lilies known as tiger lily or "ditch lily", center is soapwort, right center above the pond is gooseneck loosetrife and some purple yarrow on the right side.

Tall Phlox & Rita!
Soapwort tends to fall over so we've suspended some green wire fencing over it at about 16 inches high.
It grows right through the wire, stands up nicely and smells wonderful!

Rita poses between weeding sessions!

Cana - tropicana in a planter
As the drought continued to beat up our gardens we began to appreciate the potted plants for their ease of watering as well as the tropical feel they gave our deck!

This Cana - tropicana was going to be thrown out as "leftover" when Rita stuck it in a pot. It wound up being one of our favorite plants this season!

We'd never planted cana in pots before but we will now!!

Backyard view of wildflower garden This backyard view shows the wildflower bed - lower right. Photo taken July 15. If you have room for even a smallish bed say 3 feet across, you should plant some wildflowers. (Of course bigger is better!!) They are fun because they are full of surprises. As the season progresses you will see different plants in bloom. I grab several different assortments of wildflower seed packs off the racks each spring.
I've found that a bed will last 2 or 3 years but after that the brutes will have taken over so I'll usually pull out the big guys, work in some new mulch and start over.

Some wildflower notes - Most wildflower mixes have some annuals in them. They may not reseed and come back so you will have different flowers blooming the 2nd year. Wildflowers in the wild are crowded and thus the lower plants will support the taller ones. If you plant a bed of wildflowers be aware that they are usually floppy and will sprawl out into your path. That's OK with me because our beds are anything BUT formal.

Russian sage and double wave petunias
We enjoyed our potted plants more than usual this year because the drought was burning up the rest of the gardens!
Hen's and chicks lower left. We bought the Russian sage (large pot next to chair) for our perennial garden but it smelled so good we kept it in a pot until I finally planted it in the fall.
Double wave lavender petunia on the deck railing.

I sat here many times with a cold drink in one hand while I stroked the sage with the other. Hot sun on your face - cold drink in your hand - smell of herbs in your nose - THAT'S SUMMER!!

Double wave & Sweet-potato vine Picture taken Aug 26. We bought some double wave petunias and some sweet potato-vine "ipomoea batans - tricolor" on clearance in early July. The plants were nearly dead and we got 'em for 75% off. I trimmed them way back to just stubs really. They responded and by summer's end had reached the floor. This lavender double flower wave petunia looked REALLY good with the lavender edged tri-color sweet-potato vine.

goldfish pond
I just couldn't resist at least one picture of the goldfish pond.
This is where it all started!!
Taken October 8th.

Burning bush in full color!
The drought finally broke when the rains came back in October.

Taken October 27.

The dwarf burning bushes were especially RED this year!
When the burning bush start to burn, summer is really and truly over..... darn!

Bradford pear in Fall orange!

After a horribly dry summer we had a wet fall. All the trees responded with beautiful colors!

Our bradford pear trees put on quite a show which peaked around November 11th.



Dan on his new wheels!

Once again, you made it to the bottom of Dan & Rita's 2002 garden page! We hope you enjoyed your visit.
If I encouraged you to plant one more flower or to stop one time to smell the roses in God's great big garden then I have accomplished my mission for this page.


These pages were ALL created with plain old NOTEPAD.
If I have misspoken, misspelled or made a typo I'd be grateful if you'd drop me a line so I can fix it.

Thanks for stopping by. We hope you enjoyed your visit to our tiny piece of Kentucky!
Come back, anytime!


HOW GREAT THOU ART

O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the works that hands have made,
I see the stars, and I hear the mighty thunder
Thy pow'r thru-out the universe displayed!

Then sings my Soul, my Savior God to Thee:
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sing my soul, my Savior God to Thee:
How great Thou are, how great Thou art!

When thru the woods and forest glades I wander
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees,
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur
And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze,

Then sings my Soul, my Savior God to Thee:
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sing my soul, my Savior God to Thee:
How great Thou are, how great Thou art!

And when I think that God, His Son not sparing,
sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in-
That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin!
Then sings my Soul, my Savior God to Thee:
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sing my soul, my Savior God to Thee:
How great Thou are, how great Thou art!

When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow in humble adoration
And there proclaim, my God, how great Thou Art!
Then sings my Soul, my Savior God to Thee:
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sing my soul, my Savior God to Thee:
How great Thou are, how great Thou art!
Amen!

Drop us a line and tell us where you're from. We'd love to hear from you!

"I feel closest to God when I'm sitting in my His garden".

I welcome email from my friends! You are invited to click the mail-dove to send me a message OR you may hand type my address into your message.
My address is "dan at ky-dan dot com". It looks funny when written out this way but it should fool those darn spammer robots that visit web sites gathering email addresses.

Mail Dove



pointing handUp to the top of this page
This way Pointing Hand to the Pond page!
pointing hand Let's visit the garden in winter!
Take a time machine Pointing Handback to Summer 1999!
Pointing HandTo Dan's Garage

This page was first put online December 26, 2002

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