January 2019 – Wellyssa's Womb

Noodle Gardens

I call them “noodle gardens” because I think they look like wet spaghetti noodles, kinda curvy, only surrounded by rock, not tomato sauce. Because I hate straight lines, I had our neighbor Roy, who delivered the dirt for us, shape the south berm into a curving form from east to west, pushing two sections into the property and leaving one section at the edge of the ditch. These two indentations were the result.

Taken from my neighbor’s driveway across the street

I knew that I wanted to plant trees there, and we planted the red maples in 2005, so far so good. But following that, I’ve been trying to decide what I wanted to do with the rest of the space.

I put down fabric and edged it with black granite, filled it with 1″ black granite, and then made a noodle shaped raised garden bed in the center, to be planted with bulbs. My thinking was two fold: 1) it’s one less expanse that I have to weed or spray, and 2) it continues the use of rock from the front around the sides.

First spring for the noodle garden – the daffodils are up and some of the early spring bulbs are popping out of the ground in the noodle garden! Yea!

Starting to look like something

Stinky, (the cat) enjoying the verbenas. After we put in this retaining wall last fall, I finally felt like this front porch bed could be finished. A few colorful annuals did the trick, oh, and a kitty.

Front porch garden: Dwarf Korean lilac in the back, Carol Mackie Daphne, and mixed verbena in front. The bright pop of yellow to the left/rear are the Maximilian sunflowers; they’re about 6 feet tall. And the little T fan shaped shrubs in the foreground are my little hedges; they greened up nicely after a heavy snow last winter, and they have their first branch sets on them. Fingers still crossed.

In the picture below, you can see the stone steps we put in to lead down from the front porch to the lower willow garden. Wish I had taken a better picture. Also in this

picture, you can see the front south rock berm, in the upper right corner. There is a berm like this on each side of the front of the property. Eventually they will be covered in stone. But for now, I was able to afford 25 tons of large boulders, 3-6 tons each boulder, to put on the berms. These boulders are the anchor stones for these two berms. I know, it looks weird right now, it looks undone – and it is. But these things take time, and money $$$.

On the north, front side of the property is the other large berm. I don’t think you can see the boulders from this view, but you can appreciate the second year’s growth of Aunt Judy’s daylilies. They’re right out front behind a row of pink mums. Appreciate them! They came all the way from Missouri and are working really hard in this nasty soil.

All in all, I feel good about this progress. It’s finally starting to look like something, at least out front.

The Great American Way – Lawn.

3 years in the making, we finally put in the lawn. I’m sure our neighbors are relieved! But first I needed to figure out how wide the hedge border was going to be; then we needed to figure out where the concrete border was going to go; then I had to plant 4000 crocus; then we had to dig in the irrigation lines and the sprinkler system (the digging of which killed many of the crocus!); and finally, after much research on grass varieties, we planted the lawn in our 3rd summer. (2007)

Concrete edging installed by L&P Concrete.

Concrete edging, south side, including a tree ring for the catalpa, 2007

Trenching in the irrigation lines for the sprinkler system

We planted 4 types of grass. 2 types of warm season grass, and 2 types of cold season grass. Our plan is that the lawn will look great during both seasons, which should be April through November. Blue grama, crested wheat, buffalo and rye grasses. We’ll see how it does, but so far it looks great!

Also, in this last pic you can see my lovely little baby hedge shrubs starting to grow. (The line of green between the lawn and the edge of the driveway.) They made it through the winter; I had my doubts as they were completely buried in snow for 2 months.

And the green scraggly looking plants in front of the lawn are orange day lilies which we brought back with us from a visit to Brian’s grandparents farm in Missouri. Aunt Judy was all too happy for me to dig a bunch of them out for her. I planted 75 on both sides of the driveway, in front of the lawn.

What’s up with these pigeons?

We used to get snow

Snow storm in 2007. 18″ to 36″

4′ drifts up against the north berm, and 5 ‘ drifts across the street

Delineating space

beginnings of irrigation and concrete edging

It was time to put in irrigation to water everything that had been planted so far. You can see that we have laid the larger 1″ hose for the main irrigation line that will service the trees. This line is connected to the larger 2″ PVC line which is buried 12″ down. Dragging around the hose is just too much work, and takes too much time.

We painted and measured where the edging would go

We also began to plan out delineating the boundaries of the lawn. We saw an example of concrete edging at the home and garden show, so we looked into what that would cost and decided to go ahead and splurge on edging for the lawn spaces, north and south.

You can see the orange paint on the dirt, outlining where the concrete edging will be laid. You can also see in this picture the flat stones were purchased to be used as steps down from the level of the front yard, to the lower level of the south willow garden.

Creating a border for the willow garden with black granite

The house was built on top of the ground, due to the high water table here, so there is a 6′ difference in level from the front door to the south side of the property.

The willow garden is being created, day lilies have been planted along the edge, sand cherries and Russian sage. We put in a bird feeder so we can watch the birds out the south dinning room bay window. Looking down the pathway to the west end of the property you can see that the west berm has been installed and the cupola has been placed and anchored into the ground.

Meanwhile in the front yard, the new hedges have been planted around the entire driveway. After I measured the spacing and determined that I needed 200 hedge shrubs – I had a complete conniption fit! No way could I afford to buy that many shrubs, not to mention, no one locally had that many. I called and called with no luck. Then I stumbled upon a nursery out of state that had saplings. So in desperation I decided to give it a try. They arrived in a single plastic bag. The saplings were 18″ tall and 1/8″ diameter little twigs. I shook my head, but I went ahead and planted them with help from my friends Robin and Mary. It took all day. I remember the look on my neighbors faces as I crawled around on my knees with my ruler, meticulously measuring the distance between each shrub and the distance from the driveway edging.

I enlarged the picture so you can actually see the saplings. Daily watering was required, but they made it.

Dear Mark.

My good friend Mark Johnson died this year, along with one of his two daughters. The whole thing was tragic. His second daughter delivered some of his, and his daughter’s ashes to me one afternoon following his memorial service. She said Mark had asked to have his ashes buried on my property. So I purchased an oak tree, (as he was a Druid and Oaks are sacred to them) and buried his and his daughter’s ashes under it.

I planted the oak in the North, which is the most sacred direction to the Druids and next to the Womb of Earth, for all things come from the Mother, and all things return. I drove his athame into the ground with the oak tree to delineate the site as sacred.

looking north/west from the edge of the front driveway

The piano harp marks the space where the butterfly garden will be created. Mark’s oak is in front of the north berm, right behind the harp. Now, there are 4 new evergreens on the north berm, Austrian Black Pines, Brian’s Mother, Judy, bought them for us as a gift to our new home when she moved here from Albuquerque.

Also, in front of the harp is a ditch which is being dug for drainage from the south side of the property, which is higher, to the north side, and off the property into the drainage ditch that surrounds the entire property. In 2005 we had a massive downpour and all the water ran into the middle of the garden where the herb garden was being built. Luckily, this happened when the herb garden was just the bottom rows of the structure. The water settled and sank the septic tanks about 2′, making a giant hole in the middle of the herb garden. We had to rip it out and Morrison Homes had to come out and lift the tanks back up, and mud jack tons of dirt back under the tanks to get them back to level. OMG – I thought I was going to loose my mind, it was such a disaster. Anyway, so we are digging a drainage ditch!

All the little marks in the ground are holes being dug to plant 4000 crocus, 2000 on each side of what will be the lawn. This project took me an entire week on my hands and knees. I can’t wait to see them bloom next spring.

Progress on the Herb Garden.

It’s amazing how fast herbs recover. They got dug up, put in pots, over-wintered across town in pots covered with straw, and then replanted into the new herb garden last fall. I’m thrilled at how well they did this first year.

south/west quadrant, thyme, basil, clarry sage, mother wort, thyme	North/west quadrant, Comfrey, curry, meadow sweet, oregano, sage, lemon verbena	North/east quadrant, marshmallow, mullein, horehound, parsley
South/east quadrant, bergamot	South/east quadrant, different view, angelica, oregano, marjoram, sage, dill	View from the second floor

Blessings

When we purchased the land for our home, we blessed it prior to the first hole being dug. We called upon the spirits of the land to ask permission to build here, and we asked for them to lend their energies and attention so the construction would go gracefully and according to schedule, which it did.

I blessed every inch of the foundation, leaving specific blessings, stones, and mojo bags in each wall, according to the use of the rooms which would be contained within the walls. I did this blessing the day the concrete was poured, while the big trucks were on their way to the site. The contractor was nervous about the timing, but with the help of the foundation crew moving the ladders around for me, I got it done in time. Concrete won’t wait!

Blessing the foundations
	The musical score and money poking through the foundation after the concrete hardened	This is the main altar and offering to the house. It was buried in the absolute center of the house, 2 feet down, placed in a waterproof container.

Once the house was built, my friends came to assist Brian and I with the blessing of the house and property. It was a momentous occasion! There were many tears and much laughter, because everyone knew how hard we had worked for this, and that this would be our forever home.

We blessed every inch of the property, and made offerings to the land spirits and elemental energies.

Gathering in the center of the back yard to call in Deity to bless and consecrate this property.	Procession around the property, blessing as we go.	the elemental spirits and guardians were called in at each of the 4 cardinal points of the property. Offerings were buried.
Casting Circle	Recognizing Brian as Master of this property and home.	Installing the Elemental guardians on the outside of the house, east-south-west-north

The house dedication. Buried in the front door foundation

We blessed every room in the house, and set the intention and purpose for that room. We blessed every pipe and electrical source and appliance, we blessed and warded all windows and doors.

Everyone insisted that I play something on the piano, as a way to finish the blessing ritual, and bring music into the home. I played a Scriabin Prelude, and then we all celebrated, shared our friendship, ate some good food, and some of us just took a nap!

Our High Priest, Robin Vinehall, thoroughly worn out.

In the Beginning . . . Let there be herbs!

Getting the Herb Garden built this first year was very important to me. I had a very productive herb garden at my house in Aurora (which the new owner immediately tore out!); all my herbs were living in pots at Jackie’s house, and the Herb Garden was to be the central anchoring point of the entire rear garden. So after putting in the driveway in June, we set to work on the Herb Garden in July. Bless my husband for his diligence and love.

Drilling the holes for the Herb Garden support posts

Of course he did get to play with another piece of heavy equipment. After deciding that there was no way to dig the footings by hand, we rented an auger. Brian had soo much fun!

We designed the structure so it would sit around the septic tank lids and hide them. The east/west walkway covers the tank lids. When the tanks need to be drained, the walkway comes up so the septic service can access the tank lids and do their stinky thing.

Outer structure

The posts are 2′ into the ground and 6′ above ground. There are 3 levels of 6″ 2×6 to make the sides. The structure is divided into 4 planting beds by two walkways, which run east-west and south-north. (The east-west walkway hides the tank lids.)

Chicken wire keeps underground predators out, and once the picket fencing was up and painted, we stapled more chicken wire to the inside of the frame to keep rabbits out. 3″ of gravel was laid down under the walkways for additional drainage.

There are four doors for entering the garden, one in each of the four cardinal directions. I later painted them in the four elemental colors to match, yellow-east, red-south, blue-west and green-north. Brian put a lot of time and engineering into building this structure. I wanted it to be 8 sided to represent the wheel of the year,

and I wanted 4 garden sections. I also wanted the 4 gates so that entry into the garden from any side of the garden would make it easier to work in. I did as much as I could. I helped with the concrete pouring, holding boards while they were drilled and/or bolted together, and I put down the walkways. Then of course, 18″ of rich garden soil had to be brought in. Voila!

In the Beginning . . . East to North

A tour of the landscape, 2005, from east, around the back and ending in the north. Cause you always move east to north, which is why the house faces east, but that’s another conversation entirely.

The Spruce tree to the right of the picture is about 8 feet tall, 2″caliber. It was all Brian and I could do to get it out of the truck , roll it across the ground and get it into the hole we dug for it. Not to mention the fact that all the “dirt/soil” on this property is really clay, with layers of gravel, because there used to be a road through the south side of the property, with additional layers of this heavy dark brown clay, that is literally impenetrable with anything but an industrial auger. Seriously, if you’re spending time looking at future pictures of this garden, I want you to appreciate the effort it took to dig each and every hole! Seriously! Appreciate me!

The tree to the left is a catalpa. Seriously expensive! We bought 2 of them, same size, from Paulino Garden’s in 32 gallon buckets. We looked all over town for catalpas, and Paulinos was the only place that had them – so we splurged. They were so heavy that they had to be professionally delivered. Lots of prayers were given to those two trees.

Moving around to the south side, we put in three Red Maples, in between the berms, in two different varieties. I wanted to have a wall of fire! on the south side of the property. They were certainly beautiful, for about 3 years. More on that later.

Oh, and the berms: our neighbor to the west, Roy, owned an excavation business. He brought in 110 semi-truck loads of fill dirt for us, (YES One hundred and Ten) dumped it and shaped it into berms with his skid-steer. I wish I had a video of Roy on the skid-steer, he was an expert and a bit of a dare devil. He did the dirt work for us in exchange for 6000 sq.ft. of our property in the far west end. There used to be an odd triangle piece of land that extended from the back of the property, and towards his property, along the fence boundary of the property directly behind us to the north (Jason and Amy). I had been pondering what we were going to do with it, because it was very exposed, and anytime I walked that pie-shaped slice of land, I felt like I was invading my neighbors yard. So it worked out perfectly to sign over that portion of the lot to him, in exchange for $1000’s of dollars worth of dirt. Just one of the many serendipitous events that have come our way.

Also, on the south side is the beginnings of the willow garden. The large light green shrubs are actually the only native plants to be found on this property, other than weeds. Ap-parently, there had once been an irrigation pipe that ran diagonally under our property from the reservoir at the north/west end of the neighborhood, across town for several miles to a farm. While the farm was active, the willows apparently tapped into the pipe and were able to grow here, in this desolate, dry place.

Since they were the only native thing growing here, I decided to keep them and make a garden around them to honor their tenacity and the land spirits. The buckets are holding space for additional shrubs yet to be purchased and/or planted. (Something I did to help me plan how many plants i needed.)

After the south Maples and berms were installed, I brought home some tree cuttings to make seating for a fire pit. This was the first sacred space to be created in the garden. I found the log cuttings piled on the sidewalk in someone’s front yard. I knocked on the door and asked if I could have them, and they were only too happy to help me load them up.

Moving to the west: the west boundary of our property is 350 feet from the back door, so it’s a ways out there.

Looking west you can see the straight lines of green things growing, weeds. These are the drainage lines of the leech field, the tank covers can be seen in the foreground. We built the herb garden over the tank covers to hide them. You can see this process in the next post – In the Beginning . . . Herb Garden.

Looking West. (west berm not in place yet)

Making our way to the north side, we are still in the process of bringing in fill dirt and shaping berms.

We planted birch and oak trees this first year. The tree in the 25 gallon green bucket is a red oak. We purchased most of our trees in this size, because Brian and I could move and plant them ourselves.

The womb of the earth. This is one of the most sacred objects in the garden. I found this piece of wood at the tree yard where I purchased the log for my story pole. It was a focal point in our Aurora Garden as well. (Sorry no pictures, we didn’t have a digital camera till 2004, and I’m too lazy to dig out old photos and copy them and digitize them . . . ) Anyway, I placed the womb up against the north berm.

I knew this installation would evolve over time as the garden developed, and I had not yet made the determination as to how the Womb of the Earth area would be completed, i just knew she would be in the north, in the center.

A view of the back of the house. I look back at our two patio chairs, being held down by cinder blocks, sitting in front of our portable fire pit, and I have to laugh. How pathetic it looks. But we sat out there after dark, this first year, admiring the beautiful view of the night stars. (You can’t star gaze in the back yard now, there’s too much light contamination from all the construction that’s been done near I25 to the west of us.) Sigh.

All these plants (in buckets next to the house) were taken from our house in Aurora. There are still about that many left at my friend Jackie’s house. When we moved I dug up and/or divided almost every plant I had in that first garden, potted them up and over-wintered them in Jackie’s back yard. These are the beginnings of the butterfly garden and the herb garden.

Continuing to the farthest north/east corner of the property you can see the other 8′ Spruce. She is the partner of the one on the south side. According to Feng Shui, it is auspicious to balance the energies surrounding one’s home. She is placed exactly the same distance from the house and from the street as her partner to the south. It was interesting that both of these trees were purchased at the same time from a tree lot on south Sante Fe, that was going out of business. They are both blue spruces.

However, the one in the south/ east is much more scraggly shaped, and much more green, and much leaner looking than the one in the north. At the time they were planted, they both looked exactly the same. It took a good 5 years for them to identify themselves, and their gender. They both have their own unique energy, and Bless the Gods! I somehow got them in the right location, the male tree in the south/east and the female tree in the north/east. I love how even when I don’t have everything figured out, I can count on my guides, or the land spirits to make sure everything gets placed where it needs to be.

On another note, I remember one of our neighbors shaking her head at us, as she walked by the day we were planting these two spruces. I asked her what she thought was so humorous. She said: “Look at you two, with the tape measure and everything. It’s just a tree, plant it! And besides, it should be closer to the house.” I walked her over to the tree we were planting and explained the appropriate distance from the house and the driveway for planting this spruce. I explained to her that this tree will be 25-30 feet in diameter at the bottom once it’s mature, so therefore it needs to be at least 20′ from the house, to make room for a walkway between the tree and the north side of the house. She just looked at me like I was crazy. WELL! she doesn’t live here anymore, and 3 of the trees she planted in her yard were torn out, because they were encroaching on the garage. Sometimes, I just want to slap people! I much prefer the company of plants.

In the Beginning . . . we need a driveway!

We purchased our home in Brighton 12-30-2004. I couldn’t wait for spring so I could get started with building my garden. It took 6 months to build the house (Morrison Homes in case anyone cares – they were great to work with). And during that time I generated an initial garden plan. I had it mapped out in my mind, and on paper, what I wanted to do with the space, what would go in the east, south, west and north of the garden, where the driveway would be, what would be lawn, what would be garden, where the largest anchoring trees would go, and how the boundaries would be marked and warded.

The plan has changed some as time has passed, but the basic bones of the plan remain in tact. Time, money, nature and happenstance all come to the drawing board. So here we go, from the ground up!

Brian had the time of his life playing with all the heavy equipment we had to bring in to do the initial land shaping. He leveled and shaped the area which would be the 1/2 moon driveway, and cleared and screened the areas to the north and south of what would be the lawn area.

Next the driveway was designed and laid out by Brian. The dimensions were determined by me to be in multiples of 4′. 4 is the numerological identity of the property, so as much as is possible, everything in the design is based around the number 4. Thus, the driveway is 12′ wide at the tight ends where it meets the culverts, and 24′ wide at the widest part where it opens up to the garages.

The framing was laid out and the concrete poured. The builder is only required to pour a parking pad (concrete directly in front of the garages) and a narrow path from the driveway to the steps leading up to the front door. In our case, this created a narrow, and very sharp corner to navigate; not to mention – ugly, bad feng shui, non-functional future landscaping.

Connecting the driveway to the front steps

I could go on. I drive around the neighborhood and see soo many of my neighbors who’s houses still have this original, contractor limited design. Shudder.

Added the curved section of concrete to gracefully connect the driveway with the front steps.

Over time, we laid down 90 tons of gravel aggregate in the driveway to compact and stabilize the soil.