January 2010 - still celebrating our gardens

I finally got my last year pictures on the computer. Some good some not so good. Anyway I chose this one as my desktop and thought I would share it. I've been enjoying lurking and looking at all of yours.
Veronica

That's a great photo Jmorth, and makes a wonderful gift for Polly's birthday.

Indygardengal, I can see why you would want that photo as your wall paper. It's very lovely.

Its Groundhog day everybody
Happy Groundhog Day

It's totally foggy here - no shadow - that's good, right?

The sun is shining here in Las Vegas with no shadows. Winter is over. We are in the 60s. Cheap flights and cheap hotel rooms. Why are you still where you are? You just have to wait until the Super Bowl is over because every maniac is in town for the Super Bowl. Maybe on your trip you could come and help me clean out my garage for the 4th time since November, I know I am not in denial. I have a good excuse. Actually, my lung infection appears to be getting better, not well, but
better. So I can now garden as long as I do not start having problem breathing. Can you believe this. Have not smoked, no mining, no what ever but all of a sudden I have problems with my lungs healing since April 2009. Maybe it was the marijuana?????LOL. Never tried it. You must realize that at the time I was as Senior in High School Mr. Linkledder's daughter decided to try LSD and decided she could fly off a balcony from the top of a very tall building. Probably at least 16 floors. She found out she could not fly and I GOT THE MESSAGE REAL QUICK....

Rub it in Sharon!!! We hit 43 for about 2 hours and than the temps took a nose dive again. AND we are getting snow again this weekend. Yuck!!!

We've had an unusually warm January (highs in the low 50s) - we actually set a record for high average temperatures. February is supposed to be dryer AND warmer than usual (usual it's the cloud cover that keeps us warm, so dry and warm is unusual). Everything here is blooming - my clematis are budding, the hellebores are in full bloom, hydrangeas are budding.

Of course, we'll probably pay for this with no snow pack in the mountains and no water this summer, but for now it's pretty nice. Y'all are welcome to come visit while you wait for warmer temperatures.

Well the flight to Las Vegas is cheap and you know I have two extra bedrooms. One with twin beds and one with a queen size bed. Come on down. You can see Las Vegas and help me learn cuttings and garden. We have hired a limo because could not find our way through the parking lot or home. We are going to see the Jersey Boys. It is his birthday and our 36th anniversary. I will probably be gone from here for a couple of days because have a lot of work in the garden garage to get organized and everything in order for spring. love you all. Mother Winter....

Have fun. That's a great way to celebrate.

Still cold here too. This is a May pic
I just know I'll see it soon

Look at that allium, you stinker. What is the cute little statue?

Thanks Polly
Thats allium Karavatens and the statue is a sculpture I did for a competition at the Schweinfirth Gallery in Auburn. Its a spirit house and I had my mothers ashes under it at the old house. She is still there, the new owners didnt deserve my sculptures so I took it wit me.

I really like it. Boo on the alliums though, I can't grow them, but I love it.

I'm going to start putting some more ornamentation in the garden, I think some fairy things that Jenna will like. A friend who recently died built me a fairy dance hall last year. It's about 3 foot tall, open with pillars.

OHHHH Polly that sounds wonderful

It does sound like fun, even for me. Now I'll have some time to look at fairy stuff on the internet, now I'm not on a lily buying blow out, and before the orders start coming for the irises.

If anyone knows of a good site for fairy accoutrements, I'd be interested. .

I like everyones ideas about what they like in their gardens.My taste is a bit far off center,but its mine.
I have a new addition to the sparkly spike of a few weeks ago. After I put it on the spike ,at risk of life and limb( its on a hill and the ground is frozen and very uneven)
I stood back for the pictur and realized it was too big. I will re work the idea with a sproingie bunch or purple pteales coming out of the top much like a Monarda.
This is the Sparklie garden Spike part 2 but not the last.

It's definitely different. And love it. Heaven forbid we should all be the same.

Here's what my new fairy garden is going to look like. Uh huh.

http://www.pondgnome.com/images/Healing%20Gardens/Fairy_Garden.jpg

go for it

Right after I get a bunch more trees, and a cottage, I will. Ranch style won't do.

just add one of those cute thatches roofs.there must be a kit somewhere/
LOL
Check out the Tomas Kinkaide accessories for your home.Bet they make those roofs.TEE HEE.
Every now and then I have an idea that makes other people millions.

Maybe I could do a sedum roof! That would be fun. It's a pretty good sized roof though. Probably 3 X 6. It's a fairy dance hall after all. Lots of fairies will be coming.

Which variety sedum?
Big leaves I hope

Shoot, all my favorite fairies are much too big for a 3' roof.... >grin< ... but they love to dance!

GE, Love your sparkly. Your garden should contain whatever makes you happy.

Polly, Your fairy dance hall sounds wonderful and I think a sedum or semp roof would be just the thing! There's probably some info in the fairy gardening forum about sources. But wouldn't doll house items work too?

I meant semp roof. I've get semp, sedum, and those heufi things on the brain.

Sure doll furniture would be fine. I was just thinking about some outside things, but I'll check the doll furnitue once I decide the size of my fairies. Thanks.

RCN had made the cutest paths meant to look like slate walks from the door of her frog house. She made them out of flat river stones. Maybe I can find her photos.

Thanks, I would love to see them.

I've been so busy with my inside projects the past few months I haven't been checking the forums regularly but Stormy sent me Dmail to ask for my photos. Thank you, this is a wonderful thread and I love seeing all the beautiful photos! My head's been filled with remodeling and it's time to jump forward and start thinking about spring :)

Polly, your fairy garden sounds like a neat project! When I started working on this area last spring, I found this old stump and thought about creating a fairy garden but I had a few frogs that needed placement in the garden so I changed the "theme". We have tons of rocks that we've collected over the years and I borrowed a few of the flat rocks from another area in the gardens where they weren't serving any real purpose. They're now providing a path into the "frog house" :)

It's a little hard to see but there's a frog with a dragonfly that "swings" above the stump. Well...that is, "used" to swing :( When DH was pruning the trees overhead last summer the stump got knocked over and there's a small piece missing from the stake that makes the rocking motion of the frog and dragonfly. I'm hoping that I can rig something up this spring to at least keep them on the stake but probably no 'rockin and rollin' for this frog! LOL

Is that a narueral piece of driftwood?

LOL, the "driftwood" is an old stump I found on the side of the road when I was walking the dog last spring - I thought it was unique and it quickly "drifted" into my gardens :) I don't have an opportunity often to find "real" driftwood but I'm always on the lookout for old logs or branches in the woods which might be decorative in the gardens. When I lived in Maine we found this small pond in the northern part of the State where the whole shore was lined with "driftwood", probably from the logging which had been done in the area years before - it was incredible! I dragged a few pieces home with me but there just wasn't enough room in the van. Of course, if we could have left our three children behind we would have had more than enough room LOL

That was a lucky find. I love the natueral ones as opposed to the cast fiber ones that just dont make it in the believable catagory for me.

rcn, thank you for coming over. I love it! I do see the hanging frog.

The rocks look wonderful. We live close to the shores of Lake Ontario, and have lovely rocks, although not much driftwood. I'll put my granddaughter to collecting rocks for pathways. She will be so excited. And she can decorate some. Another project. Now I'm so excited about it. Thank you.

That reminds me that now that I have my pics back I can post a few pictures from Driftwood beach on Jekyll Island over on the old Driftwood Thread.
Rcn, I know I saw that pic before but I just noticed how it looks almost like a face the hole at the bottom the mouth, then that bump in the middle the nose and the two bumps on each side the eyes and even that spot above one eye look like a bushy eyebrow. Holly

Holly, Art is truly what each person sees. I see the face of which you are speaking.

Thanks, RCN. Actually the request was just a ruse to get you out of your numerous house remodeling projects and back into the soon to be green. You were made for the outdoors. LOL

Polly maybe your grand daughter can paint fairy footsteps on the stones.
I made many trips to Chimney Bluffs for those lake stones.
In this picture the drystacked retaining wall went across the front of my house.There was a 12 inch strip in front of it that went to the sidewalk.
I filled it with pea gravel and then laid lake stones over that.
You can see just a small bit in the lower right hand corner black arrow.

GE, I like those neat creatures lurking in that bed.

Polly, you're more than welcome :) If the rocks on the shores of Lake Ontario are as pretty as those we've collected from Lake Superior, lucky you!

Stormy, you're too funny :) I promise, I'm almost back to the "outdoors"! I guess with all the snow we've had this winter it was a good year to devote some time to remodeling. We haven't seen too much "green" this winter and the snow and unusual colder than normal temperatures wrecked my plans to get much accomplished outside this year :( We'll be doing the last of our spring planting when plants arrive the last week of this month. I'm hoping to get started on the addition to the bamboo fence by the first of March and get the landscaping finished around the arbor steps before April!

Ditto! What are they?