I wish my older sister is here, we would have a old fashioned sweet shop, she can make some pastries out of this world. This is why out of three sisters non of us are skinny. Brother always braging that he is the same size az in high school. I am sending you another picture of my home town, Novi Sad.
I can understand the problem of temptation!
Is there a group that plants and maintains those lush gardens or is it done by some government agency?
The country it self is very "green" so they have lots of eempoyees that take care of the gardens. It is a cushy job, but sometime other stuff are not cleaned. Like when you fly in to Belgrade airport, you can see the white palastic shopping bags hanging of the trees, we have lots of strong wind that comes down from Romanian mauntains. I think they are outlawing the white bags. Haw is the wether in LA? In Augusta is wet and cold, but still in the 40 F, I guess we have to be happy with that. I just orderd 3 Goats beards from bluestone, they will aded to my previous order. It soposed to grow in shade good, and that is what I need. I am sending you my chalenge picture, that will be my project this year. Will have some top soil delivered and maybe even grow some grass in the middle. Have some holly bushes, 2 Nelly Stevens, some mahonias and golden accubas. They just have to grow tall enough to block my neighbor who never cleans hes back yard.
kiseta, I have a goats beard in very heavy shade and it is very happy and quite large. Carolina allspice is a shrub that can get large and blot out something you'd rather not see. They do well in shade and have pretty, fragrant, unusual blooms.
A few panels of lattice, installed horizontally, would hide that view. They are attached to wood and are as high above the ground as you determine they should be. So, at 1' from the ground you'd have a series of panels 4' high and that should take care of the problem. I'd stagger three such panels for more interest.
Try this and see if you find any inspiration:
http://www.nextag.com/lattice-panel/stores-html
Thank you for the advice. My problem also is the large roots from that 100 year old oak tree. I tried to make holes for posts, but it is very hard to dig. I planted the holly bushess with the healp of a drill I used to cut the roots and also I used a pick to cut trough. My holly evergreen bushess are about 4 feet tall, maybe this year when I add some more compost will start growing. Some areas I can plant some chocolate chip ajuga, it spread out in the front and it looks nice but it is growing wild. Also will bring from the front my large hostas . It will be enough to do, I cut down my job to three days, so I can have my long weekends. The Carolina spice bush is nice, I have seen them in the local nurseries. One of my clematis will go in the back, I just have to figure it out which will take part sun.
kiseta, be careful of Ajuga. I have found ie to be a thug in the garden. I lve the lattice idea though. I did something similar with a starburst pattern from an old deck that I salvaged from a friend.
Ajuga really can be a thug but it has uses for slopes too dangerous to mow and areas where other plants won't grow.
Here's a trellis photo I copied from an online source. It would help block that view, Etelka. Get the help of a strong young man and feed him well. You'll make a new friend!
It is true about ajuga, I bought one 4" pot of chocolate chip, and now I have it all over. I planted it between my stepping stones and it is happy if you walking on it. Sometime I give it away. One trouble about white lettice is once the plant is on it, it turns green and I can't pressure wash it. That is what happened with my confederate jasmin, I hope the sun will bleach it out, it looks terrible. Thank you for your reserch, pirl, I looked at the site you send me, it is out of my budget, but I can build something out of local strores, they about 1/3 of the price. I hope Monday the sun will come out so I can pressure wash my picket fence before any plants start to grow. Also I have a 1 year old trailing hydrengia, I will build a trellis, something like a ladder, they say it gets to be a very large plant, up to the roof. I planted it in the front corner in semi shade. Last year the grasshoppers ate every new leaf, but it is still alive, and I hope to spray better this year, much as I hate chemicals.
I think they now make the lattice in white vinyl - should be easier to go over with a soft broom dipped in bleach/dishwasher detergent every spring. Cover the plants if you wish but we don't and don't have any problems with the plants.
Is yours a climbing or trailing hydrangea. I'm not familiar with any trailing one. What is the name of it? Could it be Hallasan from South Korea?
The climbing hydrangea shouldn't be grown on a house - only a big old tree that can support it. From all I've heard it can dismantle a trellis with its eventual weight. Not so with mine, 6 years old and still pitiful looking.
I guess that is a good idea, the white looks better thane the brown I have seen in Lowe's. The hydrengea is a Trepadora, on the picture shows to climb against a brick house, that why I tought to build a trellis there. It looks good, the tips have green little growths on it, I will see what happens.
Is that your hydrangea or a photo from online? It's massive!
No, this was on the website I found, I wish I can grow one like this.
We all dream of that, Etelka! That one must be 20 years old.
kiseta: I just popped in here to look at Clems and read your statment about why your husband wanted to come to the U.S.
Where is that tree with money on it.?
Just tell me and I' will take cuttings LOL
My grandmother's sister arrived from Ireland for a visit back in the 1890's and had heard this was a free country. She asked my grandmother if it was true and was told, "Yes". She then proceeded to walk into a bake shop and walk out with a big cake (no bag) and thought it was terrific. Good old grandma had to clue her in as to what "free" meant.
LOL Thats true. I never looked at it that way.
We came to this country trough a sponsorship from a church. They brought out from Vienna 300 Yugoslav citizens and placed us in different cities. Some of the members that came here early wrote us how they , after just being here 1 year, have cars, houses and lots of nice furniture. That is why we thought that things where in USA much better then in the old country. Later on we found out that they all had car payments,I mortgages and lots of credit cards. This was in Nov. 1969, Cleveland Ohio. If anybody knows Cleveland that time, 68the and St. Clair, it was not a nice place and it is worst now. It is true that I filled up the pantry and frig. with $20.00, but I made 52.00 a week.In the stores I was most inpressed with the whole isle of jams , when I lived at home it was a whole day work to make and can the jams. Sorry, this has nothing to with clematis, but I get nostalgic sometime. It is a beutiful day in Augusta, today I will work on the flower bed so when my clematis arrive, it will be ready.
Your recolections are interesting and worthwhile.
US citizens take a lot for granted.
I went to Berlin in December 1989 and 90 when the city had just opened to Eastern Germans who had been behind the wall for nearly 40 years.
The east germans stood out because they didnt have modern clothes, or fashion haircuts .
It was like looking at people who were emerging from a time capsule.
They would go into the suburbs and ask to see the insides of houses and look at cars.
They stood in front of store windows and at produce stands outside of markets and stare for hours. We complain about the disfunction of our government but its still a lot better here.
We can choose not to overspend and take care of our own well being.
This experience was something I wont forget.
When I think back, I am glad we did't know about coming here and going on welfair and Food stamps. The pastor of the church took us to factory and I worked by Dec 3rd. We saved our money and bought furniture one at the time. The pastor told us "don't even get a speeding ticket, you can be deported for just not following the basic rules, we have to be grateful for this country to take us in". I am grateful and kept my promiss to never be on the burdon of this country. This is the best country on Earth, only if people would realize that here, you can become anything you want, no matter where you comming from and what your parents are. I thing the most important thing is education.
I totally agree.
The minister gave you great sensable advise.
Education is the key to success but so many resist it as though it were a plague.
My mom was allowed to complete 8th grade (1910) but then had to go to work. My dad could only finish 4th grade (1905) and then had to go to work to help his mom afford to keep the family intact since my grandfather died of pneumonia before he was 30.
Education back then was looked upon as something more for the wealthy than the struggling people.
How proud my parents would have been to see so many of the grandchildren with all the years of college education and degrees as well as those who became carpenters (like her father was).
Its odd how what goes around comes around.
There is a trend toward Trade Schools now and less on so called higher education.
That is for some people, not everyone. Trade schools are overcomming the bad rap they had years ago.
My father only went to 3rd grade, and he had to work in grandpaa's shoe shop. This was 1925, he was one of 8 kids. His sisters did not go to higher education, it was a custom to let the kids learn how to read and wright,the girls will get married have kids and that was the outlook for life. My dad and mom had tree kids, lived a small town, but dad moved us all to the big city to be able to go to school. He said he did not wont his daughters to marry farmers and stay on the farm. He let us join all the libreries, we had to pay membership, after working all day, he read all the books we brought home. He was a very smart person, very good in math, but better in common sence. He tought me how to budget, not to spend more then I make. "your behind will get cold if you strech more then your blanket is long." I am gratfull for his dedication to the family and the upbringing I had. We all had a place at the table, least once a day we ate toghether and even he never huged us, we knew he loved us. That is what is missing in some of the troubled families.
I love that saying.
I always lived by "Dont let the cart push the horse"
My parents grew up in the great depression. My maternal grandfather was educated an put himself thru night school business at Columbia. He tought school duering the day.
My mother and her sister went to college as did my father and the boys in his family.
Hello everyone if you add...BEFRUG1 to the coupon box at Brushwoods you will get a extra discount : ) at checkout! I just did ^_^
This message was edited Feb 12, 2011 10:45 AM
ge1836, I bought this framed needlepoint on E-bay, which you may like, it is one of my favorite,just to get back to the garden topic.
The real PIRL had that sign in her garden!
My dad was great with his hands and terrific with math while my mom was a great reader and excellent with spelling so we all had their help with homework. My dad bought a roofing business after he went to school for it in Chicago - a big deal back in 1920. He always provided the family with the best of everything and, having gone through the Great Depression, we were all taught to pay cash and avoid debt.
We also ate together every night - no excuses!
Three squares a day.Lunch was with mother but breakfast was everyone.
I find it a very warm and comforting memory. I had it with my kids as well and maybe that's how they'll remember it...I hope!
The culture now is much different. Kids are having their warm fuzzy memories orchestrated by Walt Disney.
Can yo tell I am cranky and sick of winter.?
Me, too.
The sun and the forecast of warmer days next week is helpful but I want it all right now.
If we get it now we will only want to see bulbs emerging. I am never satidfied in spite of the fairytale about the farmers wife who wasnt satisfied until she was queen of the world. Then my memory fails me.
I remember the moral was to be content. I'm a Capricorn ( sign of the goat)we never heard of the word.
My son is also a Capricorn so I know the positives and negatives. Thankfully, you and he are more positive.
My son is a Capricorn too, married to a Ram, they are constantly butting heads, but I hope they will survive, it has been 13 years, up and down. My son is a perfectionist (?) and she is not. When my son comes to my house it is "mom, your garden edging is not straigt, why did you paint your dinning room green , I hate green, "well son you don't live here, that is why and I like green. But on the other hand he is a grate provider and loves his boys. It is good that we are 400 ml away from each other.
One New years eve, it was just him and I , he start talking about for us two going back to my home, "mom , just you and I , like it was when I was 10, it was so nice, I plantad tomatoes with grandpaa, and I could talk to the kids on the street on English.. just you and I mam, my wife would not uderstand the crowds on the busses, the different kind of cooking and that my sisters brought out the best china and white tablecloth (she uses paper plates alot) It is ok, but I would like him to know that it is nice when somebody put out the best they have,to make it nice for you , even if they not rich.
Hold your ground mom.
I am a Ram myself - could that be why my husband I butt heads?
I love everyone's stories about coming to this country. We are all far luckier than we know and we all take so much for granted. Seems like everything we hear is so negative any more. I do think we can find things that we can be positive about just as easily as we can find the negative. I had read something interesting in a magazine that I thought was important. A woman had written in regarding New Years resolutions and said that years ago, her Resolution was to be thankful and appreciative for different things in her life on a daily basis. She went on to say that some days it was difficult for her to find these things, but that this had changed her life dramtically. I had decided myself that this was going to be my resolution this year.
One thing I would like to share - I too love the good china and silver and look forward to occasions when I can use mine- a couple of weekends ago, we celebrated my fathers 80th birthday and I used my great aunt's silver cocktail forks for hors d'ouvres (sp?). My father commented on how much that would have made my aunt so happy. Things like that make me feel so good and I remember those people in my life that have gone with so much warmth and fondness. These things are important to me. Yes, I do use paperplates too, but I feel there is a different place for them, don't you?
this is of the subject, I think in my next life, I want to be pirls master gardener, her yard and flowers look very nice, but you have to build me cottage. I think I would breing my shutgun, for the deer. I make some delicous deer lasagna.
A few years ago I wanted to be a Dude ranch cook. They usualy hire just for the summer , that is when I have off for 3 months.I found one in Wyoming, it was beutiful place. I would of cooked for them for free if they would give me the afternoon of, just to sit on the porch and look at the sceenery.My dream didn't come trough, I had to get knee surgery and ended up off work and mostly on a walker whole summer. Thank God I was well enough to go back to the church in Septermber
Being thankful for all we have is grand and jotting down even one item a day on a calendar to remind us to continue to be grateful might improve our outlook, especially on the snowy days in winter when the locks are frozen.
I'm sure your great aunt's seafood cocktail forks looked beautiful and it was twice as nice that your dad remembered them and commented on them. I use my first mother-in-law's old (circa 1898 - 1910) engraved sterling silver spoons and all of her china as well but it's the silver with the dates that draw the most comments. They'll all go to my granddaughter, who, oddly enough has the exact same initials - MAV. Each and every spoon is different from the next.
Paper plates are fine for some things.
We'll convert the two car garage for you, Etelka! I will eat that lasagna with relish!
Wyoming would have been heavenly. I hope you make it out there!
Speeking of the two car garage apartment, I applied for a job in Philadelphi, of the Main line for housekeeping job. The couple that lived there where (i dont know how to spell shrink Dr.) The man was realy tall and large, 6 feet 5", 52 waist.I am 5', he took me trough the whole house, out to the pool house and he said if I work out, he would build me apartment over the garage I can live there with my son. They where real nice, but if you delt with shrinks, they need more help then the patiens. I lasted 1 year, he paid well but I felt like on a traveling circus. I googled his name not long ago, and he died since.
As you see, I get very restless, I just cant believe that my life will only be the way is now, it must be more to life then work and TV. I always say I have more luck with business then husbands, but it is not much fun alone.
I just found a Wyoming ranch that is hiring, $1200.00 a month, plus room and board, but it is 5 per room and 52 hours a week. Oh well I guess I am staying in Augusta. I just take a vacation and enjoy the area.
