They are all abuzz tonight, heralding the arrival of a special visitor to Happenstance Garden tomorrow. "frogsrus" aka Janice is coming from the southland to visit and all the residents of the garden are primping and priming to put on a good show.
Some sights as the garden awaits another DG gardener.....
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beautiful!
You lucky dog Janice!! Can't wait to hear how the personal "beautiful garden" tour turns out.
Candy, your gardens always look so inviting, especially is these hot days of summer. Have a nice visit with Janice, you'll just love her.
Donna
what a nice jungle you have there!!!
I really want to live in your yard.....
Wish I could be there.
WOW! MAkes this 4 acres of mine look like a barren wasteland....which it is!!
I hope ya'll have a great time. Jo
Candy, everything is beautiful. Would love to be a visitor in your garden. Only problem is, I would probably want to take up permanent residence there. Janice will love it, I'm sure. Hope you have a great time.
Thanks all! Come visit sometime.....although today might not be the best day to choose. I've had it in my head for a couple of years that I wanted to enlarge the pond. So yesterday I did the deed.
The rose garden next to the pond is history now. I just got tired of fighting the gophers in that bed which is next to the back fence, the wind which beats the roses and breaks the canes just when they are ready to bloom.......and the powdery mildew that was a consistant problem with a few of those roses.
The expansion is well under way, I've begun digging the hole. We'll have to weld the liners together where the old joins the new, but DH says that's not a problem.
Janice, her Dad and two kids came on Saturday and we had a nice long visit and walk around the garden. Fun, fun, fun to meet another DG gardener face to face.
Oh Jo, to have 4 acres......that's a dream for someday in my life. My garden is on a typical California suburban lot, about a 1/4 of an acre....very small when you put a house on it and what remains is for the garden.
Here's Day 1 of the pond expansion:
And a rough idea of where I'm intending to go with this project. :-) I suppose if I get tired of digging, I could always throw the roses back in the hole and make it a sunken rose garden.
adopt me!!!?!!!
Candy it looks great!
I can't wait to see the enlarged version on the pond.
About that mirror.... I love it.......information please....
Ric
Evening Ric -
The mirror and the recipe for one of your own can be found at this link:
http://davesgarden.com/contest/2003/image.php?rid=1032&catid=35
The pond project continues......I'm trying to ignore the fact that I've turned a major portion of the garden into a construction zone. There is no "good" time to do this, so I'm just forging ahead, with plants in holding areas of the garden just itching to move to their new home by the water.
So here is day 2 of the project:
And the "HOLE" from Hades!
Your gardens are gorgeous! I would love to have my plants growing in my garden ALL YEAR LONG! What a difference it makes!!!
Your pond expansion is coming along nicely. It's a lot of sweat & hard work, but once it is finished and the reflections of the plants, flowers, and trees are glistening in your pond, it will be WELL worth it!
Thought we would be in the SF Bay Area this December, but now it looks like May '05 for our oldest son's graduation from Stanford. My son works in Sunnyvale and lives in Santa Clara. Are you near those areas?
Hi gang! The Happenstance gardens are just BEAUTIFUL! We were so fortunate to be able to have gone there. The plants indeed put on a great show for us. The fish, frog, and fur babies were also on hand to provide entertainment.
I cannot believe that you have got that rose garden out of there and the hole for the pond extension already. Wow! I was only there a week ago. I cannot wait to see the finished product.
Shirley we're about 1 1/2 - 2 hours from there depending on how bad the traffic is. :-)
Janice, so glad you guys made it home safely....how's the garden after your extended time away?
The pond project is pretty much on hold for the holiday, leaving shortly to go back up to the Delta for the fireworks.
Here's Day 3 - it's still just a hole, albeit a BIGGER hole.
And Day 4
I am new to the forum, and do not even know you, but would love to become your new best friend....I am so jealous...palms, etc...looks so inviting.....a place you could sit down with Jimmy Buffett and have a conversation....they some some palms are pretty cold hardy, maybe I will have to try one....sure hope you enjoy your visit, and maybe take a picture of each other in front of the palms...LOL
is that a big sego in the last picture, or a variation.....either way it is quite beautiful.....my grandsons all have little tiny ones....I ordered them each one, after a discussion on what dinosaurs ate, and I told them that sego palms have been proven to been around before and after the dinosaurs....they are the neatest.
Just think...you'll have your pond all dug out, filled with water, all the plants in their special places, maybe even some in bloom, plus fish darting happily amongst them....by the time we get out to Calif., next Spring!
nicerfarm - that's a Dwarf Tree Fern 'Silver Lady'
http://plantsdatabase.com/showimage/44432/
but you are correct, it could pass for a young Sago at first glance.
Shirley, the pond expansion will be done long before next Spring. I'm on Day 5 of working on it (took a break for the holiday weekend and some time with my grandkids). As with all projects as they progress, I've decided to take out a walkway, raise it and relay the brick, so I've made more mess.
The liner should be here the end of next week, so things are pretty much on hold until it arrives. It will take a day to splice the new liner to the old one and probably a day to do the edging and fill it. Then the plants can go in.......should be a couple of weeks before we can enjoy the expansion.
The new liner is due to arrive on Wednesday, so I've gone as far as I can. Here's a different perspective of the pond, with the edge rolled over a 2 x 6 in preparation for splicing the new liner to the old and digging out under the former berm to connect the original pond to the expansion portion.
Wow! I wish I had the energy you do, Candy! It takes me a few weeks just to get a simple new bed put in never mind digging a new Marianas Trench in my yard!! LOL! I'm hanging on the edge of my seat to see the finished project.
Ok...now what type of software are you using to mock up your future designs? That's cool! I've tried 2 different software packages and hate both and have refused to spend more money on anymore. But that one looks pretty neat.
Brenda
Evening Brenda -
I'm watching for that big brown truck to bring the liner.......getting impatient!
The mock-up image of the pond expansion took literally about 30 seconds to accomplish with a simple "Clone" tool found on almost any image software package. Taking the original image and using a swirling motion with your mouse (having placed the "cloning" tool on the water) produced a filled expansion pond complete with water lillies. Moving the cloning tool to some dirt in the image produced the perimeter of the expansion pond. It is a fairly down and dirty way of visualizing what a project might look like without expending more energy on a drawing than it takes to build the thing!
If I took the pond expansion mock-up image above and placed the cloning tool on the hills in the background, I could wipe out the fence, fountain, foliage, trees..........
What's Homer Simpson say? "Doiy!!" Gosh...figures I've spent around $70 on garden software and I had the right tools all along in my *FREE* Irfanview program!!!
Excellent tip/trick. Now....how many plants could I have bought with that $70??
Can't wait to see the rest of the story as it unfolds, Candy. Keep 'em coming!
Brenda
IT IS A POND!!
I've posted the 7 Day pond expansion saga on the Photos Forum.
WOW!!! All that hard work & sweat certainly paid off! You have truly created a garden oasis! Absolutely gorgeous!!
Candy - Fantastic!! Love the waterfall in the far back. I almost posted here on Wed. to see if your liner arrived, but knew you'd post when you were ready to show more. Fabulous job and such an inspiration to all of us.
