Joyce and others,
ok, I forgot which thread I promised to show my garden photos, so I had to make a new. Here's a tour in parts of my garden, 50% of all my plants are coleus, the rest are: coleus cousins, lilies, peonies, etc. (most are overbloomed now), roses (no photos here, they are on the other side of the house), clematis, lots of bushes and trees. Here we go.
Alice
PS: can you find me in the photo? lol
Same area, different angle. The cute light house starts when darkness falls - it works on batteries and solar sensors/panels. The coleus seem to love it also, they are much taller close to it.
This is the part of the garden where coleus do worst because it's so windy. Here some of them blew out of the beds and disappeared in July, they had to be replaced, therefore some plants are very small.
I do hope for a better weather next summer, this summer has been horrible to coleus! (lots of rain, cold temperature, plenty of wind & storms and slugs & snails.....)
... same area. In front of the light house are some small coleus replaced after the ones who blew away into the sea. This kindof storm has never happened before in summertime and lasted only a few hours, but still I lost appr. 10 big coleus plants.
Standing at the light house and looking westwards into the garden.
In front of the entrance.
Hahahaha, here's a salute to all you Americans: this US wind vane souvenir I bought in Connecticut some 15 years ago, it still works - but he makes a lot of noise when the wind is strong! But we love him, and during this windy summer he has had plenty of work!
He is watching over the coleus so noone steals them.....lol
Higher up, another new coleus bed of the year - there are lots of coleus plants from Sidney and Dale planted here..... Thanks and hugs to both of you for helping me get more colorful plants.
Under the old oak tree....room for more coleus. Most of these are from seeds I've bought. They grow oh so slowly.
The big and old oak tree is taking good care of the small coleus. They should be twice their height by now, but due to all the bad weather they look like this. Still colorful though.
This area again with the heartshaped coleus bed. Here are lots of plants from UK given to me by my coleus friend Wouter. Thanks a million!!!!
The frog sculpture is made by a Norwegian artist and was a present from close friends at my BIG birthday party 2 years ago. I adore him.
Another sad thing about this wet and windy summer - most of our green lawn is gone! (see lower right in photo).
We have to make new and improved lawns next year, but now it's probably too late in season....
Coleus and coleus cousins.....
Back to start. If you wonder how long it takes to water everything it's about 30 minutes every third night. Not an awful lot of job....and quite relaxing work in my opinion.
More coleus and my 'palm tree'. If you cannot grow real palms due to cold climate you have to invent them yourself....LOL
To the left an old pear tree (out of photo), every autumn there is a fight between us and the birds how get to eat the sweet pears first, the birds always win.
This message was edited Aug 28, 2007 8:41 AM
More of my darlings, a lot from Baker's here. They should be tall and bushy by now, but alas.....too cold and windy. Last year they very gorgeous in this bed, this year ----- well, they seem to survive.
Same bed, it's a long one.
I've planted some blue blooming plants here and there in the beds to compansate for all the coleus flowers I have to pinch away.
The pear tree is a good coleus mama too.....
The lawn is no more and the coleus are struggling in the wind. Last year this area was crowded with colorful, tall coleus plants, this year it is no good at all.
But I won't give up, next year I'll try again!
Same place, the coleus in the foreground (under the peony) I've planted last week, so they are excused for their smallness.
Last photo for now!
When taking the photo safari today this double rainbow appeared! I just had to take a pic.....
Alice, your coleus are beautiful, I guess you are addicted to coleus, LOL. How long does a package take to reach you from the US? If I have any you would like let me know, I've never shipped coleus out of the country. But I am willing to give it a try, would you need them rooted or unrooted?
Cathy
Alice they your gardens are beautiful. I think I would be outside for hours there.
Cathy you can send no soil to Sweden and they have to be accompanied with a health certificate. I sent all I got for Alice to Dale and he took it from there. He's such a prince!
Alice I am also envious that you can water every 3 days. I run my sprinkler twice a day unless it rains.
Thanks so much for a great tour of your garden.
Sidney
Alice your gardens are very pretty! You can see the loving care you put into them. It is always so nice to see gardens and here from people in other parts of our world. Thanks so much for sharing.
Well I guess I would have to send them to Dale also, no health certificate.
Thanks for the info,
Cathy
Oh Alice,
That truly is a wonderland! You have so much space and different areas to be creative with your coleus. I just love your frog! Whats his name ( if I know you, I know you named him Ha)
I think even here, our coleus are recovering from a bad weather summer so dont feel bad. You have so many and they are so colorful, I'm sure you enjoy them nevertheless. I hope you got the ones I sent Dale and that they add a little more color to your spectacular collection.
With the sea so close by and the beautiful views I'm sure you spend lots of time out there enjoying it. If I ever get back to that side of the world I will have to come for tea.
Thanks for sharing your wonderland.
Thank you Cathy! It's so good of you to offer to send cuttings to me through Dale. I appreciate it very much. But very sadly, Dale is not feeling well after the failed eye operation, so we can't ask him to help, I'm afraid. He has already too much to take care of right now. But I will send you D-mail with suggestions how we might solve this, but I have to think about it for a few days first.
Sidney,
You are very welcome to visit my garden - anytime, but preferrably during summer LOL! You will leave with big bags full of coleus cuttings if you visit me! LOL. Yes, I would love to get seeds from your coleus. Thank you so much.
Joyce,
what a wonderful illustration, I love it! Normally, I have a lot of fun things & stuff in my garden, but this year I had no energy to put so many things out, we were so busy building the deer fence. Next year,,,,,,will be better, I hope. Absolutely, if you come to Sweden you must drop in for a tea party! Welcome!!!! The frog's name is "Mr Gourmand"! You see, I've been a member of a Norwegian 'gourmet-club' for almost 25 years, we are 6 female friends who get together and cook for each other 2-3 weekends every year and have great fun. I got this frog as a gift from the club members, therefore its name.
It's midnight here, gotta go to bed
Alice
Alice, very nice. Your garden looks so different in summer from what I remember when I visited you in autumn. But I am still missing a greenhouse in the picture... The wooden circle, was there not a pond once?
Wouter
Alice your gardens and coleus are just beautiful. I would have so much fun there. And the double rainbow you captured is glorious.
What is the body of water down below? That is so pretty!
Alice,Thank you for the wonderful walk thru your wonderland,You have a beautiful place to enjoy...
Pheadra
Wouter,
thank you! You remember almost correctly, but it was not a pond, it was a swimming pool that wasn't looking good anymore so we got rid of it. We're planning a new and better-looking swimming pool, maybe somewhere else on the estate. Maybe next year, this year is too late for new projects...
Brinda,
Yes please, come and have fun!!! The water you see is a part of the Stockholm archipelago, we live just outside (to the left on) this map:
http://images.google.se/imgres?imgurl=http://www.skargardsstugor.se/bilder/karta.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.skargardsstugor.se/english/archipelago-map.aspx&h=425&w=640&sz=25&hl=sv&start=1&sig2=wnuq_n_Q6IJbO1-IkT5bQg&um=1&tbnid=nJKwFBQ--TPCiM:&tbnh=91&tbnw=137&ei=x-TVRrOwCJOK-gL7htzrCg&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522stockholm%2Barchipelago%2522%2Bkarta%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dsv%26sa%3DG
.
We live only 10 minutes from Stockholm city (by car), still it feels like quiet countryside - we just love it here... but my coleus would have preferred to move to Florida, I'm sure!!! LOL
Alice
Alice,
How lovely. It is a dream home, topped with coleus. The view must be breathtaking. I grew up on the Tennessee River and will always be a "River Rat", as my husband calls me. You are very lucky to have such a wonderful place to live. Very naive of me, but I didn't realize Sweden has such a long summer. Thank you for the tour.
Sincerely,
The Mad Hatter
Thank you, you're nice!
How excellently surprising that The Mad Hatter herself has taken a 'walk' through my garden! This visit makes me so proud!!!!
Alice
A photo of Wouter's breed 'Coral Reef', I love this one.
This message was edited Sep 17, 2007 2:24 PM
Beautiful photos wish I could visit as I need China that is made in Sweden and I have tried to get them to answer me but no one will.
Lavina
Lavina? China made in Sweden? A little ironic, don't ya think?
Traci
Lavinamae
Do you mean china as in dinnerwear? If so, have you tried replacements.com?
http://replacements.com/
Lavina,
you're of course welcome to visit anytime!
If you want me to help you in any way with this china-problem please let me know. Send a D-mail and explain.
Alice
This message was edited Sep 19, 2007 9:25 AM
Nordic Treasures is a dinner- ware china made in Sweden. It has elfs on it.LOL
Will give you more info soon. the family business begins with an S but I can't remember the rest right now.
Lavina
Replacements is ALSO
Hey sugar, good to see you!
Hi Joyce,
I've put the photos of our boat house here so I don't fuzz up your thread! The smallest Ponderosa it is, but we've designed it ourselves and done most of the work (everything except for the wood construction and electricity). It wasn't so expensive when we did most of the job ourselves. It's also a guest house.
Here we go. Boat house (seen from the terrace of our house) in 2006.
Joyce,
one more photo from above. We've design the stairs also, and had a very good construction company to put it up. Out house is situated on top of a tall cliff, so it was rather difficult to make the stairs all the way down, but after lots of failed attempts and tries we finally made it. There are three benches on the way - mostly one uses them when climbing UP!!! LOL
