Stormy,
The piece of property that our house was built on provided us with all the boulders and rocks that we needed to start our rock walls and gardens. We simply had them moved to where we wanted them during the basement digging and the excavation.
That looks very pretty Roses. Free rocks are the best kind.
What a beautiful pic Roses, love the rocks.
Thanks, Holly and Stormy,
It will be a long time before our place looks as interesting as what I've seen in pictures and in person at your places. I don't think that we have enough time and energy left to get it all done, but it sure is fun trying.
Got my DH interested in building a small simple arch/arbor where my sombreil climbers can mark the entry/exit for my new garden bed. This will be the last new bed, I am sure. Can just about keep up with what I have now and DH was diagnosed with RA which we will try to keep under control.
I keep thinking about how DG will keep me always in the gardening loop although we may not be able to garden on a grand scale as we get older. Until then, we will keep digging, weeding, feeding and watering and taking great pleasure in the results.
You people are so inspirational to new gardeners. We had a tiny garden before we moved here 3 years ago and DG members were influential in so many ways to help us get this place looking so pretty that we don't miss our old digs. I also feel grateful for gaining so many new friends (DGr's) when I didn't even know my neighbors.
The small arbor will be placed where the lawn meets the mulched pathway. This new garden will be the only one that I can see from my deck (up high) and make the bilco door area a very pretty one when we have guests down on the lawn instead of up on the deck. I am hoping that we can all get together here sometime in September when my babysitting days are over for the grandchildren that will be back in school and my daughter will be totally recovered from her back surgery.
Regards,
Teri
This message was edited Jun 25, 2009 7:28 AM
Hi Teri--Love that rock-bordered bed too, and hints of woodsy backdrop. . THe soil looks so rich in the last picture-yum.
Teri, I know what you mean about slowing down, I keep telling myself no more beds but I don't listen to myself very often.
If only when I was younger when I had the energy, better back, knees, knowledge, and time what a garden I would have now! But raising a family and not working then, so no extra money, put a damper on the gardening. Now I have the extra cash and knowledge but everything else is going.
Happy gardening! Can't wait to see the new area when it is done.
So sorry to hear about your husband's RA. Teri. Your new bed is going to be beautiful. I think I see a dog and a cat in the photo?
My mom will be 80 next month and is finally slowing down the gardening because of her bad knees. She was also doing all the lawn mowing herself until recently when my brother talked her into hiring someone to do that. I hope I have her energy when I'm that age.
Terri, I have a lot more beds planned especially out back. I have a friend a few years older than I that asked if I was sure I wanted more beds to care for as I age. She has a good point and I may be sorry later but I am still expanding. I keep saying that I wish I had my 30 yr old body back, would be thrilled with the same one I had at 40. Ric's arthritis is very bad. He still gets things done but needs days in between to recoup depending on what he has been at. I actually joined a gym and started to exercise to build more strength and flexibility for gardening. I have noticed a big difference especially in my lower back since last year.
That garden looks like it will be very nice. Hope to get up to your place soon.
BTW the plants that you gave me at the swap are doing very well.
I wouldn't worry about your age. My dad gardened till the day he died at 77.
My DH is 78 and I will be 70 this August. He is almost finished with the arbor/arch that he is building to hold the 2 climbing roses.
We are getting cleaned up now to visit a nursery that was recommended to me by a friend that lives close to me. (Found her on DG. We have been visiting each other and comparing notes.)
Glad you plants are doing ok Holly. I had so much stuff to put in when I left to baby sit at my daughter's for a while. Bob put everything in for me, anywhere he could and I really don't know what will be coming up where, but I will enjoy it all anyway. I left my house the day after your swap for Michelle's emergency back surgery. I was there a few weeks and tried to help Bob by phone with the planting. A bunch of my seedlings perished and some planted things did not make it. Not even sure what they were.
Anyway, the sun is out today and all my mushy roses and sun starved babies will start rebounding, I hope.
Told Bob that his trellis/arbor will be published on an international site soon, and I think that he was surprised and a little tentative.
He will need another day or two before we go back in the garden to put it up. I'll post my first handmade "garden object" then.
Terri, Can't wait to see it! You will be having many delightful surprises as your mystery plants bloom. Don't worry, gardeners live longer, just have to see the next spring's bloom, and the next one, and the next....
Holly--you make all the beds you want. Later on keep them mulched - can pay for that- JR will be big enough by then! then you can piddle all day long out there with a few weeds and trimmings. Always something to get out side and see when weather permits.
Sally LOL, I was just looking at JR the other day he was showing off his 6 yr old muscles. I told him he had better get pretty strong as Grams might just need those muscles when she gets old. LOL I'm working on the bathtub bed today digging out the sod behind it. Ric did the larger area in front and I have that planted. As soon as I get this back section done (you can't even see it). and Ric gets the RR Ties off the trailer I can get a load of mulch. I know that bathtubs on your front lawn isn't to everyone's taste but it is coming along really well.
Holly, who wants to be like everyone else? Can't wait for photos.
Actually, I have the old antique sink that used to be in the bathroom upstairs and I've been thinking of making it into a birdbath or planter. A birdbath with a fountain coming out of the spigot would be cute. LOL
Well, Hart, if someone would only do a toilet, we'd have a full bath!!
I saw a vivid purple one on a front lawn in South Jersey! It was a planter, not a fountain.
Actually, Larlienda has a bright red toilet she picked up somewhere she was planning to use in her gardens somewhere. LOL
Hart that is exactly what my bathtub does, water runs out the spigot. I have seen pics of sinks used as bird baths. And toilets as planters but that is just beyond me. LOL
Me too, Holly.
OK, Here's another bit of whimsy. I've had this car for two years. It was originaly intended as a gift for a toddler, but the child's grand parents never came by to get it. So it's now a planter!
Now that's a new one! made me snicker.
Here's another one. I totally intended for this one to be a planter and now it is!
Sally, is snicker the same as chuckle?
No, a chuckle would be slightly more audible; a snicker is more held in. Actually what I gave out what technically a snort. To recap:
Snort- small yet audible expression of humor
Snicker- quiet audible yet reserved for times when audible laughter may not be appreciated.
Chuckle- More vocal than snort or snicker, can be used in private or public.
(Have I bored you yet? I've been awake since four for no reason and seem to be getting silly. I really should divert my creative thoughts to writing for profit and spare you folks this nonsense)
~~
I can only hope somebody gets a snort out of this~~
Snort, Snort
Very cute Stormy...
Thanks for the lesson, Sally.
How about a giggle?
Or a guffaw!!
Snort! giggle!
My sister is much better at giggling, chuckling and guffawing than I am, but she can get me started! Don't you love a good guffaw? You have to see us together trying to retell the story of me arriving in Italy a few euros short of an easy taxi ride to the hotel, where she and her husband were waiting on me...
More great pics and jokes here to entertain me today!
Finally got our little arbor in the ground. From the pictures we see that it needs some adjusting in the placement.
The mystery plants are beginning to show. The roses are slow because of so much rain. The thing I like most is that we can see it from our deck and the bare lawn that used to surround the basement bilco door is gone. Can hardly notice the bilco now. I think that I will wait to mulch because I have things that will grow from seed and some stuff that hasn't shown itself yet. I wonder how that will work out.
Now I need to find my grandkids old cars and all the old plumbing and workboots and chairs and whatever else I've seen here to fill in all the empty space that we still have on the property.
My neighbors just do very neat landscaped bushes and I think that they think that I'm nuts.
I am!! Crazy for color and flowers.
Sally, that yummy soil gets amended and carted in because all we have is clay and slate. All are beds make it necessary for us to PAY for soil. The young woman who lives behind us (house in pictures) told me that I should be asking my DH for the "D" word that equates to "Diamonds" not "Dirt". To each his own.
I love those cars, Stormy! So cute! I had the coolest blue metal pedal car when I was little. I sure wish Mom had hung onto that.
Your arbor looks great, Roses. Kudos (or kadoos for those of you who watch Real Housewives of NY LOL) to hubby.
This message was edited Jun 25, 2009 12:35 PM
Stormy, Love your cars, now Ric is down at the barn digging out this hideous blue jeep that JR use to ride in. (It's not near as cute as yours) Although I guess that is better than having it sit semi buried in the compost pile like last year. Ric sat it up there to get it out of his way when he was mowing and it never got moved. LOL
Sally, I do love your writing style, so cute and always good for a snort, snicker, giggle, chuckle, guffaw, and the occasional ROFLOL.
Ric wants to know if you have been "snorting" wine. Actually that doesn't sound like a bad idea right now. Haven't been able to get myself interested in doing much today so I could just kick back and take a glass out to the gazebo with a book.
Does this mean that Roses is going to have a potty on her lawn?
Hart, We had a red tractor and a blue car, both pedal driven.
Sorry about the jeep, Holly. Next it will be the T-Bird.
My brother had a red tractor. LOL I'd love to have that old car but it's long gone.
I have to tell you, Marshall doesn't take a lot of interest in the gardens other than to oooo over the flowers when I say, "Go look at the lilies," or "Did you see the roses blooming today?" He's seen me out taking photos of the chicken planter, rocks, the dragon, etc. but he hasn't seen any of these threads. He just knew I was taking photos for "my garden people."
So I finished the path next to the new dahlia bed yesterday. You know what he said out of the blue? "You need one of those old iron fences to go between the path and the dahlias. That would be really pretty." I told him they were probably pretty expensive. Again this morning he said, "We need to find a piece of one of those old iron fences to go next to your path."
He does have a good eye for design, much better than me. I'm always asking him for his advice on where to plant something. I guess I'd better be looking for a piece of old iron fence. And I guess I've found his gardening niche - garden art. LOL
Anyway, here's the path, minus the old iron fence.
I wish my hubby would suggest things I need for the garden.
jen, I have one of those kind of hubbys too. Last input was- you need to push those rocks back, I need the whole paver for mowing strip. Well.
hart--I am seeing iron fence sections, both Lowes and DJ Liquidators, black iron that link and look pretty nice for home done. But if he's in the mood for a trip in search of a real antique fence piece I sure wouldn't stand in the way.
I think definitely old rusty fence. It matches the house. LOL He's never out of the blue suggested anything for the garden. Trees maybe but not plants and certainly not garden decor. I'm getting a huge kick out of it. I think he wants something to show off to my garden people. LOL
Great idea abaout the old fence. Are there any salvage places nearby. I sooo would like to find one closeby.
Here's another laughing thing. WMPL. My DIL and friend made it up. I can soo relate, especially as I get older. (wet my pants laughing) There are 2 variations as well. WMPS (sneezing) and WMPC (coughing) Or when I played volleyball WMPJ (jumping)
Jan, that is too funny!!!
I had to go get a couple bags from hd tonight, so hubby is like " oh wait I'll go with you" and of course complains the whole time about paying for dirt, how heavy the bags are...blah, blah, blah....
and I'm like "well I didn't ask you to come with me"
typical.
cute cars Stormy
