Let's see your favorite garden harmonies

I was trying to work with the Jolly Bee and daylily picture but when I cut it up it looked too strange because the flower isn't 4" big but that's what happened when I tried slicing it up.

Polly, it is bigger than a city lot. It's half an acre. Sue has a city lot. I think they're one-eighth of an acre. Sue really needs to move up here.

Sue just needs to move anywhere with a bigger lot! I am actually in distress trying to spend that generous gift certificate that I won last fall in Davesgarden Go Gardening contest! Can you imagine, being in a panic because you have money to spend but don't have the room to grow all the large plants you want?!

Maybe I should take up alpine gardening.



This message was edited Jan 29, 2009 7:54 AM

Or bonsai.

Half an acre is good sized, but I must say it still looks bigger than that. You've done some terrific landscaping there.

It's because I've crammed it full of five acres of plants, Polly. When you can't see more than 5 feet in any direction, a garden seems like a huge maze. People get lost out there all the time.

At least it's a beautiful place to get lost.

I think that's how Zu came to live there in the first place. She wandered in there on a routine plant-snatching expedition, did away with the owner and just took up residence. No one bothered to investigate because she beautified the place !!!

Feral cat-snatching would be more in my nature, JD. When I bought the house, the garden was a forest/jungle rather than a maze. It was owned by a couple who were in their 90s. They hadn't gone outside for years, so any seed a bird dropped was allowed to grow. I took out 60 trees the first week and I still have lots of trees left. Aside from the trees, there were thick impenetrable thickets of huge blackberry vines and ivy, and just about nothing else. I had to carve this garden out of the wilderness, one section at a time. In addition to keeping some of the trees, I kept the lilacs and camellias, and I still have a couple of big old roses that came with the property, but everything else was added -- including some more trees, believe it or not.

Oh my! I can't imagine doing all that work. Are the previous owners still out there somewhere on the property? You must have been sore after the first week of removing 60 trees. How many years ago did you acquire the property?

I was lucky, (I guess), to come into a clean slate. We had open fields, no trees, no shrubs, nothing but field grass. The first couple of years everything looked so tiny, I didn't have much hope to see a lush landscape in my lifetime. But trees grow faster than you expect.

Hi everyone
Just found this forum thanks to Pirl.
How did I miss it.
My gardens are new last year. I'm hoping for a gangbusters spring and summer with new plants and bigger two year olds.
Here are some combos that id well first year.
Astilbe and Margurites

livingroom garden front of house
Not what I wanted but lets move on.

asters and thai basil.
Most of these photos are familiar to some of you.

orange impatiens and watermelon coleus.
I call it my "take a chance ,maybe you'll get lucky" planting.
Thinge will be better planned this year.

Very nice Jo ann. Love the asters and basils. Did you see Polly's post 6057985. I thought of you right away. Looks like a painting!

edit for typo

This message was edited Jan 29, 2009 1:05 PM

It's always nice to see your combinations, Jo Ann.

We had many ugly shrubs here, in the back, and the front (now the rose garden at the left in this photo and the Japanese iris garden on the right) was filled with JD's least favorite thing...green meatballs. We had them all ripped out but kept two of them to hide the side of the dog's pen. All the others were ripped out including a huge Wellington Thorn - we did that one ourselves - never again!

Funny thing about pollys blue JI
I thought the same thing and have saved it for a future painting.

Maybe if I start saving now, I can have you and Polly in my house!

I should probably think smaller than the last painting I did.
45x32 an abstract that I probably wont finish,it doesnt knock me over as they say.
I'll start pollys blue when I get over this bout with bronchitis and pneumonia.
I'm in the "anything I try knocks me out" stage.

DH just went through every room in the house removing cobwebs. I did tell him that they are the mark of a good gardener and he was kind enough to laugh. Then I went back to the newspaper to allow him to enjoy his cleaning in peace and quiet.

Cool, JoAnn. I'd love to see a photo of the painting of that siberian iris when it's done. And it's the cover on my website, so that would be really neat to see.

I just decobwebed, Pirl. Where was Jack when I needed him?

Believe it or not, Polly, he was dust mopping all the wood floors and the kitchen floors. How come men always get caught doing something good? Or maybe it's just that we have to shout it from the rooftops when it happens.

Russ does all the vacuuming, and I do all the dustmopping and mopping/ Swiffering. So we split that about half and half. He's not allowed to do laundry, and he does load the dishwasher, and pick up the table. We're each in charge of our own bathroom. So I think we're about even.

But considering when we were born, men were not used to helping out around the house. So I guess it's ingrained in me to appreciate it.

I appreciate the help as well.

Jack does all of the laundry, all of the food shopping and the unloading of the dishwasher along with pots and pans but I am too picky about windows so I do them both inside and outside. His bathroom is his own to clean as is mine. Somehow I got the 1/2 bath as well but it's all working out nicely.

Sheesh, ummm... can you clone this one??? Polly refuses cloning Russ, says something about one of a kind blah blah blah.

Do you have a S/O. Sue? Maybe we can just fix that one? If not, well winters in sunny Ca might not be bad for the guys.

He also does all kind of copper work, all of the vegetable garden from seed to harvest, woodworking (trellises, etc.) and does barbecue in summer because I will only cook on rainy summer days but I do cook all winter long. I hate that it must make him feel guilty so I allow him to take me out to dinner or lunch and to lessen his guilt even further I order exorbitant amounts of plants. Gee whiz! The things we women have to do to make them feel good.

Just heard a story about a woman who stabbed her husband and then tried to burn the bed where he way lying down. Bet he wasn't trying to clean the toilet bowl when that happened! He could take a few lessons from Russ and Jack!!!

I am the grill master here. I just love to grill! I put something on the grill, run to see a flower, come back and check the grill, turn on the hose, etc.

I remember seeing a thread on here where a woman was sooooo irritated at her husband because he left the stopper for the kitchen sink on the side of the sink after he was done doing dishes. Now I do that too, as it gets slimy otherwise, but who on earth would complain about something like that? I am just so happy my husband who is 67 yo is in perfect health.

Oh, now I feel bad, yes, I have a very nice hubby, married 32 years next month. Just not into gardening although I have to admit, he built me a large arbor, 2 copper trellis', a pond, helped me collect and lug home tons of rocks and last summer brought home an arbor I have been wanting. And, he has single handedly remodeled the entire house.
Sheesh, guess I shouldn't complain that much. I just always wished he was into gardening even a little bit and took some kind of interest. I am always jealous when I go to plant club events and the husbands are just as involved if not more so, as the wives.
I want to be skinny again too, can't have it all!

Well, I want to be skinny again, too. Let me know when you find the magic cure.

Ah, your husband is not so bad, then. I drag mine to the garden events (not many), and invariably he will find someone to talk to. But he never really gets into the event. And remodeling sure isn't his forte, although he has built me some nice arbors, and a little pond. You sound very blessed.

We've been married 39 years now. I was married at 19. And it's been a pretty good run, especially considering my age when we were married.

My cat's are worthless when it comes to housework. Maybe because they rarely see me do any ! LOL

If it fits in the toaster, I can cook it...otherwise, forget it.

I trade work for food lots of times. People who know me say, "If you'll fix my "whatever", I'll trade you 3 casseroles and a gallon of milk". Works for me ! Sometimes I lie and tell people I made it...

JD - That's called LCS - Lazy Cat Syndrome. Everything else has a name so why not one for your cats?

Good idea to trade work for food. My dad was offered a lot of trades in his line of work but he knew better!

What happens if people ask you for the recipe to one of your supposed creations? Do you tell them it's a family secret?

Hey, married young like us! I married 3 days after I turned 18, my husband was 19, a week away from 20 but we have known each other since we were kids. I was 7, he was 9 and our families were good friends, lots of camping trips, ice skating parties so we became best friends before we even thought of marrying.

I keep having to scroll to the top to remind myself what thread I am on LOL!

Just in from mega rose pruning and pulled some things out too, this thread has inspired me to really concentrate on color combos. So now I have to go through my list of plants waiting to go in the ground somewhere and look through some saved photos for more inspiration. My tastes are just so eclectic though. I love the cottagy garden look with roses and daylilies etc. and then I love succulents and a more drought tolerant Mediterranean look too. So I mixed things all up. If I had a larger yard, I would be making theme areas so I can everything I liked.

Cats just have an attitude, can't train them to clean. See what LCS can lead to?!

this color harmony thing is a recipe for mental and nervous collapse. Sometimes I wish I'd never started it !

I spend more time and effort on color matching plants than I do on my clothes.

Is this what we call a "magnificent obsession" ???

THAT IS HILARIOUS !!!!! (the cat photo...)

This message was edited Jan 29, 2009 6:48 PM

Love the cat shot. He looks like the old commercial about "I ate too much".

Yes, JD, it is supposed to be mind expanding to work with color harmony.

but being narrow minded is so less taxing.

NO TAX CUTS ALLOWED! Don't you read the papers?

"it's above my pay grade"...(haunting words for sure)