This is Maddies bed that is the center of our garden view. She was a special Jack Russell that I loved very much and now is gone. This shows my use of sandstone around the raised beds to prevent me from using a string trimmer. I can use my lawn mower and chop the yard without any string use. I have a mower that travels over 10mph, (15Kph).
We now move east to the closest neighbor. I have several highlights but will just focus on a water feature that I placed in this area. It was an unmovable huge bolder and I had to design my garden around where I could push it. Below this is our orchard and vegetable garden and meadows. This is where the slope drops off and I have planted many more Ponderosa Pine. We have been overgrown with Douglas fir and the Pine forests are disappearing. My plan is to selectively maintain a natural area with all of the lower area you see on google earth. We are looking here towards the neighbor. All of our fences are covered with Virgina Creeper which here is not invasive. Too cold and the overgrowth on the fence I trim for my neighbors.
This is one of our water features that centers our view our our window. The mountains are in the distance and spectacular from the Glacier Park peaks.
No body is interested so I guess I go to bed. Boo Hoo.
I'm still waiting for you to pass the coffee & cognac. cotton mouth, here...
Sorry Sofer, just got home and had supper, give me a chance. I love Maddie's bed with all the different bright colors. I can tell you put a lot of love and care into creating that part of the garden. Everything is beautiful and shows a huge amount of dedication. I ca hardly imagine getting all that sandstone into position. Makes me sweat just thinking about it.
Sofer, your home and gardens are absolutely breathtaking. I have been showing your pictures to DH. He said they look like they are from one of my garden magazines, they are so beautiful and perfect.
Sorry it took me so long!! I had the hardest time making it up that mountain to find the place, then got distracted by all the fabulous scenery and interesting rock formations, so it took me longer than usual to get here!
Stunning, Sofer! just stunning! I particularly love your placement and use of rocks in the garden, especially in Maddie's bed. Very nice large monoliths, I must say!
I am also loving the idea of that 'waterall' area with hot tub. Those rocks are a great color.
Got to say your garden looks like something from a magazine! And I'm happy to hear you are trying to preserve the pine forests. There is something so soothing about walking in a pine forest. It is a shame they are losing ground.
I notice how bright that sunshine is! Those larkspur(?) are so well 'fluffed out'! It has to be the sun, along with the soil amendments. When I see flowers like that it reminds me that I really don't get that much sun for very long in my yard. Those wide open spaces just say it all.
Beautiful Steve.....just beautiful. Everything looks so perfect, but so natural at the same time.
Note to self......rocks on raised beds need to be mower friendly!
Coffee and Cognac Katye.... that sounds good. Don't think that I'm going to do that too though. Hot chocolate and Mexican Kahlua have been working wonders for me through this tour. The coffee and cognac will have to wait until the next installment for me, at least if I'm going to continue to operate this computer :-p
Steve, your place is stunning and full of solace. I love it. I want a sun room like yours in my next life! I think that I have figured out why my delphs don't thrive. Think I'm babying them too much. I always give them nice loose, fluffy, rich compost and soil, excellent drainage, water regularly. I'm thinking I need to give them harder, alkaline soil.
Speaking of rocks and mowing, how long does it take you, or whoever, to do the mowing there?
This message was edited Jan 22, 2009 1:44 AM
Beautiful gardens and what a fantastic view.
Our home is on the bottom of the hill with a drain hole and we notice that when it rains, the water from the top of the neighborhood runs down into the back of our yard. We called the county and they sent someone out to access it and the county gave us FREE rocks. The catch, they will not drive up our driveway to dump the rocks in fear of damaging our driveway. So they dumped it on the corner of our lot and he had to hire someone to haul the rocks to the erosion area of our back yard. FREE rocks! LOL! This is the only website where I know of other people who are just as excited about rocks, espicially free rocks.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=6034629
what is the green soft-looking leafy plant to the right of the large rock?
In the 'blue' water garden. Are those alliums to the left? They are behind ________. ( I know I should know this, but my mind has gone blank) I love those cool colors together. I'm drawn to oranges and reds, but those 'blues' just drew me in and calmed me.
Jan: I think that you're referring to post # 6034670, right. The blue in the foreground (left) looks like Anagalis, with Alliums behind.
If you like blue - you'll love Anagalis. Easy to grow from seed, and it reseeds each year. There is also an orange one - very nice.
Throw the seeds in a container or at the edge of a raised bed & it will spill over the sides. I have found it to be a friendly scrambler when sown among other plants.
Yep, that's the post. Anagalis - check it's on the 'list' I ordered a bunch of alliums from the co-op last fall so will be looking forward to them blooming.
Love the view of the ski area! Your gardens are so well maintained - do you do that yourself? The alpine feeling is wonderful. I would love to see photos with snow on the ground, and "between the seasons" times. You mentioned a while ago, I think, that your wife is not well. The gardens must bring her joy and peace. How lovely for her.
rc - I'm with you on the Kahlua thing. My fav.
Red my lawn takes about 20 minutes to mow all on a rider mower. I have designed all of the turns to be made easily and without tearing up the lawn. I have one of those 360 degree turners.
melissa we do get long days of clear sun all summer and fall. Therefore the delphiniums, larkspur and roses thrive. I am fortunate to have all of the big Ponderosa to shade them from too much sun.
Sally with all the raised beds I did not want to have to weed wack 200 yards of rocks so I laid the sandstone so the mower easily could cut without wacking.
Lili the bush is a tiger sumac it is the most beautiful plant in my garden. In the spring it is orange chartruse, in the summer it turns more chartreuse, and in the fall it is a red tiped yellow leaf. The next picture is another view of it in the fall.
Jan, Kayte is right with the anagalis. I have used this annual surrounding 2 of my 3 water features to have them droop into the water and to make the pond larger. I used a lot of blue around the pond and waterfall to bring the eye to the expectation of water. It changes monthly with Iris, bulbs, anagalis, globe thistle, delphiniums etc with bright spots of red and orange between. All of the blues I have used here are true blue. Not purples.
Portland we do it all ourselves and most of our life is in our garden (when I am home). My DW has Reumatoid Arthritis and the garden is her salvation keeping her going. She has summers off and spends 8 to 12 hrs in 'her' garden each day. I cannot get her to travel when work is available for her hence I travel in my work.
My word, Steve, that opening photo just took my breath away! Extraordinary. Just.....well, words fail me. I think it is the horizontal striations, and the crispness of the edges - it looks so fresh. You really are the new world. Beautiful. Good choice of location.
I like all the sitting and watching areas that you have built in. I think it is so important to make a number of places to stop in a garden. We so often buzz around tidying, planning, pruning - all head downward activities (which we love) that I think having seating reminds us to also just enjoy. This is a garden of enjoyment (along with the buzzing, and tidying and planning....) just beautiful, Steve, I am full of admiration.
Question: is that Dierama growing in the pond area? I hadn't realized they would stand having their feet in such cold water? I knew they like to stay moist, but I hadn't realized they could be marginals - if that is dierama. I may be getting ahead of the answer.
boy this is great - more please, and could you go back and show us the other features that you said you weren't going to show. No slacking. We want ALL of the features - this is a garden tour after all.
Beautiful.
And one more question - I'm very interested in the sculpture your daughter made. I would like more detailed photos please and a little more info - looks lovely in the setting. Very nice piece of work.
OK we are moving to the left of the water fall to where I have a fence that is my closest neighbor. This fence is covered with virgina creeper and hops. In the fall our entire garden is a wall of red and yellow all around. This fence is its entire length perenials and a wall of planted columnar fir (native) that will provide a 4' x 40' wall of tree. It is pretty shaded by several Ponderosa pines and a few douglas firs. This view is from our living room.
It is a concrete mixture with vinyl. Then it is carved and sculpted as a wisteria vine. The top is conical with a accent of seed at the top. Her intent was for me to grow wisteria on it and she was unaware of how big they get. So I am growing wisteria on it and trimming the top to be an unbrella for the flowers to hang off. It is not yet developed. This picture is a couple of years old. It sits at the top of a dry waterfall where I have the upper 'pond' with anagalis, the decent over a large bolder as the white wisteria. The next pond is dry and very sunny so I color it with California blue bells. The lower part of it is round river rock ( collected with every project on this moraine).
Now we are leaving the perimeter of our garden and stepping into the yard that is broken up by several beds. The first one is the "Moose" bed which I built after loosing a wonderful cat named Moose. It is directly below our sun room so I shaped it into a heart to let go of the pain he and all my kitties since him have held. I have throughout the garden added collection of old logs, stumps, driftwood, and any other interesting findings from the many areas of Montana we travel. The one here is a woodpecker hang out and many unique birds are often here. We have a small crab apple tree and many layers here to make walking around this a new sight with every turn. This is it from the sunroom. Again it is a couple of years old. But the walk around will be more current. We change it all the time.
This is in Dahlia land. Behind this is a tall group of Hollyhocks. This obviously is at the apex of the heart looking back to the house.
Now we have rounded the apex and look for how the mind fills with bliss.
This message was edited Jan 22, 2009 2:03 PM
Dahlianut just told us about this, Sofer. Your tour is about to get crashed by the Rocky Mt. Gardening forum. Be prepared.
I must confess to DGers at large that Sofer & Karen & their garden are irresistible. I went to see and was enchanted.
Thanks to you, I have 3 Tiger eyes sumacs, not to mention a Korean maple.
I have a lovely photo of your Korean maple with the heart-shaped stump and the big stripey boulder with the stripey iris (pallida?) growing in front of it. Shall I post it? Have you already gotten there in the tour?
I am staying silent. I am in a snit because we weren't invited :( (Hi PNW folks).
I am running to catch up yet again. Computer service is not what it used to be. I got stuck at the sauna... so enchanting with the view you have. I had to get a notebook out and start making a plant list.... being new there are so many things that I can add to my 'must have' list for shopping. So very many great combinations of beautiful plants. I love stone edging as my DH hates to weedwack and loves to drive the yard machine. Your water feature is beautiful, you guys have created a beautiful landscape that would be truly hard to leave. Lots of hard, loving work went into every inch.
Nice Sofer.
Hey Dahlia! You were invited. lol! you can try to be in a snit, but..... I invited everyone that hangs out on the NEast garden photos thread! (Post #6015358 on that thread) It's just that Sofer hadn't started his yet, so I couldn't possibly have linked directly to this one. But there was a link to his, from Lauries garden tour, which I did link to! However I'm happy that you found your way here. I was hoping that more folks from that forum would wonder over to check out these lovely tours.
This message was edited Jan 22, 2009 2:47 PM
I do too now remember that invite RC. Thanks so much for inviting me ^_^ I was just teasing Sof because he never mentioned his tour on the Rocky Mountain Forum. It's all ok now. I just sent him our blizzard as payback tee hee.
Truly lovely and inspiring, Soferdig, thank you for putting the energy in to share all this. I love the beds dedicated to the animal friends......
Kyla
Lol, I figured that you must have been flicking him some "stuff" Dahlia, so I just wanted to join in. lol. I figured that there was a little story of sorts there. Dang, I'm not ever going to get on your bad side if you send blizzards!! Although, Steve can take it! I'm tired of the stuff already.
This message was edited Jan 22, 2009 3:03 PM
Now we are going to my most passionate bed. Sophie bed. She was a jack russel who over 14 years was the center of my life ( I wasn't married) and did things with me that no person would have. Kayaking, Mountain climbing, and just loveing me moments. Everyone who met her were astounded with her ability to communicate and Love. Anyway she has the bed to the right of our solarium. This is the origional photo. I have collected many heart shaped hardscapes. The rock is a fountain, the log is from the mountains, and we collect a heart shaped rock each trip to let her know that she is always in our thoughts.
This is a back off from the origional. We line the front facing us with annuals and it is a different look every year. The waterfall coming off the rock is a nice sound in the garden. We have little traffic so there is no noise for background.
Hmmm, Dahlia I'm not sure your weather transporter is working--the blizzard seems to be coming here instead.
Sofer, that is the spot where I took the pic. Only yours shows the fountain and mine doesn't.
OK, I'll wait until the end of the tour before I offer any more photos. I remember the hillside bed was just awash in a drift of pink evening primroses. Like a spirit garden. Makes me dream....
I love that heart garden. I have a collection of heart rocks also and give them to my friends for their gardens.
Crappola picante. Sorry bout that. I still haven't got the all the kinks worked out re: the wind factor.
Dnut: please get the wind kinks out, and make sure it doesn't jump the Rockies & end up west of the Cascades. We be needing sunshine here. Desperately. Oh, & warm is always good, too!
No worries Katye. My aim isn't that bad (I hope) and it's the pesterly west wind that caused the problem and pushed it east.
Now we go past the garden beds to what is a natural area that will be left untouched. This is a spring and early summer garden of wildflowers. Then it is overgrown with grasses and hardy flowers. It faces west and receives most of the daily sun. This view looks back SE to the house. I have counted over 48 different flowers
I have given you different beds and will back off to the perspective of a walk about. This is from my compost pile back to the house.
