Sofer's garden tour

First some directions because much of my garden overlooks the Rockies and I get to pull weeds looking at what you are about to see. First I am going to have you open Google earth. You can if it is already on your computer go there now if not down load it here. http://www.google.com/aclk?sa=l&ai=CeB2F-Td2SfCeM5KysAOqi_nDCrGW5H-5oKuEC9y26ZMBCAAQASCLmPgFULLx8-78_____wFgyZabiqCk7BegAfmw6-4DyAEBqgQYT9An26foX9NM7AZRJPGkIFSLN0kTysA0&sig=AGiWqtyntDvjFDy48RcTT4yt4-yUwowjEQ&q=http://earth.google.com/#utm_campaign=en&utm_medium=ha&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-sk-eargen&utm_term=earth%20download Now put in the upper left corner: "White basin Ct Kalispell, Mt" it will zoom you into my street. Now look at 1oclock you will see 2 white roofs at the end of the road. Ours is the first house. We own the rectangle from the road up the page to where the clear area is. Ours basically is a woodland garden with open meadows. We face north and west. All of those clear areas around are Elk pastures. We have between 100 to 400 elk living next to us. Remain in Google earth and we will look at the slope by looking at the very top rt corner directly above the compass. This is the tilt on our view to change how we look at it. Put your pointer on the very rt one and push until the view is rotated to show the area. Now you can see our slope and view. by pushing on the arrow just under the N on the compass you move forward. Now have fun and look all around. Glacier Park is N/NE and quite beautiful.

That is so cool, had some fun on the map. Made a wrong turn and got lost. LOL

you got lost Tilly? now that's never happened before :-p Sorry I couldn't resist. You've told your own mishaps before!

What a view Sofer!

But it was fun, LOL what a beautiful place to live. My DH lived in montana when he was young. I show him the map and the pic. He thought the name of the Lake was White Lake, but wasn't sure.
Steve, where did you go????? leaving us in wonder.

Thanks Steve that was great. Found my house too. Your view is much better.LOL

I did it too, but your can't see my house. To many trees.

Since I'm in a manufactured home park, it looks like we're all jammed together. But then I have a large lot and on the end of the cul de sac facing the trees, so I don't feel jammed.lol

Don't feel bad Tilly. We're invisible together :-p i like it that way!!!

Now the entrance to the property is a gate because we have to keep all the critters out. So we have built a 8' steel post fence around all 3 acres. This makes a great place to keep our pets safe and our chickens happy.
This is the entrance to our property. The drive starts at the top of the elevation and for over 400 feet decends straight ahead and to the left (west). The level of decent is over 80'. To the right of this drive is our hillside bed. To the left is the woodland garden.

As you drive into the home looking right is the Hillside bed. This was my first soil manufacture so it is not the best. All our soil here was alkaline to neutral and many plants don't do well. So each "bed" is a progression of soil ammendment, then shrubs and trees, and when the soil matured, perenials, and annuals. We were blessed by being on a glacial morraine so many rocks were left to give me a garden unique to Montana. The large bolders you see were brought in and place by me to created the garden design you see. Many others are deposits of the glaciers.

This is a glacial deposit. Or erratic. As the ice carries debris it took away from Canada it deposited it here. They say the Ice at its max was a mile thick (over 5000ft) here in the flathead valley.

This message was edited Jan 20, 2009 10:26 PM

Steve, what is the pretty purple one in 2nd pic.
Loven it

DG is downloading weird so I will wait for an hour or so.
The purple flowering perenial is a Acontium 'Wilsoni'. The one below in 3 is a Delphinium. We don't keep track of names so I can't tell you that one.

This message was edited Jan 20, 2009 8:27 PM

To the left of our entry is the woodland garden in this picture looking back at the entrance. We have pathways of rock that everyone wants to stop and smell the esence of their favorite plant. This is looking from our house to the woodland garden with entrances both rt and left. We have rock walkways in the next photo that will show you the path.

Can you see me up here? Huh? Huh? Flying around & around - how the he#* do I get down?

Hold wings out and sail down. LOL at least you didn't get lost.
He has a wonderful place. To bad he won't answer Qs.

This is in the bed and walking on the back pathway looking towards the house. There are 4 paths and this one is near the shaded part of the woodland. We have many Oriential lillies in the front facing our house.
Kayte stop inhaling and land. I have a cup of tea for you.

This message was edited Jan 20, 2009 10:23 PM

I think he is holding his breath, to get tru this.
But it is so wonderful.
Take a breath Steve, LOL

Our signiture flower is Columbine. They are natural to here and will propagate here naturally. We have every color under the rainbow. Each year we have new delights to make us have that special moment of new discovery.

DG is malfunctioning for me. The purple flower in #2 is Aconium 'Wilsoni'. The one below that is a delphinium. Why don't you guys land and have a warm cuppa coffee with a wee bit of cognac. The Montana tradition.

This photo is showing the transition from the woodland garden into my access roadway to my wood splitting area. For over 7 years I hauled back 1+ ton of sandstone to make the perimeters of the each raised bed I created. This allowed me to not have to weed and to mow easily all of my grass area. If you look on Google earth this is the closest left of the property I own. This opening is falling down to a new area that I am building soil on for the last 3 yrs. This is slowly being planted with Sorbus, and Dogwoods. It is a wooded area that has a rapid decline in slope.

I think we had to many cuppas waiting for you, now we can't stop Weeeeeeeee LOL

I love that last pic, too cool. the slope, the sun, the woods. Now I will stop. just to take it all in and set under the trees and get my breath back.

Now our house slope drops off to the West. This is where we sit with our glass of wine in the summer and after gardening we watch the sunset. We kind of have a Stonehendge where Dec 21st is a valley to the south the sun sets, Both March and Sept it sets in the middle valley and June 21st in the northern most valley. I will always know what month it is. I look down from here to the Elk below. To the left of this is my other woodland bed I have been building for over 3 yrs. Not done yet.

This is a lower profile of the same view with my Daughters artwork in the foreground. This is seen in the next picture from below. My DW and I place our lawn chairs here and relax and discuss the gardens progression during the day we have worked.

I finally caught up, good thing there is a break with refreshments so I can take a look around. I love the delphinium and columbine. Absolutely breathtaking view. I can't imagine hauling all of the sandstone for perimeter edging. Looks good.

You can see with all my rock work here how it catches the sunset. This was dug out to reveal a large glacial erratic and the waterfall I plan. I have considered both a sauna here and a hot tub. The round rock sauna has won and I am accumulating materials for it. It will be smaller than this space and be about 12' (4.5M) tall and 4' (1.2M) in diameter. It will have a wood fired stove set into it to make it hot on a cold winter day in Montana. The cascade of water will be made out of flower material. I have planted a white wisteria at the top and will make the cascade then I will combine it with some annual with Mediterranean blue (Anagalis) to make the pool around the sauna.
Time to go to bed see you tomorrow.

The landscape you have around you and rockscape you ave created intertwined with the garden are both astounding.It is all very dramatic, from the bird's -eye view to the close up of the columbine.

Thank you for inviting us Steve...what a wonderful place you have. The results of all your hard work are astounding!! I would join you in that glass of wine anytime with a view like that. How long is your growing period, just curious.

Make sure your sauna is big enough for all of us to join you. :) Neat how the rocks catch the sunset. Great vision you have.

Wow! Incredible view and beautiful garden.

Thank you all for the encouragement and compliment. We have taken only about1/3 of my garden trip. The next group of bed the the Seattle Bed. We have attempted to use acidic loving plants that I had in the Pacific NW. Many have not survived and I hang on to only a few Japanese Maples, Lilacs, and of course many roses and Spireas. Currently this is overshadowed by a Douglas fir but under plantings of Pin Oak and Lilac trees will succeed when they reach appropriate size.

The next bed is the Fir bed a large mix of perenials facing the warm westerly exposure. Below this is the Elk and a large natural meadow. The hillside is covered with Ponderosa Pine in an open setting. This bed below has Mockorange to send the fragrance throughout the lower garden. It is layered with Smooth Sumac to provide wonderful shadows as the sun sets. Before soil amendment nothing grew here.

Now that is a beautiful setting! Mountains are the best! I love the way the plantings look so natural - very beautiful. So all the snow is gone?
Isn't Google Earth fun!

No we won't lose our snow for another 2 months. Our growing season here is about early March to end of October.
The next area is my composting area shaped like a wagon wheel with 3 areas to compost in. In front of it is a combination of annuals and bird bath with bolders to give depth to the rest of it. The compost pile is to the right and this is the bed in front looking back where we had just traveled. Our house is on the left. We now are in the back yard where most of the garden is. This area is set to be viewed by our sunroom which is on the back of the house

This is the back of the house where we live. We have a large yard with its perimiter all defined by each bed. The slope here is somewhat flat and rapidly drops off to the west.

Beyond beautiful. You two do exceptional work.

The next bed is what separates the lower woodland and meadows from the yard. This is designed with large bolders and each raised bed is surrounded by flat sandstone. I have planted a mixture of grasses and perenials. This too faces west but is shaded with the overlying Ponderosa pine.

OOHHH, I would love a sun room or a screened in porch. It is so flat here in south Jersey. I like to look at slopes. Beautiful!!!

Beautiful Steve, love the picture of the house. I too wish for a sunroom one day. Now I'm thinking about another raised bed, but if I buy stone DH is going to kill me!!! But yours look so awesome!

I steal it from all over Montana. It is everywhere here in the state and national forests. Most of what I got was from my neighbors dynamiting of their house foundation. I had over 6 truck loads dropped and used every stone. It took me 3 + years.
The next bed is my Maddie bed. It was to separate my fire pit from the garden above. This area is some of my best yearly changes by choosing different bulbs, perenials, and plantings to change the look. This is the main forward look I have as I view my mountains in the distance. This is my mountain view of the ski area Whitfish Mountain in the distance. Glacier is to the right.