California Backyards

GAWJUS!!! I can see why you love it so much! Congrats----can't wait to see pix with vines and pots and stuff!

I'll tell Jer that you said so...he thinks he's underpaid..lol..Now I have a place for my corkscrew vine, finally.

Wowee! That looks beautiful, Sherry! Tell Jer he done good.

Thank you, K...he'll be pleased though he'll try not to show it...lol...

That's beautiful!

Ditto !

GOR JUS !! It sure fits nicely in that area and will look so lovely with your vines on it. Jer did good again. :-))

Wish I had a man to do this for me.....nope, I am the builder around here. lol
This is what my sister and I built for my dad last summer. She had never used a power tool in her life. lol

Kathleen, that block work is awesome. I love the look it will give you. Please tell John he also has done good. lol

Could you both have my Jerry visit your DH's soon. lol Maybe something will rub off on him.

Donna, you're a stronger person for doing it yourself ....most things I don't do because Jer will do it better, and then too, I've gotten lazy. Your Jerry has qualitites that mine doesn't, so it all evens out...lol..

How's your garden re-do going, Donna?

The garden redo is coming along slowly lately as I've had other obligations to take care of. I have finished all of my new block work and I really love it. It changes the whole look and will fit in nicely when I get the landscaping done. I have also been digging up my soil and amending it like crazy, so hopefully when I start to plant in the fall, the soil will be alittle better.
Since we are leaving on vacation in less than 2 weeks, I am just trying to straighten up some of my mess, especially the plants in pots, so I can keep the plants watered in the auto. sprinklers and also so my neighbor can walk around the garden to water my hanging things without falling over.

Here are a few pics of the block work.

another

long view

Looking good Donna, can't wait to see it done!

Looks great! I like the bed edging and the pathways a lot.

The pathways have always been there. Now that I have the walls done neatly , I also made the paths a little wider. I still have to dig them up and center them now.

Now there's a corkscrew vine to grow on the left and a nice big duranta (thanks toKaperC) to grow up to maybe 10' on the right side andI have to wait maybe another month to get big, fat orange pumpkins.....

Gorgeous Sherry!

VERRRRY nice!

What a beautiful visual area that will be. It looks like a resort.

Donna, I obviously don't post photos of the bad stuff....lol...Jer's taking a break and wondering what he's going to work on next. I'm not pushing for anything...I'm happy right now, waited 12 years for that trellis.....

I've got John thinking about a pizza oven now. Wonder if you can burn wood-fired stoves here, though?

Why wouldn't you be able to Kathleen. It's going to be inside correct? We know of someone that has one in his garage and you sure know when he's making pizza! They're pretty contained and safe.

If it has a spark arrester, why not? I think there are lots of outside woodfired ovens around...I don't know if they require arresters. We'll build you an oven here if you'll come make pizzas........

It's the smoke, Weegy. And no, it would be outside. A lot of places are adopting ordinances about wood burning fireplaces, etc. My brother, who lives in the mountains in NoCA, can only burn on specified days - few and far between. Now that I think of it, though, one of our neighbors has burned in a pit a few times. I'll have to look up the town ordinances and/or call the fire department.

I was slow finishing my post. We'll have to have you and Jer over for a pizza party one day - we do them on the grill outside. It's fun!

Up here we get announcements of "spare the air" days when specific weather patterns develop. On those days, there are now big fat fines for getting caught doing any woodburning activity----including indoor fireplaces and outdoor firepits. I would suspect a woodburning pizza oven might also qualify. You might want to check with your local "air quality" entity, in addition to the fire department.

Propane doesn't qualify, so pizza on the barbie on those days is still A-OK! We get the cheese pizzas from one of our local places and then doctor the heck outa them. YUMMMM!

Sis, it's probably different all over. Up here you can't burn wood for heating on certain days in winter, we're o.k. because we use pellets, they don't count for some reason. But fire pits would be o.k. Like imapigeon said check with the air quality people.

Fancy seeing you here! Just got the photos.

I'm posting a couple of photos I did NOT take while I was visiting my sis in OR. She got these after I left, risking being melted in the heat wave that chased me out of town. So, this first plant looks a little droopy. It is absolutely gorgeous - can anyone tell us what it is? I brought home lots of corms of the yellow variety (the bumblebees chased me off the red one!) and I should be able to bring a few to the RU.

Any guesses? The plants in the foreground are different than the big one.

This is the blue spruce - isn't it beautiful?

Hard to tell w/o a close-up of the flowers, but those might be Montbretia (Crocosmia x crocomiiflora ).

It's not just any blue spruce. It's a bakeri, we wanted one that would not get to be 30 ft. This one is supposed to top out at 10-12 so of course we figure 15. LOL Took lots of looking and six months of waiting for the right time to plant it, but it was worth the time we put in on it. The new growth in spring is so soft, feels like velvet for quite a while before it gets prickly. Sis felt that, digging out corms underneath it, while I held the branches back.

I've got a bad picture close up.

Does this help?

Much better. When was this picture taken ?
Now that I see them up close, they may be Chasmanthe aethiopica...but those bloom much earlier, not in summer. Mine bloom in January.

Three days ago and it's a summer bloomer.

I don't think it's a Chasmanthe , JD. Don't have time to search for photos right now, but the Chas. looks more upright and the flowers are opposite on the stem.

I also vote for crocosmia. I learned last spring that it's related to, and looks very much like, chasmanthe. I now have both---the chasmanthe blooms early, the crocosmia later.

Chasmanthe: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/62065/
Crocosmia (this is Lucifer, but there are lots of different reds): http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/57411/

Chasmanthe floribunda has opposing flowers....chasmanthe duckittii has yellow flowers. Chasmanthe aethiopica has flowers on one side of the stem.

edited to add...I would think must be crocosmia, blooming this time of year...

This message was edited Aug 25, 2009 11:38 AM

You guys are probably right - though Sally's didn't seem to me to be as upright as those photos show. I like the way it resembles a fountain, with the leaves bending like flowing water. Perhaps it's just the way hers grows in that area. It spreads easily - I was digging up corms like crazy and some had foliage attached - but it seemed to stay in one place. She'll correct me if I'm wrong.