It's beginning to look like the tropics,5,wintering in!

You know I bought my grandchildren up as their mum toured the country a lot....one perfect Spring morning I picked up my husbands camera...(the first and only time until recently)....I held my breath... and took some snaps of my darlings ...in my garden......Guess what they turned out! so I made a big frame and got the children to help me mount the pictures in it... I pass it everyday and it greets my visitors....these babies have almost grown up now ...but that picture remains one of the happiest and most precious days in my life...so here I took a picture of the pictures excuse the glare from the flash

I know when I was a young duckling,and went to visit my grandma,it was sit still,don't touch anything,be quiet,just listen don't speak!!!!
Well I didn't want my grand kids to have the fear that I had when we went to visit.I want them to remember the fun and good times!!!!

not too good try again

They look to be under 4 yrs old!!!!
Didn't mind the flash at all!!!

Look at all those dalihas!!!

Same here TM ...I still remember my father's parent's place ...seven of us kids listening to the tick tock of the wall clock and silence....horrible....trying with the pic again...this time not the same one!

Yep,here was waiting for the cuckoo bird to come out of the clock and cuckoo!!

Aren't they just darlings!!!!

Did you see how short the Norfolk Island pine was ...it was a very long time ago very special times....the little one sitting on the bed is josh who will be 17 next month.

Yes it was just one perfect day....the pic right down the bottom right hand corner my oldest grand daughter is the litte girl to the left of that trio...here she is now at 19

Time flies huh!!!!
She's a cutie!!!!
I have a north island pine in a container had for 7 yrs,when I got it was in a 2 inch pot,now 5 gallon clay pot about 5 ft tall,I keep it trimmed as if it were a palm!!!!

That same one now

My passy elata getting ready for the warm weather ...not bad considering the freeze we had this is the upstairs balcony

And the blossoms are ready to go although drooping from cold wind tonight

Looks like it grew 3 ft a year!!!
Is your soil ph on the neutral or acid side?

Yep thats what mine looks like ready to bust open,maybe tonite.

I think my soil is fairly neautral.....lots of cow poo ...mulch and a little lime in Spring....sometimes if I get around to it I just throw a bit of chicken poo pellets...and a sprinkle of blood and bone around .....I always use a seaweed tonic in the Spring.Oh psssst banana peels everywhere ha ha ha. Last year I could not do anything due to caring for someone...but everything went along fine as you can see.I think a mature garden almost takes care of itself....the leaves fall down and mulch things...the birds visit and poop ...fertilize....the worms are underneath working all the old leaves and mulch....nature taking care of itself.The hardest is trying to get on top of the massive growth and weeds...but ....there is something magestic and awesome in a tree you put in as an itty bitty twig ...or even just a seed and it now towers over you.... and you get to stand underneath and peer up through the canopy....makes me feel like a little child. :) happy!

We are in the midst of trying to decide about cutting down 3 trees. Planted them in 67. Actually they were just little volunteer switches from our former home. DH didn't even dig them...just pulled them up by the roots and we planted. No one knew much of anything about gardening then and I mean...no one. We planted two mimosa which are many years gone...and these 3 fruitless mulberry. Life span expectancy of 20 years....we didn't think we would live here but 5 years so what did it matter. They have been our rock. Grew very large and beautiful. For the last 3 years have been having them cut a little at a time trying to prolong the inevitable. Not only will we loose shade, but 3 old friends. The kids and grandkids grewup climbing in them and I suppose pretending to be Robinson Crusoe.
There are red oaks and live oak and pecan and yaupon holly all growing to help take their place. The heavy rains of this summer helped them make it another season. Think it is time to bite the bullet and let them go. Sure hate it. The trendy thing now is to call them a trash tree. Not so. When we had the tornado in 94 all the sycamores were tall and grand....5 of them. Every single one broke and mangled...had to cut them down then....not the trusty mulberry....just a few branches and some that are split and still producing.

Oh Christi - what a terrible decision to have to make! Maybe not all three at once?

contemplating...Don't want to at all but all the careful pruning and watering, etc. does not change the fact that these trees have lived past their prime. We don't take cutting a tree lightly.

Gee that is sad :(

Golly, Chrissy. In your jungle I expect you never have that dilemma. When we purchased our home, it had been a hay field. Nothing, absolutely nothing but Johnson Grass. We pulled every blade and planted every living thing so each one is like a child of a sorts. At this date it is very lush and shaded but now from nature.

Same here LouC .....the only things here ...were the three small she oaks...1small a small Murraya tree (now huge and about to flower)and 1 small Norfolk Island pine (about 6ft at the time)....this was a market gardener's home... so there was 2 acres of cabbages....a big dam and 6ft of grass over the other 14 acres.....nothing else....everything you see in my pic
I planted (well no ...the birds planted a couple of things too!) ha ha ha
but it was all put in by me....grandchildren growing up in my garden....you bet! that is why I said it is sad....When my grandchildren grew too big for their big sandpit I was very sad....so I turned it into a "tropical garden" starting with the two palms they bought me out of their pocket money....they have watched them grow and love their old sandpit jungle! It also stops me feeling sad when I look at the "old sandpit" :)

What great memories Chrissy! I have never lived anywhere long enough to accomplish quite what you guys have, but our home in Denver is pretty much my doing, and I have lots of memories from the grandkids doing Easter Egg hunts, and first snow angels and things like that. Just those 10 years worth give me an idea of what you two have to remember....so sweet.

Ah, yes, I know the feeling. For us it was an acre of wild mustard.

My house was built over once where the Arkansas river ran years ago,when the river changed it's course,it still was area of backwater,or what they call flood zone.
Then in the 40's and 50's,developers took top soil and started filling acres of flood zone,they filled it all up several feet,maybe 5 to 6 ft or more,I can hit water less than 11 ft,and my well is only 22 ft deep.
I'm less than a mile away from the river now.In fact my home is the home of the developer who built all the homes for miles around.
The man next door to me was the owner of a trucking and home moving company,he started in the late 40's,he's still kicking and 90 yrs old.
Anyway when the state built the turnpike trhu the middle of Wichita,he bought all the homes,for One Dollar and moved them,and made rentals out of them,over 450 homes,and he still owns them today and has them as rental homes,he is so rich it's just not real.
Kinda got off the subject,like you all I planted the trees here,Caltalpa,red bud,and Mimosa.
Makes me feel happiness when they put on there leaves each spring and flower.

One dollar!!!!! Doesn't that just make ya want to cry??!! How come, I'm never in the right place at the right time??!!

And he is tight with all his dollars,altho he does buy a new Lincoln for him and a Cadaillac
for his wife,every year!!!

Those trees sound lovely Tm.....Shari home is where the heart is ....your grandchildren love you! it's nice to have our land but the people are what counts.....I would cry to leave my garden just the same....because mature things seem to become part of you too.
a golden field of canola is beautiful too!

So funny to hear you say that. When canola oil first started being sold in the US, I can remember lots of people - including my DH - saying what the heck is a canola? A fruit? a critter? There were jokes everywhere about canolas....can't say that I have ever seen a field of canola...got a pic?

No pics of Canola oil maybe later in the year quite a few folk grow it around here it just looks like a big yellow sea ....beautiful!
We have a dreadful weed that is stiff and nasty and only grows in uncared for spots ...it is the most attractive deep purple ...it looks beautiful .....common name of Salvation Jane ....because in the droughts when nothing else grows Salvation Jane "saves" the hungry cattle....it looks and feels like a purple babies breath on triffid steroids.

I gotta ask....is there really a plant called a triffid? We always call the tall purple thistles that grow everywhere in Colorado "triffids", from the sci-fi movie "Day of the Triffids". It sounds so odd to me to hear it from someone so far away from my family....I think its really cool that other people call things triffids, but maybe those are the real things???

You know that beanstalk Jack grew?.....that and anything like that supernatural growth...is triffid here in Oz

Okay...so same thing...I just did a google on "triffid" and it came up with "a highly venemous and fictional plant"...so I guess its just one more word that Hollywood has placed into common usage.

Speaking of purple,do you guys grow Asters??
Oh wasn't aster,Nick and Noras little dog on the thin man series????LOL

Aster

Asters are lovely....I used to have a lot of stokes aster but lost it when I was away nursing a sick relative for 8 months...it was the drought and heat I think.....I do love them.
Love the thin man movies too....I am an Art Deco fan....so not only am I looking at the movie but at the furniture...vases ..buildings etc as well!

His name was Asta.

Yep...Asta...got em all. Love em!

Oooh, you have DVDs? I'm jealous. DH sits quietly and endures my occasional ventures into 1930s movies. Love Charlie Chan, too.

My cats are named Bogie and Cagney....does that give you a clue? We have over 800 movies and at least half of them are black and white!

A kindred spirit! "Watch? Which Watch?"

"Such much!?"....one of my favorites! (and here we go again....)