My Stonehenge Garden - continued...

Its just beautiful! Your hard work sure shows beautifully. Thank you for sharing the pictures.

Sooooooooo, now that it is all coming together so splendidly, LOL what is your next project? Just kidding although would not be surprised to hear you have already been thinking and discussing one.
Have certainly enjoyed following this thread and seeing hard labor and love of working together all come to fruition.
Candee

Definitely breathtaking especially when one realizes the enormous amount of planning, skill and labor that has gone into this project. Both of you amaze me Diane. It will be gorgeous when planted and full of blooms and color. I can only imagine what it looks like in person because I know photos do not do it the justice it deserves. I can't wait to see it in a couple of months.

LOL..new project??? not just yet...it will probably take another 2 years to fully, complete this one. Most of the work is on John..I told him not to think about how much is left...there is definitely no time pressure on him..it gets done when it gets done..but he answers to his own internal pressures. He says the urgency comes from wanting to finish the hardest parts before his body gives out completely and he can't do it. We both thought we reached that point last Saturday but a long soak in the tub, a Gin & Tonic and a good nights sleep later -- we were back out there at it again..LOL

BrugNanny - thank you..yes, it's true the pictures can't do it justice. Every evening we go out after dinner and just sit there together looking at it and I marvel every day at just how cool it is -- I absolutley love living there in my own little slice of paradise.

Diane

And your attention to detail is so impressive. Those gates are so intricate. I love them. It is truly a work of art. When all planted, you will never be able to leave its beauty and go to work.

Diane, thanks again for allowing us to experience this incredible journey with you. Words cannot express how beautiful and serene your Stonehenge garden is. I will continue to watch for updates!

Diane, I can only echo what has already been said...just beautiful! Thank you for sharing it all with us!

Dianne,

Even though I do not post all these "Ohs" and "Ahs" , I have followed the incredible progress of your "Stonehenge Garden" with great admiration. What I found most touching was the beautiful Love Story between YOU and JOHN that you posted a long while ago. I
t seems like a "Fairy tale", and now your "Prince" is building you a "Castle". I think you ought to put a glass slipper somewhere on top of one of the many posts surrounding this Garden. It would be something to talk about and to share with your Grandchildren......

Anyway...What I have attached below is just a mini-excerpt from a HUGE paper I wrote for my English 102 Term paper. It had to do with "Humanities". I wanted a challange, and I gave it to myself!

I decided to write about all the traditions and festivities associated with the Summer Solstice--practices and celebrations throughout the ages--from the Pagan times to present day. Since this Folk Festival is about the biggest there is in my country of birth (Latvia), I was also curious about it's history. I called my report "Midsummer Magic".

I thought the two excerpts below were appropriate to your "Stonehenge Garden". Now, all you need to do is to carve a nitche in one of the pillars and have John sit somewhere else for 9 days and see just when the rising sun shines PRECISELY through that nitche--and you would know that Summer Solstice (shortest night/;longest day of the year) has arrived. Of course, that nitche would have to be astronomically correct!
Here it is:

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"Eclipses were a critical period for mankind, for if light was lost, life was lost. Equally critical was the knowledge of when the days would grow longer or shorter, or when the wet or the dry seasons would begin, for the seasonal changes were intricately tied in with agriculture and farm economy. It was of uttermost importance to know the arrival of the Summer and Winter Solstices.

And so the ancient peoples of millennia ago began building various structures, medicine wheels, circles of stones, and megalithic monuments to observe the rising sun and it’s position during the year.

The building of these primitive observatories began as long ago as 3000B.C. and continued until at least 1500B.C. The most famous of these is “Stonehenge” in England".

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"Many Indian tribes of the Northwest used the services of Sun Priests or sun-watchers to determine when actual solstices will occur. The Priests sat in specially built Sun Towers in the mountains and observed the rising sun for eight days until one morning it was visible PRECISELY through a particular notch, or opening, in the wall of the observation temple.
Then, on the ninth day he would announce the sacred middle-of-the-Year…..the Summer or the Winter Solstice"

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You ought to research all this stuff of WHAT is associated with Stonehenge and why it was built. If you have already done so, please excuse the suggestion. It is SOOOO ancient! There are many books in the Libraries from England re all this. I had to search high and low to get my material, but my paper ended up being 21 pages long and I got an A+. (We were required to have a minimum of 3 pages for this report). Haaa---Haaa---
I think it was just something the Professor had not read about before. It must get boring if you teach for years and years to read all the same stuff! I have always wanted to think that I am "different"..........not cast from the same mold as all the millions of others.
I was almost a senior by then (1991) and did something different from the college crowd. I also wrote for the school paper and am very proud of all my achievements back then.

Gita

Hi, Gita -

Oh, thank you so much for your thoughtful post, compliments and interesting history lesson. John had actually learned some of this from a Harvard Professor friend who studied it at length some years ago. The Professor is also into stonework and made a rather large model of stonehenge for a client in Pennsylvania as a summer commission.

Our observation of the summer solstice is confined to a 12' stone obolesque (sp?) that John has erected in the garden to serve as a sundial that shines on stones John had carved with roman numeral chaptering that he placed in the ground in a semicircle in the precise places where the shadows fell on the hour during the summer solstice last year.

John's family immigrated from the Slovak Republic to the US around 1906 and my family came from Belgium also at the turn of the century.

Thanks again for your thoughtful post and congratulations on a job well done on your paper.

Diane Krny

All I can saw is stunning, elegant and strong. I want to ask a 100 questions like where do you find the elements and how did you come to "see" this vision and to plan the details so well. Of course...where do you find a little crane to move the stones?

Ok I've moved my jaw back in place...it had fallen on my chest.

I'm going to find the original thread. If it isn't obvious, will someone please guide the newbie?
cynthia

Here you go cynthia...enjoy it as we have all done already.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/500395/

Donna

Wow! I have followed the posts of this project for the past year and I am impressed that two people could buid such a thing of beauty. I love the use of the stone and the wrought iron gates. Please post more pics when you can.
Keith

your husband really loves you. He's dedicating the garden to you wow

I just can't get enough of your garden, house and barn. I fell in love with your barn doors last year.
It truly is a magnificent journey that the two of you are on. It is beyond anything that I've ever seen two people create together before. Your are creating something of beauty that will stand the passages of time for many, many years to come. Those massive stones will be a testament to the both of you for as long as they stand.
As someone said before me, I'm in awe.

Well alrighty..by request..it is time for an update. It is now mid July and things are a bloomin. The new garden is progressing beautifully. I have about 13 pics to load with this update, so bear with me..

First off..The construction guys came back a few weeks ago and completed the slate roof on the potting shed but a few days before they did, John went up and installed these custom lightening rods on the roof of the shed. Pretty fancy eh? He found someone on the web that builds reproduction lightening rods and using the parts he had on his website, John designed these and sent the guy the plans and request to build them. He did and shipped them to us safely...

Here is a closer look...aren't they COOL???

Ok, now on to the rest of the garden...this is the first section released to me..with the big green urn you will see above. Now that it is filled in an blooming..I LOVE it. I planted dahlias and cannas mostly here with a few annuals on the border. The urn has a banana tree in the middle that is struggling to outgrow the sweet potato vine.

and a little closer look...I am so pleased with how beautifully the dahlias are coming. They are HUGE compared to last year just growing in pots. We did a nice job I guess amending the top soil with 40% compost, Kelp meal, Azomite and bone meal..

the is the next bed over, which I didn't even expect him to finish this year, but he did. In here I just put some Daturas I had neglected that were left in 4" pots until June!, a Candida double white brug, and a few other things....

These two raised beds complete this half of the garden. Red Castor bean is the main attraction on the left and my Endless Summer hydrangea and some brugs on the right. ..

John will be building a series of wooden and iron fences to go on top of these perimeter walls to take them to a height of 6 feet or so, but probably won't get to it till sometime next year.

a view from the sidewall looking out toward the potting shed. In the center front you will see the numbered stones that make up the sun dial John built around this 12 foot stone. It really works too..except in the rain..LOL

And yes, that is a line of 6 or 7 brugs in buried pots on the left. They seem to like it there. And that is my baby off in the distance working on the other side of the garden...

one more view...

I'm really pleased with how it is turning out. John and I come out here near nightfall almost every evening and sit amongt the flowers and just drink it all in. Sooooo much work..but such a beautiful, peaceful place..

and, in case you were wondering if I slowed down on growing plants in the rest of the yard now that the new garden is coming together..here is a series of pictures to show you the answer which would be a big, fat...NO..

a few here..

and a few there...

here a plant ..there a brug..

oh, yes, did I mention BRUGS..here is an overall view of my back yard. I am growing about 80 of them this year. LOL..this is the last pic for now...more in late August, September..

Diane & John

I have so enjoyed following this thread for 2 years now...I would never want to leave that garden..it's just so whimsical and Magical..It's almost as if you two live in a fairy tale that I once dreamed about...thanks for the update..it only gets more beautiful with each passing year....Jeanne

This message was edited Jul 15, 2006 9:46 PM

I agree!

Magnificent!

I have been wondering how things were coming along.

I too have enjoyed seeing the dream become reality. You must spend a lot of time just watering all those pots of brugs. LOL

Wonderful job..so colourful and lush. Everywhere you look there are fabulous focal points.

I saved looking till just before I went to bed. Maybe I will dream I am there tonight! It all looks just so lovely as you know. I bet sitting out there is a dream.

I can't believe all your brugs. LOL. You will have lots to overwinter!

This is the most magical garden I have ever seen!!!

Your hubby has an amazing eye for detail in his work. I just love looking at how he has finished the edging of stone with little blocks and also how he incorporated flat areas within the low walls for your pots. I am drinking in all this loveliness and talent. I hope you are both enjoying the ride. :-)

Thanks for the updated tour.
Donna

AWESOME!!!
Bonnie

What a talented husband you have. You are so blessed!!!! This is absolutely one of the best threads I have come across since joining DG in April. Really enjoy the pic's of your peaceful, beautiful garden. Thanks so much for sharing.

Patty

Diane it is AWESOME!. This is the first I have read the post on the stonehinge gardens, where have I been, huh. So much work and imagination to plan something out this awesome that will take a few yrs to complete.

Dott

Thanks all, as always. I'm glad you guys aren't getting bored with this. I worry that some might be sick of it...hopefully those that are will just bypass the thread. We are in our first big heat wave here for the last two days and into Wednesday. Temps in the mid upper nineties and HUUUUMMMIIDD. I have had to water EVERYTHING twice a day. I feel like fainting right now...gonna go take a cool shower and go to bed in my air conditioned bedroom (thank the Good Lord for that!), I will be happy to go to the air conditioned office tomorrow. Hope my plants make it through the the day..they will only get water again now at 4:30pm tomorrow afternoon. sigh.

Diane

I'm not bored. I love your story and the pictures.

Its beautiful!

I just love seeing this garden come together. If I had the money, knowhow and room this is something like what I would do.

Beautiful, Diane. We never get bored seeing your pictures.