Spring Projects Anyone?

Her husband is a contractor and gardener and travels all over the SE. He's always bringing plants home to try. They did lose some of their more exotic tropicals in this years freeze down here. He and her son also drag in old farm implements to create new sculpture with. Ric

You can see some of their work in the other photos but I'll leave this one as a parting shot. Ric

Gorgeous way to start the day, Debbie, wow, I od remember when you were putting those steps in, whew. Those rocks are amazing.
Ric, leave it to you to make a new friend whos an avid gardener, she has a very interesting garden! PA- what a koikidink.

That is a lovely, soothing green on those chairs. You have been one busy lady. Everything looks great!!!

rcn---

I am totally amazed at the difference from the "before" and "after"-----SO much work! And such a beautiful result....

You have done a beautiful job! Did you carry all those stones yourself? Some of the more upright ones look like they would weigh a ton! How did you manage? Love the kitty on top of the one!

SOO inviting! Congrats on this accomplishment!!!!

Gita

WOW, WOW, WOW!!! I agree the green you chose is both soothing and looks great in that spot. Love your little stone guy. You definitely created a beautiful little retreat there.
I just love the way you used the rocks to edge your walkway it really sets it off nicely. So glad you posted the before shot at the end. I well remember the before, see what can grow out of a simple set of stairs. LOL Those big blue hosta look great at the top of the slope and I like the way you have placed the rocks across the slope. Great finds of those flat top rocks. You are so right they are really perfect for the cat and birdbath. What are the blue flowers planted by the cat? Are they just columbine or something else? Also that other plant next to the walk looks like it has V shaped markings on it? Holly

Took the words right out of my mouth! LOL An "avid gardener" AND a stone house, right up your alley! Looks like paradise to me :)

Thanks so much for the compliments, I worked my butt off to get the last project accomplished - the gardens surrounding the arbor/steps! I had hoped to get it done for the first weekend of our Open House but just wasn't possible. So bright and early the the following Monday morning I kicked into high gear to hopefully get it done for the second weekend! First problem was all the rain we had over the weekend, I could get down the neighbor's driveway to get the rocks but then I couldn't drive into our field to unload them :( And yes, Gita, I carried them all myself :) Rick's got a bad back and if I keep up with this rock fetish of mine, I'll be joining him soon! LOL It wouldn't have been so bad if I could have just dropped them "at the site" but I had to unload them in our driveway and carry each one down the path to the slope :( Definitely slowed down the process but I was determined to get it done before Saturday! I totally ignored all the other work that should have been done in the gardens (weeds, etc.) and finally by Thursday was ready to start planting. First up was digging up that humongous (sp?) Hosta and getting it transplanted! I thought I took a picture of the back side - you can't tell from the picture, it almost looks normal but it's a 7+ year old Hosta with 20-25 eyes and I had to tie it up so it wouldn't fall over! Little by little it all came together and by Friday noon I was ready to make the trip to pick up more mulch. Unfortunately I was running out of time as the black clouds started rolling in around 3:00 and when the clouds opened up a half hour later there were still a few areas that didn't get any mulch but at least it "looked" finished! I have a few more plants laid out for planting and I'm still trying to figure out where a few more are going to go - all in good time :)

Holly, the blue flowers are Polemonium 'Bressingham Purple' http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/56492/. I've planted it before without much success but I'm hoping it will be happy here! The other plant with the "V shaped markings" is Persicaria 'Red Dragon' http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/1134/. Another one I'm "testing" in this area. The one I've had planted in another area of the gardens for years always tends to lose the bright contrast of the foliage because I think it's in too much shade? So I've planted two along this edge of the gardens where they receive morning sun and I'm hoping they'll keep the beautiful variegation and be happier here. This is the other one I planted last fall. I actually moved it a little to the right last week after planting the Euphorbias and Heucheras :)

Really nice gardening in progress. There is a lesson here for anyone who will take the time to ponder the immediately above post. The point is.....pick a spot relatively small and paint a nice balanced picture with your rock and plants. When finished a larger garden is the total. The eye can comfortably move from spot to spot while you enjoy a part of the total. Developing a garden this way becomes a series of plantings easier to see and complete. If something ends up looking wrong move that one item as you live with your masterpiece.

Oh I have Jacobs Ladder, just couldn't tell what it was. Love the Red Dragon I must look for some of that. Cant wait to get back into my own gardens. Ric and Josh finished the Gazebo floor, I planted Port Odora EE in each corner, before we bolted out the door for Fl. I don't have a dressed up pic for you but we did hang the screen curtains and I carried some of the house plants out there for their summer retreat.

In the process of putting down the extended brick area we started on another project. We needed stone for the base area under the bricks so Ric dug it out of the driveway, they moved a good bit of it so when things get back to normal we could starting laying brick in the driveway. Just looks like dug up stone but every time I walk though here I can just picture the brick patio with the big wisteria arbor overhead. It will take us awhile to get caught up once home, don't you just hate when life gets in the way of your gardening projects. LOL
This pic only shows about 1/3 of the area they dug up. They removed about 1/2 of the area we will brick and surprising to me it wasn't very hard digging. Something I could easily do.

Holly, looks great and Port Odora is going to be awesome in the corners of the gazebo! Arggghh, after seeing your Port Odoras last year I ordered three in April!!! and they're still sitting inside in a bag waiting to be planted :( I had hoped to plant them near "our" gazebo but that area is a mess right now and I haven't had time to get the soil ready for them! Looks like you'll have plenty to keep you busy with preparation for the new Wisteria arbor and we'll be able to keep track of your progress with a new Summer Projects thread :)

When we left for Fl. I tried to plant as many of my caladiums as I could but there are still several bags of them sitting in the garage. I figure it will take a month to get caught up on the weeding and planting. I understand it is raining a lot in our area. I was just out in Poppy's yard, raking up piles of debris. I told myself that I wasn't doing any more work back there but as soon as I step outside I get sucked in. I sure could make short work of this mess if I could just burn it all but that is "not" permitted. If he lived in city limits we could load up his truck and haul all the yard debris to the yard where they compost it but since he is county our only options are to put it out with the trash or take it to the dump where you pay to dump it. I think the fee is based on weight and it is a good 45 min each way drive. So I have huge piles cut to 3 or 4 ft lengths just lined up and waiting. They can put out 2 can's of yard debris every week and can put out 4 bundles of branches.
From this

can't wait- bated breath

I finally got pictures of the area surrounding the Welcome Garden! I had to splice two photos together. Not only is my camera taking lousy pictures but I can't figure out how to use the "panorama" feature :( I don't have a "full" picture of what the area looked like last fall but this is where I first started - where the Clay Pot Lady is now located. What a mess huh?

And this is what it looks now :) Unfortunately all the cars traveling through in the rain on one of our Open House weekends made a mess of the grass! I started on the right, then started planting on the left and in the next photo you'll see where I ended up continuing the border on the right side.

The trees and shrubs were planted a couple of years ago but it's always been a weedy mess in this area :( Unfortunately a lot of the plants in this part of the border are Annuals but they should look great in another month when they get some size to them!

WOW that looks great. I remember that area from our visit. I think our "Project" for the next few weeks is just going to be getting things back in order. LOL

What a difference, looks great.