Guess it takes all types in this world and we all have our gifts and curses. Picking cucumbers gives me a soar back and dirty feet but there is something satisfying about it. When i kept flocks of chickens i would throw all the yellow ones in their pen after i split them open because they loved them. Summer is great when you have a 100 ripe cucumbers and tomatoes! The excess is a blessing. I knew an old man once on the river bottoms who grew watermelons but he only ate the heart of the melon and the rest was cow feed. Its amazing how good a good gardener is to themselves and the people and animals around them. West indian bur gherkins are another favorite of mine.
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Oriental poppies are easy for me and have been coming back for years. Creeping phlox and lavender are easy if they are in a spot they like. Calendula and borage are annuals but seed themselves exceptionally well so I can count on them every year.
You really can’t beat those regular orange day lilies though - they call them ditch lillies for a reason!
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Marigolds also reseed themselves here pretty well. Pink calendula are really pretty amazing flowers. I keep borage in my strawberries. Do your dogs try to munch on the poppies? Mine are part cow and graze on alot of things, I always worry about chives and garlic but they seem to avoid those.
I had a friend who as a kid would only eat the watermelon hearts and throw the rest of it away but he was from the south, that is sacrilege here, No one has too many watermelons.
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No way would I do that! I have massasauga rattle snakes around here. I see them around and IN my garden, so I always keep shoes on! I picked up a tomato plant that had drooped over on the ground and there was one coiled up underneath. That gave me a “little” start! After that experience, I keep my shoes ON! 
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I dug up a clump of “ditch” lilies for my mom a few years back. I sent part of the clump to her (in Florida) and threw the rest in a grocery bag. The next year, after she had passed, I found that bag in a corner of the yard and the darn things were blooming-still in the bag!
They always make me smile and I sacrifice a small part of my precious yard for them.
Scott
Her favorites were lilacs and I’ve got them too.
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I keep forgetting to add a post about a daisy I have. The foliage looks like a succulent and the flowers look like Shasta Daisies. They are called Montauk Dasies and they are terribly easy. Just take a stem once leaved and push it into the soil. It will root, just like a sedum.
The only negative is they stink when pruned, like burnt rubber.
Scott
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Another flower my family grows but i do not is golden glow. This is a perennial. My mother kept one by the back door when i was young. Never saw this flower outside of my family and with this web search. Its real names is Rudbeckia laciniata ‘Hortensia’ “An heirloom coneflower often referred to as the ‘Outhouse Plant’ as it is very resilient and long lived; flowers in late summer with frilly chrome-yellow double daisy-like flowers, can grow very tall under the right conditions”
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dad wouldn’t let us in the cucumber patch until we were old enough to avoid stepping on the vines. taught us very early how to properly pick fruits and veggies. he had a large row of peonies and huge dalihias planted in front of the house. my best pic is my daughter at 5 yrs. old. blonde hair blue eyes in pig tails. holding one of his big yellow dalhia flowers. her eyes just pop in that pic. luckily the people that bought his house after he passed, renovated the patch. now when i go by there it brings a smile to my face.
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Tons of those here in the northeast Clark. I always referred to them as perennial sunflowers. They’re seen alongside barns and outbuildings quite commonly here.
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@clarkinks, Have you considered adding hollyhocks and zinnias? Hollyhocks as you know are biennial. They also reseed themselves so readily, as do the annual zinnias. I read this on a seed packet, but you probably know this too - Hollyhocks were called the ‘outhouse’ flower, apparently to hide the unsightly outhouses, and also to guide guests to the outdoor privy without having to ask where it was located!
They both can put on gorgeous displays! I should still have a lot of seed of the black hollyhock somewhere if you would like some, let me know.
Black Hollyhock
Zinnias
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Im surprised and impressed and read up on it Maine Garden Ideas - Planting and Growing Golden Glow - Maine Garden Ideas
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@KSprairie
Yes they are gorgeous i need to think about that. I considered yucca as well but remain undecided.
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Yucca is great but put it up near some rocks somewhere your not walking next too. It spreads well and outcompetes everything here albiet slowly.
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Yucca is definitely low maintenance.
As evidence: our neighbors had some growing near the property line. They tried to dig it up and it sent up shoots on our side. The shoots were coming up in a place where I wanted to plant a Belgian fence of pears. So then I tried to dig it up, took the roots, and threw them in the trunk of my car with some other stuff that I was taking to throw on my parents’ brush pile (they have a larger yard than we do and it backs up on some woods).
This was in the spring. Then things got busy and I forgot about them for a few months. Late July or August, I finally got around to dumping the stuff in my trunk. Pulled out the yucca and the chunks of root were pushing shoots. Potted the shoots up (because why not) and they took off.
And now this spring I’m digging up the yucca by the fence again.
I’m not sure whether that’s a recommendation or not, but it’s pretty tough stuff. (Though oddly, it seems like it can be slow to get established when transplanted into the ground. Possibly because it’s all about sending roots down at that point?)
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Yucca is hard to get rid of around here too, and isn’t the prettiest of plants, in my opinion. I considered planting it, just for it’s ability to stand in as a soap substitute. I thought it would be good to have some at hand if needed. Roots contain saponin. I had it growing at a place I lived at in Missouri, and I could never get rid of it, much like @JinMA is describing. I know where plenty is growing on abandoned farmsteads and ditches nearby, so that’s my source for now!
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These pictures are from last spring & summer but I am very pleased with the perennial landscape around our home that I installed last season.
!
The list of plants/shrubs in the landscape:
- American low bush cranberries
- PMJ rhododendrons
- Alpine carpet juniper
- Dwarf mugo pine
- Chocolate baptisia
- Walkers low catmint
- Orange yellow Angelina sedum
- Dwarf Japanese barberry (these invasives are no longer available for sale in Maine)
- Native ferns
The the rocks/boulders are from my property.
I have a heavy duty commercial grade woven fabric underneath and went with crushed stone instead of mulch for a top coating which will require less maintenance and won’t have to be replaced/added to every season. Not many people around here use stone as a landscape cover but I love the natural look and uniformity of it…it’s also bit on an ode to California where I once lived.
The dirt walkway is now stone pavers that we installed last fall.
I might add a bit here and there as time goes on but I don’t want to over do it and crowd stuff out.
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Here’s a picture from last summer & fall of the Angelina sedum (stonecrop). It’s a beautiful addition to a perennial landscape.
It has made it through the winter just fine. Amazing that we can grow certain succulents here in Maine.
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I love it!
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i bought some mixed type sedum plugs from lowes last summer. covered a gravely spot near my mailbox. filled in very quickly. anxious to see how it looks this year.
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