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Hi I'm very New to the whole Home Owner Home Garden thing & my husband has absolutely No Interest in Gardening At All

The home we purchased has a small hidden from view garden that was planted many years ago before the people who we purchased the house from got it for the 4 years that they had it

I have no idea as to what plants are coming up on the side there but a friend on FaceBook told me to try here to see if maybe someone could take a picture & see what kind of flowers / plants are in fact growing

The link to the Garden Attempt Photo Album on FaceBook is as Follows
Share this album with anyone by sending them this public link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=85529&id=753076914&l=879e886923

So far the only things for certain that have been IDed as growing are the
1)Iris which have fallen down so I guess I need spikes for them
2) Giant Overgrown Hosta 2 I had dug up but the 3rd I've decided to keep to see what kind of flowers this is supposed to end up having
3) 1 daffodil
4) 3 Tulips
5) 2 Giant blooms which people say are peonies?
6) bleeding hearts? which seem to have fern leave or are mixed in with fern?
7) some ugly box style overgrown hedges that I had pulled out so the flowers on the side can be moved into the front
8) Lillie of the Valley which I've started trying to transplant into other section of the yard by the mail box & I'm not doing something right cause they're not quite picking up just green but they're just laying on their sides
9) Some tall leafy plant I was given told that it's Lilly of some kind & will spread after the 2nd year of being planted

Now for the plants I have no idea as to what they are
1) some sort of vine that doesn't seem to be doing anything except tangling up on all the other flowers & starting to climb on the house
2) my husband went on a chopping spree the day they were able to get a leaf blower so they (hubby & son) chopped down everything that was growing in the side yard except the bush which was flowering at the end so they could blow the leaves over there to sit under the pine trees but a flowering bush which looks like where the flowers were are now turning to berries?
3) Some long tall leafy plant which looks similar to the plants that I was given & were told were Lillie
4) some spikey leafy bushy plants that seem to look similar to what I saw at Walmart called Asiatic Lillie?
5) I have some spikes which have buds on them that are coming up out of the area that has the long tall leafy plants but someone suggested they might be hosta flowers & the 1 giant hosta I have is about a foot in front of where these are coming up (I kinda got the impression from the dried hosta spikes the flowers come up from the center section so I doubt these are hosta flowers but have never seen a hosta flower to know for certain)
6) some sort of purple spikey weed that was pretty when it was in bloom that I'm leaving in 1 spot in the yard for the purple flowers what is it called

since we know nothing about composting yet - I'm at least trying to learn (hubby & son aren't caring at all since they think it's going to be too much work & basically they want as little to do as possible) can folks give me some ideas as to how to best get started as cheaply as possible right now all the leaves looks like had been left from the entire year before we moved in are just blown to the side yard & it's literally over 2 feet high pile running the entire length of the front side yard & part of the back yard too

I'm trying to convince my hubby & son now that all they need to do with the remaining leaves in the back yard is just mow & leave them in place as it'll help amend the soil as it breaks down & then add lime to the entire lawn since we do have so much pine around us & come fall run the mower to mulch the leaves as they come down & then rake some into the "garden" areas & the rest leave on the ground mowed/mulched over the winter so hopefully it'll break down under the snow & send back nutrients into our poor yard

also my front yard is overrun with ants of all kinds & I'm guessing it's one of the reasons that the yard is very slow to grow grass & has so much brown in it - what is recommended to help get rid of them hopefully at a very low toxic level because there are robins & a pr of blue jays that frequent the yard

sorry this is soo long but I'm just full of questions & don't know anyone around here to ask how to get this yard & garden into some sort of order without people looking at me like I'm crazy. My in-laws & friends don't garden they just buy a few hanging planters & flats of annuals to plop into their planters & their yards never had to be revived from such a bad condition so they can't relate to the questions I'm asking about low toxic pest killer or composting or amending the yard as naturally as possible

Welcome CT. You have a good handle on IDing a lot of your plants. The lily of the valley need shade and it is certainly near the end of their season (Early spring).
You do have a plan in place. I hope you can get the cooperation you need from your menfolk. There will be a lot of info here to help you along.
And I hope more people from a like growing zone can come along and help you ID the unknowns.

welcome to the forum.
seems like you have a hidden gold mine in the yard of your newly purchased home.
my advice, is don't overwhelm yourself, thinking you can figure it all out at one time.
if you id something you know you don't want, pull it up.
hope you enjoy it here.

Thank you for the Welcome to the Forum
Which state/zone are you gardening in?

Thanks for the info about the Lillie of the Valley needing to be in shade,
where I was starting to transplant them to gets a lot of sun at the mailbox so I won't bother to put anymore over in that spot

Will Lillie of the Valley grow in the shade around the pine trees?

I am in Southern Cal, zone 9. It is semi desert. A lot different than yours. lily of the valley fry here but I have kept trying off and on to find a happy placement for them. So I just don't know the answer to your question.
I was born and raised here but I did live in Ct for a few years. I just didn't garden in those days so I am unfamiliar with was works and where sometimes.
OK, I just googled lily of the valley under pine trees and it seems they do well there.

Thanks for the Welcome to the forum
What state/zone are you in?

I'm trying to get things IDed quickly so that I can tell my hubby & son what they are so that they'll stop cutting, chopping & now spraying weed killer onto anything that they think is ugly & serves no purpose

Neither my son nor hubby seem to understand that 2 owners ago had invested both time & money into the small garden on the house & there were in fact a nice line of bushes only 1 survived the hack-fest back in April due to the fact it was blooming (purple azalea I think) some of the remains of the bushes are in fact making an attempt to come back & it looks like 1 was some sort of berry & I'm going to try to convince them that what does manage to make a comeback to let it grow & not do another heck-fest come fall

Hi and welcome!

I am in NY, not too far from Connecticut so we probably have the same growing conditions. Do you know what growing zone you are in there? I am in zone 6a here.

In your pictures, on the first page... the pink heart shaped flowering plant is called a Bleeding heart - yes it does have fern-like leaves. It needs shade to survive nicely.

The bright pink flowers on your second and third pages are peonies. We have a thread here on them up in the "plants and flowers" forum. They do usually need to be staked, as the flower heads can get quite large and heavy for the stems.

Hope that helps. It will be interesting to see more pictures as the rest of your gardens bloom during the summer!

that first picture is a hydrangea.
the vine a honeysuckle maybe? Can be invasive. Post when there are flowers on it.
Not sure about picture 11 - let see if they flower. Reminds me of lilly of the valley.

picture 16 is a weed here. I have them come up and I try to pull them before they flower because they spread.
the peonies are gorgeous!!! Lucky you.

some of this stuff will eventually show what it is. In the meantime keep your camera ready.

5 viola
10 need better pic
11 need better pics
12-13 might be phlox in the center
14 astible maybe. not sure.
15 lily of the valley
16-17 weed!!! invasive type. forget it's name. get rid of even though it IS purple
29, 31, 32, 42 peony, they don't like to be moved, so leave it where it is
34 verbena or lantana
36 need better pics of the vine
37 don't know
38 need better pics. might be poison ivy, might not be.
40 probably daylily
41 you're correct on asiatic lily
44 need better pics. could be evening primrose

14 looks like a bleeding heart to me, fern leaf bleeding heart, needs shade

looks like someone at one time had a very beautiful garden and it's just gotton out of hand. Good luck, you'll have alot of fun deciding what to take out and what to leave in

Hoo boy! Hope you came back here and posted updated pics; I'd be curious to see how you made out with all those plants.

The soil under a pine tree is normally acidic plus the plant has to fight with the tree for nutrients so check carefully before you decide what to put there. Small azaleas are a nice choice near the drip line of the trees.