Veteran's Memorial Rochester MN

This fall we stopped by our Veteran's Memorial to locate the paver with Denny's name on it!  Years ago our garden club designed, planted and now maintains the garden located there!  It is at it's peak color during the fall season!  We have two teams of volunteers, one for a morning crew and one for an evening crew which alternate Monday's for maintenance duty!

A new tiered design this year...

Thanks to my Denny and his magic fingers and dremel tool, he was able to do the cut out on this large clay pot so I could experiment with this style of garden.

It was an learning experience this year and I'm anxious for another attempt next year!  It did hold together and was easy to water and the plants grew very well!

Tea time with a fairy....

She is ready to share her birthday cake with some coke!

This has a new variety of a tree with white blossoms that I discovered this spring!  It has been growing very nicely and I'm anxious to see if it winters over OK.

This way to the fairies....

Most of my fairy gardens this summer

Most of my fairy gardens are grown in a part sun part shade environment, which seems to work well.  I have several that need mostly shade, which are grown under the roof of my open porch area which faces this grouping.   If serious damaging weather is in the forecast I do move most of these under a bit of shelter.  

Iris in July!

Yes, this is a stunning clump of iris in July!  

Often grown mainly for the decorative foliage, this variety is also extremely beautiful when the medium blue-lavender  flowers are blooming in June!   

It was a stunning sight!  When I noticed this clump from a distance I just had to get closer to identify the plant!  I have this at home so should have identified it immediately when I saw it growing next to a stream.  I'm just not used to seeing it growing in a clump as a specimen plant! 

Iris ‘Pallida Variegata’

How about a grouping of containers of plants?

A visit to Bonnie's home during the summer is always a treat!

She has such good eye for color groupings of plants.  This one is sitting on her porch!  The porch bonus is they are protected from damaging weather elements so always look so fresh and healthy!

Cheerful garage door!

Found this adorable service door on a garage while on a recent garden tour (of course)!  Couldn't help but smile and take a picture!

Color scheme for your home and garden...

On a recent garden tour we saw this lovely home and garden with the same color scheme that was so cheerful and welcoming!  How fun to discover the homeowner was a visit with a childhood neighbor!  

Hammered Bronze.......

And then I found a can of  "Hammered Bronze" spray paint!  I had purchased a metal patio set at my neighbor's 'Moving Sale' and it needed freshening up.   WOW!  It is absolutely beautiful!  I can't wait to show it to her!  My $25 purchase is now priceless!

Bronze, the new look in yard art!

My weathered metal yard art became a bit more rusty looking than I liked.  Thanks to Bonnie  for sharing  that she had seen some "Bronze" spray paint used for adding a new touch to yard art!  Love it!  Still subtle but classy looking among those hostas!

Painted Lady....

The Painted Lady Butterflies are flitting all over blossoms right now!

This was taken today while we were deadheading roses at the Rose Garden our garden club plants and maintains at our local college Horticulture Department Gardens!

Miniature Fairy Gardens

This year I expanded to making smaller fairy gardens, which turned out to be lots of fun!

Not only are they charming, they tuck here and there so easily!

 

Flower arranging by a team!

What fun, we had a new activity at our garden club's annual Plant Swap this year! 

They set up 7 teams to make 7 floral arrangements!  It was a great "mixer" and provided some nice door prizes!

Gardeners are great cooks so our pot luck supper was awesome and the swap provided some new plants to add to our garden beds!   Our theme this year was "Color My World" and there was color abundant among us!