Tilly's Little Acre

Had to show the stump.

Coming around the house back to the front. This is the flower bed in front of the house, I'm standing on the porch next to the trellis. In this bed is a Lilac, a Torch Lily, Potentilla. and a few others.

I hope you all had a good time on the tour, I so enjoyed myself showing you around my little spot of heaven. Please don't be afraid to stop by.

The End.

That was fun, I will post more as things grow.
Who's next ????

I thought you would like this pic, make the house look really small.

The Three Sisters.

Tilly, fantastic tour! You have so many trees and other plants tucked in here and there, and a great plan for the future. I am inspired by your ideas for garden rooms and outdoor living areas. I want to see it all in the Spring and Summer too. Love the three sisters.

Have you considered wood chips for keeping weeds down in your veggie garden paths? You can often get them for free from the roadside wood chipper trucks. They want a place to dump them. There must be some good sawdust coming out of that old stump too. I put a double layer of cardboard, and then an inch or so of wood chips, and it works pretty well for quite a while. I think the rubber can be kind of pricey, and maybe not smell so good. Here's a pic of my paths chipped early this Summer, and hardly a weed came up to bother me.

Oh...and ready to cry 'uncle" on the junk. You win with sheer number of old vehicles! I have just as much small junk though. i don't want to take up too much room on your tour thread to show it all, but here's a pic of side of shed and back of old blue truck filled with rusty rolls of chicken wire.

Then there's the old tool shed which is stuck outside the deer fence and contains much crumbling old stuff and hardware parts, old broken windows behind it that never got made into a greenhouse, and the boat that we used to take out in the harbor, but motor not running (also in shed) and rowing is getting hard on the old shoulders

And last stuff belonging to the friend who stores stuff with us, including excavator used in patio construction. Theres a large pile under the blue tarp you can barely see peeking through, and another old truck and trailer back there too, along with the plastic garage and new add on in progress (previous photo).

This message was edited Dec 2, 2008 12:20 AM

Tilly, your tour is fantastic! You have done so much work and your place has come so far. you should start a thread here or over in games forum called "where's furbie". lol It would be fun. I don't think that I opened a single picture that I didn't spot a furbie in. I didn't open every one of them, but close!

I'm so happy to see that others have "junk" around in their yards as well!!!

Hey Holly, I tried the wood chips, maybe not hard enough or deep enough. Its hard to get them to dump chips for me, to hard to get the big trucks down here, with out taking out a wire or two. Funny I have those little piles to, one good thing about blackberrys they cover it. LOL

Red that would be a good game. Ha Ha Where O where is my kitty.

Mary,
Thank you for the tour. I love looking at other people's yards and gardens. My tour is going to be boring, most everything is newly planted and small. But you have to start somewhere!

Hey Tilly, I just noticed something about 8 pictures up from here..... Great choice in saws!!! Is that about a 15 yr. old stihl 041? I have a Stihl 044 that I lent to someone a while ago (I knew it would be months that they would have it). But, I needed to cut some wood now, so I just barrowed a stihl 041 from a friend, who said that it was at least 20 years old- he exaggerates at times though) and I hadn't seen another one like it... until I just opened that picture of yours.

Oh, and I think you should really consider a "where's Furbie" or "where o where is my cat/dog" thread. I have a few that I could contribute, but you have tons!

Lynn, Your right Ya gotta start somewhere, just think about all the new Ideas that might come out of it.
Can't wait to see yours.
It is old, DH got it from the Lady (mom) he works for. She didn't need it anymore. So gave it to him. He had a Craftmans, had nothing put problems with it, In the shop more than not. He has not had any trouble with this one.

Like the game idea, be a fun way to pass the winter along with the tours. I loved those games that have hidden pics in then and you have to find them.

Tills, you have so much room! I don't know what I would do with all that space. Nice views, too. You've got room for some really nice large plantings that make a statement. i'm seeing sweeps of ornamental grasses, sort of the the Dutch tradition or Piet Oudolf. If you've never seen any of his books, you really should take a look. You have the perfect property for his gardening style. And I LOVE the gazebo and also laurie's idea about a waterproof roof. Put DH on that.

Here's a link to my favorite Oudolf book: http://www.amazon.com/dp/088192606X?tag=flowergardeni-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=088192606X&adid=0T294WGTSXNCDQJS18MS&

Oh !!!! Thanks Pix, Want to get it and a few others I saw. Love it.

The Furbie game would be fun!

Yes, Tilly, the blackberries have a few redeeming characteristics, like yummy berries in summer, but it is so hard to excavate something out from under them once they have taken over an area. Too bad the chips didn't work for you. I can see why they wouldn't want to bring their heavy truck in to get tangled in overhead wires. My source of chips this year was an old tree we had to take out so they were in a big pile in my yard, which my handy teenage son wheelbarrowed around to where I wanted them.

Oh Lyn, you have new baby plants which we gardeners will be completely charmed by. Sometimes I like them better that size, so sweet and innocent and in need of tender care..

Thanks for the tour, Mary. So much room and so many great ideas. I look forward to seeing it grow.

Tilly, since I know that you have a picture that has a pretty well hidden furbie...will you start the game off? It just might take off, it might not, but no harm in trying. I'm working on cleaning out my computer as I'm here now, but i'm sure that i'll have one or two that I can add. My problem is that cats are/were old and didn't get off the porch much:-p they like to lounge in comfort. So, they're usually the front spot of the picture, not to hard to find the center attraction!

Thanks Katie.

Holly, I wish I had the great help you have, I can't get any of the off springs around here to join in. O' GOD that looks like work, as they sprint off to points unknown, the little ones are easy, if I'm there and make a game of it, but Alas I am never home when they come to visit.

Red, How bout you start, and I'll join in. I'm sure everyone's allready found my fur babies in the pics , I'll have to come up with new ones. LOL

This is NOT one of mine, but a pic someone sent me. The caption
Says ' I promise to be good'

I can't believe It lol

Look at the eyes on that kitty...so forlorn!

My help can be sporadic and garden chores often take backseat to texting with his friends, but he does do a fair amount with a bit of wheedling, and reminding how I went to get him a burrito after the Christmas parade or picked up his books at the library. 'Ya gives and ya gets' needs a reminder now and then.

I wish I had someone to give, so I can get. LOL
It don't work with DH, I tried.

Hey, but that DH of your grinds up big stumps that need to be gotten out of the way.

Tilly, I have a package all taped up and addressed ready to send to you....at very long last. It has seeds of Echium, Gladwyn's iris, and a couple from the Japanese pepper tree to eat or to plant or give away (you didn't ask for them, but I have so many. I couldn't do up the parcel without tossing some of those in too). Also a couple clumps of pink Schizostylis (which I have you on a list for from months ago), and some wooly thyme which I tried to get some roots but not sure I was successful. Anyway, you can try rooting some sprigs of it. I think that is supposed to be fairly workable. I hope there isn't anything I have forgotten, since I already taped that box up so good you're going to need a pocket knife to open it.

O' Boy Can't wait !!!! A Christmas Present LOL. with all the things I wanted, Thank You Santa Ha Ha.

I must not have been paying attention, or somehow skip it. Would you tell me about the Pepper Tree ? Eat it or plant it ???? Help LOL

I think thats all fun to him, not work.

I put it in the mail today. they said it would be there in a day or two, so be on the lookout.

The pepper tree is a shrub/tree (8-10 feet tall) that has little pink pepper fruits with black seeds inside. They are used for seasoning in Japan, though I am a terrible cook and have not looked up any recipes. I included a small packet of those. I don't know if they are viable to plant, as various websites I looked at have different information about if you need a male and female plant. I only have one, but it did have seeds this year. So you can plant the seeds as an experiment or cook with them if you are so inclined. If you like them, I'll send you more. There is a photo of it somewhere in my yard tour, in the round garden.

Anybody else who wants some, give me a holler.

New Experiment, coming up, eat half, plant half. LOL
Worth a try, never know.

Holly, I got it today, was waiting on my desk when I got home. Now how do I plant the Gladwyn Iris? do I do anything special?

Up date on the tour..... LOL
Going to love it, at least I do LOL
The two red trucks and the white are gone. Yay!!!!! I got home from work, and notice all the tracks across the lawn, course it was dark and I could not see. Will take pics in AM.
And more are going in AM, my DH called the guy and said ' they have to be gone this week or I will give them to someone else, got the sand out of his A##. ^_^
Now I have to wait till Vacation in spring to have the time to go planting crazy. O how long I have waited for this.

Mary - that's such good news. I'll bet you're excited for tomorrow to come.

Ooooo, I LOVE pepper trees. Really, you can eat the berries? And plant them and they'll grow? I would love some. The little berries are fabulous for decorating with.

That is absolutely fabulous!!! With the vehicles gone you'll be able to envision your gardens and make plans over the winter.

I've never planted the Gladwyns. This is the first year they flowered for me and went to seed. Laurie knows how though, and she said fresh seed should sprout pretty quickly.

On the pepper seeds.....we tried tasting some tonight, thinking to put them in the stir fry, and the seed part is very bland. The husk, on the other hand, is the flavor part apparently, and is kind of peppery and lemony. Unfortunately, what I sent you was just the seeds so they won't be useful for eating. I guess to get them at an edible stage, you have to harvest much earlier. Hopefully they will have a chance to grow though. Is there a Japanese gardening forum where I can ask about how to do this, I wonder?

Gwen, I am totally in the experimental stage with this, but I have read that you can cook with these seeds. I do not have any specific instructions on growing them from seed or harvesting and cooking them either., but I can certainly send you some so you can give it a try. D-mail me your name and address. I don't promise quick service, but eventually I'll get it to you. It really is a pretty tree. I got it at a sale at Colvos Creek Nursery (across the street from me).

I'm going to try pasting 2 sites I found, one with info about planting, one with some clues about using it as a spice.
http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/cgi-bin/arr_html?Zanthoxylum+piperitum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sichuan_pepper

The first one didn't work, but basically it said you could sow fresh seed in a greenhouse right after harvest, and stored seed would have to be stratified. You can also root prunings in late Winter, which I might try when the time comes.

This message was edited Dec 9, 2008 10:38 PM

Cars gone, and snow.
Pix's what did you say about planting now. Not going to happen LOL
Still have one, to go.

looks like you're getting a jump on spring planning. It looks good, snow looks nice too. Be safe.

Have a Christmas cake story for you.
comes in 2 parts.
First part:

2nd part.

Happy Holidays

To each and everyone of you.


Had to share, was to funny



This message was edited Dec 17, 2008 9:28 PM

LOL Haven't seen that one in a while...always good for a laugh.

I thought it was funny

Funny!