The changes in your landscape

And the dedicated hosta bed isn't finished but here's a shot of it as of now. It's under the maple tree on the right.

Doug

May 18 2009

Doug - where do you find the time??? By the photo dates, you've done all of this in 2 years? It all invites strolling through to enjoy everything. That's the best part.

This morning. Greenhouse/potting shed is almost finished. Just a few more tiny details to touch up.

Doug

RCN, here just a few of the rocks I picked up weekend before last. The guy down the road has about 30 acres that actually run in behind me that he keeps his horses on. He said I could go get all I wanted, plus I get free horse poop from him too!!!

Cindy, yes just about all of this has been done in just two years. Time? It's my enjoyment when I get home from work, although some people think it's more like "possessed"....

Doug

I'm with you on enjoying working on a project like that. The physical work can be as enjoyable as the aesthetic reward. Only DH calls it my "OCD". :)

CindyMzone5, I was going to ask what zone you are in, but then I typed your name (doh). How long did it take you to transform your property? You've done such a wonderful job and I'm thinking that slope would have been a major challenge!

Doug, I have this vision of a huge mural of the BEACH on the back of your garage/shed and you swinging on a hammock on your hill with a beverage of choice, enjoying all your efforts. Can't you just see it? ;-)

Sandy

Actually the hammock is strung between two trees down in front of the storage barn/greenhouse/potting shed!

Doug

sanannie - Oh yeah on the vision of Doug's hammock.
Second only to digging in clay, the slope is a major pain. We've been here 20+ years but most of the work was done in the first 5 years. I've just added plants since then. Wish I would have had the time (and patience) then to do a better job of terracing the slope with something other than logs. That was pre-landscape blocks. I was able to coerce the kids into helping me plant a gazillion ivy and wintercreeper cuttings to help slow down erosion. The lower garden in my mind had to keep more of a wilder look to blend in better with what was beyond the property line (and to disguise my lack of maintenance).

rcn - I think I owed you a photo of my arbor. Have been learning new camera so photo may not be the greatest. Anyway, made entirely with inexpensive plumbing copper pipe and flexible copper tubing. Set in place over rebar uprights hammered into the ground.

Here's another shot from above. Kinda hard to see but that's autumn clematis blooming at the top. Also have silver lace vine and a very unhappy Clematis growing up the front uprights. The Clematis bloomed this year but the silver lace vine didn't - still struggling with that one. Wanting to install a small bench/seat under it. A tree stump would do but don't have one.

Doug, you are such a tease with those rocks! LOL ONE of these days I'll find an "easy" and free source! Missed my chance recently - found an ad on Craigs List for free boulder size rocks but missed the opportunity, someone snatched them up immediately :( LOVE your greenhouse/potting shed!

Cindy, sorry it took me so long to respond - we're traveling weekends, truck broke down in Richmond last weekend and it's been a little hectic around here! Thanks for the photo of the copper arbor - I really like how you used the flexible copper tubing :) If I ever get mine finished I might add that "look" to give it a little more character!

Debbie, I'll try to post a pic this afternoon of what that pile of rocks looks like now! I worked my butt off this past weekend moving them into some semblance of a bed going up the hill.

Doug

The straight copper pipe was very plain and didn't offer a lot of climbing assistance to the vines. I thought the flexible tubing would offer a better "grip" and bulk up the structure a bit. We just flattened out the end of the tubing and attached it to the frame with screws rather than soldering it. Then it was just a matter of fussing with it to try to get a more natural look. I do look forward every fall to the clematis blooming on the top since it so visible from up in the backyard.

rocks... i have to tell you about how we got a huge load of rocks for cheap! They were doing clearing of land for a new development, and there were boulders the size of bales of hay, some larger... So I drove into the worksite, found a guy, asked him if he'd deliver some to my house in his big truck. His boss said, yes, and his shift ended in 5min. So, he followed me home, backed up to our corner lot, dumped them where we wanted them... or close to it... I paid him $50, offered him a Mountain Dew, and he was on his way!

BEST purchase that year. We hired a friend with a tractor to come move the biggest ones in place, and we were pleased!

I'll see if i have an old pic of them... before the plants got too big. well, good, here was half of them... and they are burried about halfway in the ground! Kept the kids from driving thru our yard!

I'm crazy jealous. That's magnificent.

Wow.... very, very nice.

Check your Email.

TXmel - What a deal! And a great design feature.

Great pictures and progress everyone!

TXMel, great idea on finding rocks! What are those purple flowering shrubs? in your rocky bed?

Thanks all... that was an early pic... you wouldnt recognize it 3 yrs later, as those purple shrubs... Texas Sages, were 5 feet tall! We sold that home in 06, but the owners kept the big corner bed as it was, and its a great tribute to TX natives! Hummers, bees and wildlife loved it... but this being the shady garden forum (which we have NOW), I dont believe that TX Sages would like shade!

Quick Picasa question - I d/l'd a week ago and just now starting to theorize my sorting into albums. If I want to attach a photo to a thread response, I can't attach it through Picasa, right? I still have to use the folders on the hard drive? I'm thinking that if this is the case, I could also organize the hard drive folders to mimic the Picasa albums. Since DH does most of the photo imports on his computer (we're networked), he did a Windows live sync thing so I can add them to my albums. Am I making this too complicated or over-thinking? Is there a better forum I should use for my Picasa questions?

The Cameras and Photography forum helped me so much when I needed it.

Cindy... however you arrange your pictures in your folders on your computer... picasa will arrange them that way as well. (folder wise)

I always arrange my folders, then when I open picasa... there they are...

I keep picasa arranged in "folder tree structure" order, so my pictures are in a similar order in picasa. You can change the way picasa shows them, so you have to choose what works for you. The other option is "flat folder structure" ... i find this one confusing. (on my mac, this option is next to IMPORT at the top of the picasa screen, under the file, edit, view, etc line.

Once you set up your basic folders, home, garden, work, family, kids, decor, hobbies, vacation... then get your subfolders inside those, you can keep narrowing them as time allows! I am so much happier when pictures are sorted in categories, instead of in date order, or "as you take them".

Once i put my files in folder tree structure... it's much less frustrating...
feel free to email me if you need clarification. melharristx@yahoo.com

Hey Pirl - I read your question over in the other forum and it sounds exactly like my question! Thanks for the info. DH is trying to be patient with me as I ask questions of him. Of course, I'll have to tiptoe through the helpful stuff posted to understand it all.

TXMel - So you arrange the computer folders first so that they're already organized when they're imported into Picasa, right? I don't know if I can "organize" DH enough to do that since he does most of the photo-taking and loading from the camera. He's volunteered to load plant photos into a "plants" folder but I don't think I can coerce him to go beyond that. I think I can handle the "plants" folder through Picasa though and organize them after the fact on the hard drive. Neither of us are sure if, when he turns on his computer, that the folders won't resort to their original content. Thanks so much for the offer of help. If I run into a wall, I may take you up on your offer.

That pile of rocks as of yesterday.

Doug

Looking back down the hill

Viburnum I bought on Saturday

postmandug - I can imagine just strolling through all of the planting areas you've developed. So many interesting aspects. What type of Viburnum is that? The leaf shape is very different from the 3 that I have.

Viburnum Dentatum, but I'll have to look at the tag to see what cultivar.

Wow! You've been working very hard. Looks fantastic.

great job Doug

Oh well Cindy I was wrong again as usual! It's a Sargent Viburnum 'Onondaga', but it's still a beautiful plant.

Doug

Nice work, the rock wall looks fantastic - I am so envious! Beautiful fall color on your Onondaga. I haven't looked at ours lately but I love the blooms of this one in the spring :)

I haven't made many "changes" lately but have taken photos of the area I'll hopefully be starting on soon. Rick tilled the area for me this week and I'm just going to try to get the "bones" planted this fall and work on a design over the winter with a wish list for the spring!

I wish I had been that organized.
Started gardening before I joined DG and met so many wonderful helpfull people.Things are comming together but I wouldnt have as many design problems if I had known what I was doing two years ago.
Great work everyone.

postman - Regardless of name, it's still beautiful. I browsed it to get details and it does have some gorgeous flowers. And the leaf color is absolutely beautiful. A definite highlight to that area.

nice

How's this for a change in my landscape. Same pasture today and one year ago.

Yep, that's a change. I didn't realize that there were many wind turbines in IL. They've been erecting quite a few of them along US 41 in IN.