Off Topic...Flowers!

I'll apologize in advance...this post is quite off topic!  But I'm (hopefully) bringing a bunch of flowers back from home (Indiana) when I got back in two weeks, and I need to figure out what to do with them!  I promise to talk about fibery/llama things in the next post!  But feel free to share your opinion on what I should do with the gardens!

Garden #1: Back Tree

This is a newer garden.  It is under a big tree, but it mostly gets sun.  There were some day lilies, to which I added lavender, purple coneflower, a low purple plant, lambs' ear, and lots of sedum.  The lavender is slowly growing, the coneflower got eaten, but the rest are doing great.  I'm definitely moving the coneflower and would like to replace it with another tall plant (maybe a daisy).  There is also lots of room to add flowers to this garden.

Early spring.

Mid-summer, before the coneflower got eaten!

Poor dead coneflower, but the sedum went nuts!

Back side of the same garden.

Garden #2: Swing Set

This is a brand-new garden.  I needed a sunny place for a clematis (at least we HOPE it is a clematis!), so I dug out a spot under the swing set that is used as a bird feeder hanger in winter.  I'd love to get vines growing all over the swing set!  In addition to the clematis, there are three other plants I bought on sale at Lowe's this summer.  The rabbits were munching on one, but some well-placed dog fur was a great deterrent!  For now I think I'm leaving this garden alone; it doesn't need to get too big, and I'd like to see how the plants fill out.

Right after I planted.

Clematis finally started growing!

Garden #3: Aspen

This is my "oops" garden!  All winter as I was watching the sun exposure in the gardens, this spot was sunny!  But once the huge maple tree a few feet away leafed out in the spring, it was almost 100% shaded!  I planted a lot of sun plants here, and now they all need to be moved.  Currently there is sedum (which is doing okay), columbine (also okay), daisies, grape hyacinths, and two types of lilies.  I also replaced a couple of other plants with two hostas, which will definitely stay.  So I need to replace most of the plants in this one...

Early spring.

Mid-summer.

After adding the hostas.  The sedum looks great.

Garden #4: House

This was an existing garden, but it has still taken a lot of work.  And it is huge!  It is on the north side of the house, so I believe it gets morning light and afternoon shade.  The outside edges of the garden obviously get more sun than the inside.  There were a few hostas and lilies here, as well as some sort of shrub.  I have planted more hostas, a forget-me-not, chives, more of the low purple flower, lambs' ear, daisies, sedum, poppy, lily of the valley, and some other shade plant I can't remember the name of.  The poppy sort-of got eaten (though the dog hair remedy worked here as well!), but most of the rest are doing good.  Some of the hostas have been slow to grow, but hopefully they'll take off next year.  I don't think anything needs to move out of this garden, but there is room for some shade plants if I have them leftover.

Early spring.

Early spring (left side).

Mid-summer.

Late summer.  Really starting to fill out!

The bush thing is starting to take over, but apparently it dies off every winter.

The back part (close to the house), which could use more shade plants.

Garden #5: Pine

This is another new garden.  It may have been started last year...  Another partial sun/shade.  There is a nice big bunch of irises, some lilies, and lots of roses.  I added lots of sedum, some columbine, a lemon balm plant, lambs' ear, and a hosta.  All seem to be doing well, but there is lots of available room for new plants.

Early spring.

Late spring.  There is more room on the far left for plants.

And just for kicks, the established gardens.

Lone garden in the middle of the lawn.

The hedgerow garden really needed to be weeded!

The coneflowers didn't get eaten here!

So...thoughts?  Tips?  I'd love to hear what you think!