Wednesday, September 03, 2008

I finally have a camera again and I'm wanting to revive this blog, yet again, and work on that green thumb I want to develop.

I am not a gardener at all. I'm terrible. My garden consists of a small flower bed at the front and side of my house and a little corner flower bed in the back yard. I had big plans to do real good with these bed but once again I've let them grow over into one big mess! How do I fix it?!

My problem is I don't know a weed from a flower, so I hesitate to pull anything up in fears that I might be pulling up flowers, so instead I let every thing grow and before too long my flowers are over taken by weeds. Rather silly I know, but that's what happens.

I think the first thing I need to do is work on identifying what I have so that I know what to keep, what to pull up, and how to take care of what I keep. To that end I took a bunch of pictures a couple of days ago. I appreciate any help I can get because I really am clueless when it comes to gardening.

Here are some pictures from my side flower bed. I know some of them are weeds and some of them are perennials given to me by my aunt and my friends. Please help me know which is which. I'd really love to be able to name everything in my garden.

I'm pretty certain the white flower is some kind of perennial, but the pitchfork shaped leaf thing on the left I'm pretty certain is a weed.


I'm fairly certain this is a weed of some sort too.


I think this is a lovely ground cover of some sort. I believe it has pretty pink or purple flowers some time of the year. I can't remember if they flowered yet this year or not.


I kind of like this one, even though it spreads like wild fire. It has pretty white flowers for part of the year. I'd love to know how to make it look good all the time, instead of straggly, and I'd love to be able to control it somehow.


This one I do know! It's a hosta a neighbor gave me, but it is quite sick looking. I'd love to move it somewhere else, but I'm afraid to try.


I'm fairly certain these are perennials of some sort. They are quite tall. I like them but I don't think they belong where they are.


This is a close up of the flower of the above plant.


My front flower bed is totally overgrown. These flowers are part of it. I have no idea what they are. They are also quite tall and the have all fallen over and are almost touching the ground. It may very well be a weed for all I know.


This is my rose tree. It has beautiful white roses, but it is in desparate need of some tender love and care. It probably needs to be cut back or something, but I'm terrified of doing it. Any tips?


I don't know what kind of tree this is but I like it. A friend had one is his garden and he gave me a little stick to plant a few years ago. It had somem kind of flower on it earlier this year and now it has these little red berries.


Here's a close up of the leaves and berries of the tree above. The leaves appear to be diseased or something. Any advice?


Here's my overgrown corner bed in the back yard. It used to look realy nice at one time but now it is totally overgrown and it's hard to find the actual nice plants in it.


Here is one species of plant in it. It is a perenial of some sort adn they brown dried up bits on it are faded flowers.


Here's a different one. This one also has some kind of flowers on it. Rain water tends to bead up really pretty on this one.


I'm pretty certain that most of this is weeds, and it's a real shame because underneath those weed there used to be some really nice plants. I wonder are the saveable?


Here's one of the plants that is hidden in this mess. It has pretty purple and pink flowers for part of the year.


So, are my flower beds a total loss, or can I save them? What do I pull up and what do I leave?


This tree is one that I admire in my neighbors yard.


Now I have to do some research to try to identify these plants. Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.