What a beautiful garden party it was. They have done a super job with their house and yard.
It was a bright morning full of flowers food and most of all friends.
Thank you Sheila and Herman.
Josephine.
Here is Herman, the host with the lovely food.
Here is the deck, it has different levels and lots of plants.
A view of the yard from the deck, this is beautiful, but it doesn't capture it all.
The lovely pond is so peaceful.
Frank and a guest by the pond.
Their blue bottle tree.
Solomon's Seal with Agapanthus.
The very amazing and famous volunteer Standing Cypress in full bloom, what a lucky girl!!!
Sheila and Frank measuring the Cypress, it measured 7 feet 6 inches, an amazing hieght
A group of Coneflowers, one of my favorites.
A very pretty red Monarda.
Anna, Mel and me.
Sheila, Sylvia and me.
And that is all folks, the other pictures were taken with other cameras, Please post some Sheila.
Wonderful pictures of a lovely garden and pretty people. Disappointed that we had to cancel. Our lives are not our own, but someday we shall visit this secret garden.
Christi
I hope you will Christi!
I didn't take a single picture but Herman did take a few. Thanks Josephine for getting the one of the food and DH, we didn't take a single one inside! LOL! A lot of the people camped out at the food, they were the ones that aren't gardeners, so no pics of them, lol!
Here exploring the far back fence beds, is two of my ex-co-workers. April on the left brought her newborn, Ace! On the right is Char (TXFlagLady) and her DGD Alexa in the center. I never had time to hold the baby, but I know where he lives!
This is me in the background running back after depositing Gulf Frits that two other friends brought me onto a Passiflora. The dark haired lady is my neighbor across the street Glenda and the one talking with Frank in an earlier pic was Al, her DH. The man standing is a neighbor Jeff, who lives about a block away and his girlfriend Amy (blonde).
Bet you couldn't tell they were discussing plants! Our Josephine and Peg (Datura12). I think Peg was puzzled as to how a lot of items were growning in the heavy morning shade.
Peg was nice enought to explain something to our friends Hermanie and Forest (DH 's co-retiree) also live in our neighborhood. In the background is Paul, another of DH's ex-co-workers.
This message was edited Jun 8, 2009 11:31 PM
This couple wanted their picture with "Omar the Oak", DH's tree face. Meet Susan and Harvey. They live close by and Susan is insisting I come over and give her some ideas for her yard....sorry Harvey.
The three ladies on the lower deck were ex-co-workers prior to '98. We had some catching up to do....they stayed until 3pm. That was all good.....
The bad was we went back in and ate all the sweets again!!
Well that was about it for pictures, maybe TXFlagLady or Datura12 will come along and add to it.
Thanks to all that helped us make the day special. I had about 29 people come by, but didn't get everyones picture. The day was long but we made up for it by taking a 4 hour nap when everyone left. LOL!
Great idea Sheila about the nap, it sure helps.
Great pictures Herman.
Josephine.
Congratulations on the retirement! Looks like a lovely day was enjoyed by all. I wish you many enjoyable years ahead!
Sheila, you have a beautiful yard!!
Carla
Thanks all. Actually it was our "one-year" retired party that we promised everyone we would do. Because so many of our friends heard us talk about the yard everytime we made changes etc. that they wanted to see it. We kept telling everyone we were going to have a retirement slash mortgage burning party; it just took us a year to get all our "in-process" projects done. LOL!!
Yesterday we started tearing out a bathroom up front. I have been wanting to redo that one for a long time, but other things were more important. Now it is stripped and I went to pick out paint, and fixtures today. We have a cousin and her DH coming in July and will be in that area of the house, so it was a must.
Sylvia...you were right, I need to move my hostas again. There is way too much sun on them. It starts at 10:30 and doesn't start moving off until around 2pm. But they were looking better than they had in the other spot. Guess it will be against my neighbor's fence past the window mirror. Doesn't look like it gets much there. Anyone need fall blooming Obedient Plant?? LOL!
Here are my pics from Sheila's yard
Sheila playing with her Gulf Frits
I haven't seen any Gulf Frits yet. :-( My PF is healthy and thick and just waiting for some cats to give it a haircut. In fact, I've seen amazingly few butterflies so far. Sheila, would you send some my way?
And are those bat houses in your neighbor's yard?
Carla
Beautiful Standing Cypress ~ probably not a good idea to post this as we will all be looking for seeds. LOL
Beautiful pic of yard from back deck
Jasmine archway to her pond
Here are a couple of pics of the pond, which I really loved. She is using a bio filter which apparently works great as the pond was crystal clear.
another pic of pond
If I get a dbl. post on some pics its because after posting I am not seeing it. Maybe a site problem.
A plant I loved but can't remember the name of...information overload that day!
Thanks Sheila for a great day!
Loonie, good eye, they sure look like bat houses. Wonder how I missed it.
Great Pictures Peggy.
Thankyou Josephine you too!
Peg
Yes, Carla those are bat houses. Never seen any bats but his daughter has a degree in animal husb. and told him how to build them. They have a pool near the house and have bats swooping down late in the evening catching bugs. My neighbor brought me some GFs to release on my PV since they are eating his to the ground. LOL!
Peg...great pictures! The plant is a Jerusalem Sage Phlomis fruticosa that Mitch share with me at a RU once. I love it! I will try to get more to root and share it at the next RU in Arlington.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/519/
As for the pond anyone that is interested go see the demo ponds and streams set up at Whiz-Q-Stone, that is where we purchased all of our equipment and rock.
I thought I would add a picture here of what our yard started our like. The only thing we had was trees for the first 10 years, then we put in this little pre-formed poly pond. It was put in late in 2001.... after the frogs, birds, and dragonflies came we were hooked. I think I found Dave's when looking up some information about the fish or pond plants.
Great to see some of those lovely scenes again. Shelia, your yard is a feast for the senses. No matter where you look there is something pleasing. What an incredible change. Why aren't you in the garden section of Star Telegram.
You know you are the third person that said that to me. LOL! Guess I just didn't invite them! LOL! Thanks.
