January 2010 - still celebrating our gardens

RCN, well you should certainly be able to get some interior work done this weekend. Those are really beautiful rocks. Reminds me that I have some neat river rocks that I picked up at the top of the Ganges River in Nepal or Tibet. I carried those rocks all across Asia in a backpack. I need to find them and put them in a neat spot in the garden.

I really liked the design that you made last year for your bamboo fence. It had such a simple elegance to it. I don't think that you could improve on that very much.

I like to make sculptures from stuff I find thats intersting in shape.
I wanted to sculpt a cone flower,I used a castoff from a woodworking shop and my SIL's organ building business provided me with the teeny lead organ pipes.
The problem occured when the pipes warmed up, they became soft.
My studio was in those windows,one day a bird landed on one of the pipes and bent it.From then on the whole thing began to droop.

This is my latest Sparkley garden Spike with Sprongie

How creative, love it!

LOL Stormy, I've carried rocks back from every trip we've ever made! I think it's almost comical - I bought a couple of cheap cranes to put in the gardens this spring. When they arrived, they were much nicer than I expected so I've displayed them in the "new" theme for the front entry! They looked a little bare so I placed some of our collected rocks around their feet :)

I just posted this in the Garden Art forum and thought I'd post it here as well. It was such a neat idea and I'm desperate to find these "instructions"! http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1074013/

Beautiful Cranes.
I have used the sand paint.It hides a lot of things like cutting errors

They really are nice but they're not very tall. They're just plastic but the finish makes them look like metal and heck, for the price (around $15) I couldn't pass them up!

Its the aire they give to the space. It doesnt matter what you paid.
I just bought some solar garden spotlights for 12.00 ea. and couldnt believe they were so reasonable.We tested them in a planter on the porch to see how bright they were and they are going to look great lighting up the garden.

Ugh - my dogs consistently knock over my solar lights, very frustrating. Unfortunately, they were these cheap plastic screw-on bottoms, despite the nice copper-look tops. Hope you have better luck!

I don't get enough sun for anything solar to work very well. I'm surrounded by shade. I had a solar powered fountain and it worked every day between 12:30 and 4pm and it was in one of my brightest spots. I did enjoy it while it worked.

The Cranes are very nice RCN. At this point, I don't add anything to the garden that isn't extremely wind resistant. I'm tired of picking everything up or running down the street looking for it after a storm.

Pagancat I have deer that have shoved over the lily suports now that there are no plants for them to eat.Clumsy oafs

LOL - No kidding! I didn't realize they could be a problem off-season, too.

that would be the really tall lily stakes that run 20 bucks ea.
Theyre leaning over so I know the bottom foot is bent.I think the deer are coming to the bird feeders.

GE, I don't think I've ever seen any of those stakes. Do you have a photo of one?

Annie get your gun.

Sure Stormy

I was looking for pictures of RCN's cranes but couldn't find any. When we visited her garden last fall I saw them. Must say they are really nice I would have never known they were plastic if I hadn't touched them. They looked like really good quality metal sculptures. Here is what she has done with some of her collected rocks. This was a really pretty and eye catching way to display them. She has a wide border of them along the drive by the front entrance. Between the stone driveway and the edge of the flower beds. There are some small plants tucked in here and there. I've not seen a similar type of stone border. In places you would find the larger stones bordering the bed a pretty common use but then there would be these smaller stones making the transition from the stone driveway to the larger stone. This small detail was really eye catching.

Really nice interplay with sizes and shapes.
Thanks Holly and RCN
My combo for today

Menorca Lily with Pueple prince DL's OLiv Langdon,chi.firecracker,noid yellow

oops

LOL Holly, different Cranes :) The ones is the garden ARE metal! Rick gave me them to me as a Valentines gift years ago and they've moved around a lot in the gardens. I think we've finally found a good home for them - they're next to the small pond near the house.

The rock border along the driveway was Rick's idea :) It's a perfect way to display the rocks and I've continued to add a few rocks of my own and plant in the pockets created by them. The rocks always look better when they're wet and the day Holly and Ric visited we had plenty of rain :( They've seen lots of pictures posted on DG but it was so much fun having them see the gardens in person. They were real troopers as we walked around in the pouring rain :)

Totally beautiful

ge, scrumptious colors for a lousy "white" day here! Snow and more snow, probably a good day to dig out photos and start dreaming of Spring :)

Stormy, I also ordered a few other "objects" for the garden when I ordered the Cranes. They're all solar and I'm not sure if I'll have enough sun for them either but I liked them regardless of whether or not I'll see their glow at night.

I like the little green guy with the buggy eyes.

Thanks ge, it IS nice to look at spring photos on a miserable day like this!

This is the other "bird" I ordered. I specifically ordered him to sit on the fence post of my new welcome garden next to the field and I love him! I remember someone posting this site for good deals a few years back and I used my Christmas money to order a few things when they had a sale going on plus got an additional 15% off! http://www.collectionsetc.com/

LOL, me too but the picture was deceiving, the bottle is more yellow than green - but he's still cute! My DH just laughed at me when I received the box - it was a few weeks after Christmas but I was like a kid on Christmas morning! I've got a frog themed garden but this year I'm switching to birds!

LOL RCN, See I just forget too much. I must come back again to view the garden. It really is a beautiful garden. Holly

Sounds like you've got a sweet DH, RCN. My husband, Russ, gets a kick out of me liking those things, too.

I'm buying fairies today. I think my fairies will need some frogs nearby. Although we certainly have enough live ones.

Yes Holly, you and Ric MUST come back! I would love to have you see the gardens in the spring - Phoebe and Lucy had made quite a mess of them for your first visit :(

Polly, Rick thinks I'm developing old lady's habits with my quest for garden objects! After I bought my first gazing globe (something I swore I'd never own! LOL) I've become obsessed with my garden "whimsy". It's my attempt to make the gardens a little more "fun" to visit. You never know what you might find around the next corner :) I'm a dragonfly nut and I'm always finding more to add to the garden but over the years have added frogs and now birds. Now I just need to find a perfect spot to develop a fairy garden!

We arent getting much snow.Big blizzerd due in a couple of weeks tho.
This is the longrange weather report.
I like it where it says Unseasonably warm for April
Hope this isnt a duplicate from another post bthis AM
http://www.farmersalmanac.com/weather/USA-Northeastern-weather

I think I need a dragonfly for the fairy garden too.

I've always loved gazing globes. My husband didn't think he did at first, but now does.

The "unseasonably warm" for April sounds good! Since we're on the southernmost tip of that map I'm hoping we'll see the last of the snow in February and in March I'll finally be able to see the gardens! Even though it was cold last year in March I was able to get a lot accomplished and I'm looking forward to getting more done this year before our season kicks in.

Dragonflies and fairies both seem to create magic in the gardens for me :)

rcn, what is that sculptural tree right above the left -hand crane in your green picture? I'm green, now....

new lilies for me
Deep Impact

Sheryl, it's a Yew (Taxus) - Rick might remember what type but it was planted before I arrived "here" and I'm clueless! We prune it to expose the branches but a couple of years ago it got away from us and we gave it a severe pruning. It really opened up the space and we finally had a view of the gardens below :)

ge, I love your collages :) I bought some new Lilies to plant last fall when Brent and Becky's was having their sale but the ground was so wet in the area I was working Rick "stole" them from me and planted them in his gardens!

Took a break to shovel the front walk and take a few pictures so took the opportunity to grab this one of the cranes in their new home :) The urn above them is the one I want to make a pedestal for. I don't know what I'll actually plant in it but for now one of our houseplants almost fits!

Nice spot for the cranes. Nice antiques too

"Antiques"? The only antique is the small table - it was my grandmother's and I refinished it years ago.

got it, I looked too fast.

RCN, you bugger, you've been holding out on those garden objects. I'll forgive you as I know how busy you've been with the home remodeling. You're right about that bird on the dresser showing up better against the brown wall. That grouping looks wonderful.

I love the bug eyed guy too and also the bird for your welcome area. That other photo reminds me that I need to bring my weathervane in for some painting.

Polly, you can't begin to know how many gazing globes I've lost this last 2 years to falling branches, walnuts and what not. It's stainless steel or plastic ones only in the future for me now.

GE, I really like the peachy toned lily in your first collage. You're Right Polly, GE IS the Collage Queen. LOL, that's a better moniker than being the vole queen!!

Polly, Holly has the most amazing tree frogs. They really talk to each other. I loved listening to them

Rcn, you always pay so much remarkble attention to the "small stuff". Really does make a difference.

Thanks all of you.Peachy lily is Menorca