Starting with one of my nice arbor views then into the rose garden and finishing with my 2009 edition of the NJ Stacking Pots. It took me years to shape the apple tree in the first pix. Hope some of you will follow suit with a tour of your gardens. We all love the pix. Give me a few minutes to post a series with this opening.
Two roses. The pink is Nearly Wild. The white is NOID.
NOID WHITE
My 2009 edition of the NJ Stacking Pots. Flowers and herbs. Herbs in the small top pots. This is my show for now. Enjoy.
Nice shots Doc. Just love your stacked pots! Ric
Nice Pictures! Arbor with the apple tree is very inviting, get many apples on the tree, Doc ? Stacking pots are so colorfull.
Cute picture R & H reminds me of the old fashion photos in family albums.
Picture of my daylily lined driveway and on out to the backyard, shot taken standing on back deck.
Picture of the other end, close to the garage (right edge of picture).
Beautiful yard!! I luv the stacking pots too!!
I manage my apple tree to not produce apples. Severe trimming will do this. Every time it grows into production I wack it again. We only attract deer with apples. The few I could grow or need can be purchased for far less than paying for the deer damage when they are here munching on apples.
Good point, Doc. Never gave deer food a thought.
My front yard is really small but looks big and sloping here! OK I guess it doesn't look that big LOL
This message was edited Jul 16, 2009 11:40 AM
ladyg i have daylilies by my driveway too. One spot that I have full sun facing the right way for me to see them!!! I have a big patch on the other side facing my 'nice neighbors ' driveway. They make a good easy border. I thought she deserved a nice view and I had a whole bunch of one kind to use.
I like seeing the touches of color appear on this maple in fall. Its in the middle on the back edge of my yard. This is when we were still trying to regrow grass. Stuff behind trees is neighbors. The dirt mound on the left is a hill for a rope swing. on that norway maple.
This message was edited Jul 16, 2009 11:41 AM
This gives the feel. Casual kid friendly, shade that moves around thru the day. Kid and dog often play a game with kid on swing and dog pulling, each on one end of a toy. My flowers are all on the edges of yard and structure. Its a half acre lot on a court so the front is very small and back is big and semi- triangular.
This message was edited Jul 16, 2009 11:42 AM
LOL Doc, Just drove past a house last night big deer standing under apple tree. LOL
Those stacking pots look really good, love all the color.
LadyG, so pretty.
Sally, Kid friendly is the way to go. I like big open spaces, with gardens around the edges. You will find that gardens just like family grow and change over the years. On the garden tour Jane and I went to last month one of the gardens was billed as a kid friendly garden and that is just what it was. Pretty beds around the house and patio. With some corner plantings out front and tree line along the back. Small raised veggie garden and potting area near the storage shed. The rest of the yard was wide open with lots of play room.
What I'll need next is some structure like doc's arbor, or one of your many, Holly!
Sally,
HD carries arbors and such. They are most likely somewhere in the overhead in Outside garden. They should also have some put together....
Not sure--but they may have them reduced as a Seasonal item?
Many of them also end up damaged---boxes they are in destroyed...etc...Don't be afraid to wheel and deal.....Might just get one half price....
I am guessing---they may be in the $200+ range?????
You can also buy different lattice sheets (4'x8") and construct your own. These come in treated wood (1/4" thick or 3/8") thick ans well as Vinyl--in different colors.
Just FYI--HD does not cut any lattice sheets on their saws. Gotta do that yourself!
Gita
Gita-- so helpful of you to prompt me with these ideas!! Unfortunately, college textbooks also run in the $200 range. No not really, but am going today to buy for son's classes- math will be about 100.
Others may be happy to get your tips too though!
I think I'll save my projects for when hubby retires. Must keep him busy--still some years from now.
Gosh Sally, and you're just in the beginning of those crunch years. You'll be gardening on a non-existant budget for some time, and then come the weddings. Oh well, if we can swap fish tanks, maybe we'll be swapping arbors next. I'll keep my eyes peeled for a used one!
Doc, Your stacking pots look wonderful and the arbor is great. Too true about the cost of apples vs. deer feed. I often think the same about vegetable gardening with the bunnies and ground hogs ad bugs. Of course garden freshness is incomparable, by any price.
Lady, it's nice to see your driveway not covered in snow!
Sally, kid friendly yards are great. They are also picnic and swap friendly. I always have to have room to set up the volleyball/badmiton net and a large spot for crocquet. Never got into horse shoes, but once in a while friends will play bocce. So far, I only garden the perimeter and around the house and at the base of trees. I do have room for more beds, but think that would be more than I can handle.
Not a very clear picture, but the simple wooden arbor waiting for my climbing roses, clematis and morning glories to get going, cost my DH about 27.00 to put together in a very short time.
Nice well kept bed too! When the arbor is covered you will have a very nice improvement.
Sally, Just start collecting long branches. I've seen some very pretty arbors built from branches. Also those livestock panels can make a very attractive arbor. Just a bit of paint and a couple of pieces of re-bar to anchor it into the ground then cover with MG, Roses or Clems. You can look for bed frames sitting out beside the road the angle iron used to build them is a great building material. While you are looking for old bed frames take a look at old crib rails. Maybe a few posts put in the ground and then something woven between the posts. The possibilities are endless.
Stormy, you got that right, do you think that is why I have very few white flowers.
The neighbors in the back, that is their white fence, had a break-up and the house is up for sale. The live-in boy friend has a dump truck and plow. He tore up the edge of our lawn, broke some branches off my shrubs and plowed their driveway gravel into our lawn, making things very hard to mow. We will be getting a permit to put up a wooden open fence back there, we have had others damage shrubs over the years at that end. DH is getting sick of it so he hopes to get the fence up before it gets sold. And I am thinking, oh goody! another place to start a flower bed.
Sally, I remember those days, didn't really get into the gardening till after the nest was empty. Just think of it as your planning and dreaming stage.
RRR. I'm liking your garden, the arbor will be a nice addition.
I probably do a little too much planning and dreaming right now- should be scratching and earning now.
Roses, that's nice
Holly thats nice too!
Thanks Doc.
Holly, that totally natural looking arbor is spectacular!! Gives me the urge to do more, even though I promised myself to add nothing new so that I can keep up with what I have.
R_R_R, I forgot to comment on how lovely your garden is comming along. That arbor is a very nice accent.
Ric and the boys are hunter/gathers, the things they drag home do pile up but it sure comes in handy for projects. A lot of the things built around here come from scrap. We got a bit of a late start in the gardens, too. We put in a few small beds around the house and the big things like the evergreen group and juniper hedge so I have some nature growth. But a lot of what we are working on now was planned and talked about many many years ago. With working full time, 4 children to raise and their activities not to mention the barn animals things just kept being put on hold. Never enough time or $$$. Then the last few years before retiring Ric and I both worked so many extra hours and kept telling ourselves that "we'll do it when we retire". We are getting things done but at a much slower pace than I thought. Not just Ric but me, too. Oh well there is always next year, not sure my house and garden will ever really be finished and not sure I care. It's just so much fun working on everything. LOL
Holly--Your life struggles make me very sentimental. You and Ric have done so well. I am sure it is the immense love you have for each other that has held it all together for you....like the stiches in the Tapestry of Life.....I have that to send you too......later.....
In case you have never read this--I hope you can open it. It is by Erma Bomback--
http://www.kalimunro.com/If_I_Had_My_Life_To_Live_Over.html
If you cannot--just Google the title "If I had My Life ToLive Over".......
Love, Gita
And--Here is "The Tapestry of Life" You may have to Google this too.....does not look like the link came through.....
And I am sitting here with tears running down my face just reading it again......
How I love these "Gems" I save! There always comes a good time to share them with someone----and my pack-rat habit seems validated......
Again--Gita
Well--I tried Googling it, but nothing much came up.
I c/p this--but even this is not the original one I once read and saved--but it is good enough...The saved one had nice music with it.....
**********************************************************************
As I faced my Maker at the last judgment, I knelt before the Lord along with all the other souls. Before each of us laid our lives like the squares of a quilt in many piles. An angel sat before each of us sewing our quilt squares together into a tapestry that is our life.
But as my angel took each piece of cloth off the pile, I noticed how ragged and empty each of my squares were. They were filled with giant holes. Each square was labeled with a part of my life that had been difficult, the challenges and temptations I was faced with in everyday life. I saw hardships that I endured, which were the largest holes of all.
I glanced around me. Nobody else had such squares. Other than a tiny hole here and there, the other tapestries were filled with rich color and the bright hues of worldly fortune.
I gazed upon my own life and was disheartened. My Angel was sewing the ragged pieces of cloth together, threadbare and empty, like binding air. Finally the time came when each life was to be displayed, held up to the light, the scrutiny of truth.
The others rose, each in turn, holding up their tapestries. So filled their lives had been. My angel looked upon me, and nodded for me to rise. My gaze dropped to the ground in shame. I hadn't had all the earthly fortunes. I had had love in my life, and laughter. But there had also been trials of illness, and death, and false accusations that took from me my world as I knew it.
I had to start over many times. I often struggled with the temptation to quit, only to somehow muster the strength to pick up and begin again. I spent many nights on my knees in prayer, asking for help and guidance. In my life I had often been held up to ridicule, which I endured painfully, each time offering it up to the Father in hopes that I would not melt within my skin beneath the judgmental gaze of those who unfairly judged me. And now, I had to face the truth. My life was what it was, and I had to accept it for what it was.
I rose and slowly lifted the combined squares of my life to the light. An awe-filled gasp filled the air. I gazed around at the others who stared at me with wide eyes. Then I looked upon the tapestry before me. Light flooded through the many holes, creating an image ... the face of Christ!
Then our Lord stood before me, with warmth and love in His eyes. He said, "Every time you gave over your life to Me, it became My life, My hardships, My struggles. Each point of light in your life is when you stepped aside and let Me shine through, until there was more of Me than there was of you."
~ Author Unknown ~
Matthew 5:14:
Ahhhhhhhhhh Gita,
Thank for a beautiful way to start the day. Made such a difference in my approach to what is needed of me today.
Thank you for sharing Gita, That is just beautiful.
Gita these are good reminders. For me the one that sticks right now is Erma's. "I would take some of the burden off my husband" I have a hard working hubby who never complains.
docgipe I wanted to say. Bravo for getting so much color in those pots! Bravo for your courage to give up the big garden and keep on finding smaller ways to enjoy the plants.
Now if only my stupid squirrels would respect your investment in African Violets. They turn the pot over and break leaves. I've brought it back to close supervision for recovery. I think they do it as harrassment since I let this nasty dog live here.
I find alll kinds of ways to amuse myself on a smaller scale. You all have led me to see flowers that I really did not play with when I had the large gardens. Such beauty just waiting for someone to bring it out.
This morning I pulled a chair up to that stack of flowers and gave it a good going over to excite a second show. Geese I took a whole five gallon bucket full of trimming and deadheading off just those two stacked pot displays. Recently I built a fire to gaze at later in the evening and then pinched all the pinchables.
The while resting my eyes............I planned to get out the fish oil and kelp. This brew was for a snack due because the kids sat still while I pinched and prodded them into a summer show. The snooze was delightfull. The facts never changed only got pushed up to another day. It's hot out there now. LOL
Gita................your babies are doing fine. I never had a begonia that nice and it has not bloomed yet. That big surprise is yet to come.
A Clematis up to a little more than eight feet in its year to creep. You are looking at about ten percent of the whole plant. Sorry I do not know the name but I think it should be Firecracker Sparkling Star. I am extremely pleased with this plants second year production.
Lovely apple tree arbor doc. Love your stacking pots. The red really compliments all the other colors.
There are some really nice arbors here.Giving me ideas....UMMMM.
In those two stacking pot displays there are thirty two pots to plant. Lots of room to play around while still amassing bunches of design and color compliments. I have a friend that is a master designer. She is forever sketching those stacks and suggesting this and that.
We are pleased with this years edition. Last year was the first I really got into potted plants. This year I mixed in some cukes onto the arbor on the patio. Looked good but produced only a dozen cukes.
Dad gum chip and dale and offspring are eating my sedums. I am in the process of trapping and getting them out of here. I have caught twenty and still have an excess.
A PEEK AT GOD'S GARDEN IN WHICH I LIVE
This is Williamsport, Pa. I live on the back side of the first line of ridges on the far side of the river. We have two large creeks one one each side of the city. The river is the West Branch of the Susquhanna. Those ridges run all the way up into New York State and the foot of the Finger Lakes some two and a half hours North by car. They cover the top third of Pennsylvania and take eight to nine hours of driving East to West in state Rt.# 80. About half of what you see is in one way or another owned by the Forrestry Department or the Game Commission purchased with hunter's licence fees. There are more bears than people living in those mountains.
Beautiful! Is Bear Mountain up in there? I remember visiting there.
We live only a few hours drive from Doc and he is right it is a very beautiful area. With ton's of wildlife and beautiful mountain streams.
My bet is that there are as many Bear Mountains out there as there are Rock and Trout Runs. Some are on the maps and others are just called that by the locals on that mountain. Every hollow, stream and valley has a name. The commmon names are often repeated in various parts of the state. Then there are recorded bison, bear and elk game trails that sometimes have different names in different parts of the state for the migration trails. One famous bison trail runs from Erie in the Northwest to Reading and Lancaster. The trails can still be seen with the naked eye. There have been no bison here for about a hundred fifty years. We still have growing herds of black bear and Rocky Mountain Elk.
