Category: 2016

Mad Hatter’s tea party patio

New flag stone patio
looking from the north, the patio is surrounded with xeric Prairie sage (Artemisia ludoviciana)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the Mad Hatter’s Table is tucked behind the tall Maximilian sunflower from August through first frost
Mom’s whimsical tea pots that she made for the Hatter’s table

A little help

Trimming the rabbit brush and Russian Sage on the north berm

Wrangling the pampas grass

Cutting back the Maximilians at the edge of the patio

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

South berm white sages, under control
Good job! Maximilians all trimmed down
Done
South dry water bed – DONE
Squash beds All tidied up
ALL DONE!

Wildlife – 2016

Blackbirds eating the sun flower seeds
Robin nest, front porch. The Robin’s have been nesting in this same nest for 4 years now
Rabbits, eating the lawn. they actually eat the grass right down to the roots, and leave big holes in the lawn

 

Bull snake. (not venomous)

 

 

 

St. Anthony’s cross in the Roses

 

 

 

Birds at the south feeder

 

Yellow headed black bird

 

Black birds

 

 

2016 Miscellany

Apricot Puntia
Korean dwarf lilacs, front porch

 

 

 

 

 

Hot wings Maple, dwarfed
The path from the front porch down the steps to the willow garden. Blue Spruce in the background

 

Mixed Iris, planted by the main bridge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Butterfly garden summer 2016
Rabbits, eating the lawn. they actually eat the grass right down to the roots, and leave big holes in the lawn

 

 

 

 

 

Red Twig Dogwood

 

 

 

Chopin crown Imperials (these made it two years and then died) 🙁

 

 

Front porch guardian

North wall guardian

Canadian Red Cherry, spring flowering

 

Orange and Purple tulips, under the Linden

 

Elephants in the wild flower garden

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robin, in the Linden tree
Tulips around the cupola

 

 

 

 

 

Pots of tulips on logs. (This was an idea for the water garden at the edge of the Dragon garden.) didn’t work out

 

 

Yellow stonecrop

 

 

 

 

Sunflowers
Purple ash and Red Oak in fall

 

Arum draculum
Womb of the Earth 2016

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Killdeer eggs laid in the river stone
Killdeer

 

 

Organization

Ok, this is not going to be the prettiest post, but I have a BIG garden, and during the year I make a BIG mess tending it.  I don’t always put things away where they should go, and then I acquire more things and don’t know where to put them so I just toss them somewhere, or I’m in the middle of three projects at the same time and don’t make time to put things away or organize in between.  Anyway, the garden storage area can really start looking like a mess. (I also have a storage area inside the garage for the chemicals, fertilizers, irrigation parts and things that shouldn’t be left outside.)  So here are some before and after pics:

North outside storage and materials area
Rear North storage area, after organization

 

 

 

 

 

Rear storage area, after
Rear garage storage area

 

 

 

 

 

All pretty now!

Rear garage storage area, after organization

Fire

Working my way around the Dragon garden, creating elemental representations in the space.  I was mesmerized by the Chihuli Exhibit at the Denver botanical Garden’s last year and have wanted to put up a wall of fire in my garden ever since I saw the one they had in their exhibit.

Chihuly exhibit, Denver Botanical Gardens, 3/2015.

When we built the curved bridges to go over the dry river beds we had a lot of wood left over, and several pieces that were either spear shaped or had a curve in them, due to how the bridge was laid out.  I asked Brian to trim them up in curvy, flame-like shapes.  He did a great job.  they sat around in buckets out behind the house for a year, till I got around to doing this project as one of our community work days.

Curvy cut pressure treated wood, for the flames

Before everyone came over Brian and Dug out trenches to delineate the space, laid out the weed barrier and then held it down with the pressure treated 2x6x10’s.

Trenching out the edge of the fire installation bed

 

 

Laying out and pinning down the weed barrier fabric

We had to hold the wood down in a vice to drill the 3/8″ holes into the wood, then we took them outside and had one person stand on them while another person pounded in the 3/8″ rebar.  This was really hard to do!  When they were done, they were taken to the fire display area and placed into the ground through the fabric.

Pushing in the wood flames, and painting them
Painting

 

 

 

 

 

I placed the longest flames first and then the medium and then the shortest.

In charge of cutting the fabric and pushing in the flames. Rebar had to be pounded into the ground first to make a hole.
Wellyssa, supervising the painting

 

 

 

 

 

We painted the flames with neon, outdoor paint, they glow in the sun shine.  Darkest colors at the tips and yellow and white at the bottom to symbolize a white/hot heat.

All the flames are in place

Lava rock added

We added 2″ of 2″dia lava rock throughout the flames to finish off the look.  It’s amazing, you can almost feel the flames.  Actually, something to know about lava rock, it holds a LOT of energy, myself and certain others can’t get within 6′ of it without getting dizzy. You can feel the movement of the rock, like a lava flow.

Blackberries

Putting in a trellis and fenced area for the blackberry vines.  they’ve been in the ground 2 years now and are starting to grow longer shoots.  We laid down fabric up next to the Garden of Pain and out from the Blackberry plants 6′ on both sides.

View from Blackberry trellis to back of house
The support wires are held on with eye bolts and turn-buckles

 

 

 

 

 

The trellis support wires are held on with eye bolts, turn-buckles and heavy duty wire, plastic coated.  Brian made the trellises, I designed them based on some pictures I saw online.  I added the pineapple finial on top which I’ve been keeping in a box in the garage for 20 years.  Seriously, I knew I would find the right purpose for those finials one of these days!  They look like a blackberry on top after being painted purple.  Ha!

Fabric to control weeds inside the perimeter of the fence and outside to keep grass from growing around and under the fence

I bought antique fencing which I found on Craig’s list.  I love it.   Painting was tedious, 2 coats of outdoor house paint,  in three colors.

More painting

 

 

 

 

 

 

painting the trellis
Completed trellis, fence, gate and gravel added

We secured the fencing to the 4×4 posts, added handmade, custom sized gates (to allow wheelbarrow access), and then put down 3″ of small gravel.

Done.

Waiting for Blackberries now . . . .

Garden of Pain

I wanted to create a space in the garden for contemplation of what is painful in life.  Gardens to me, sometimes feel like these extra-ordinary , falsely contrived paradises, where everything is prefect, where there are no weeds, and where people walk around smiling.  All that is very nice, and I must say that I love going to the Botanical Garden and reveling in it’s perfect beauty.

But my garden is a sacred place, and a place of transition and transformation.  Here I honor life in all it’s phases, in all of the seasons, both beautiful and harsh.  Here I honor love and joy, pain and sorrow.

Russian Olive thorns

I have a special place to meditate and commune with the land spirits and with the Fey, I have a space to celebrate and dance and drum in joy and companionship.  I also need a space to experience paid and sorrow, stillness and solitude.  This place I have named The Garden of Pain.  Here, I leave my pain and failure, my sorrow and my worries.

Locust thorn

I walk upon the path through the exceptionally thorny Rosa Rugosas and contemplate that which pains me; I walk the path as the thorny branches of the Locust and Russian Olive reach out and catch my clothing, reminding me to stop and not proceed through so quickly.

Here I leave my tears for the Fey and for the Roses to feed upon.

The sand laid on the fabric

The beginning

 

Placing the stones in the concrete
Finished section

The stones are being placed in the middle of the sanded walkway because I am planning to add a mixed media design around the central walk way, on both sides.

The materials will be in congruent and installed over time as they are discovered or acquired.

 

Completed larger middle section

Turning the corner was difficult, the large stones had to be cut with the tile saw so the corner could be accomplished.

A gap is left on either side of the cobblestone dry river bed.

On the right, the two sections end 2′ before the dry river bed stones.  Eventually, there will  be a bridge here to connect the sections while allow-ing overflow from the pond and/or water feature to move through the GoP and into the main dry river bed drainage system.

Tree of Life
Red stone is set into the sand in a graceful arch to connect the end of the granite stone walkway with the beginning of the Garden of Pain.

 

These stepping stones bring you into the Garden of Pain.  Some will hop-scotch their way in, while others will spend time walking from Sephira to Sephira.

Looking towards the western end of the GoP

 

 

 

the end of the pave stone, connected to a footer at the gate

 

 

 

Brian built this simple arch way/trellis to support the gate and the Jasmine vine that is planted on either side of the gate.

The western Gate into, or out of, the GoP

 

 

Phase 1 complete, more to come.

 

 

 

Welcome dears, Come on in, soak the sand with all your tears,

prick a finger on the thorns, and bring an offering the path adorn.

 

 

November Roses

This summer seems to go on and on.  I am still pulling vegetables from the garden, the maximilians are still in bloom, and so are the roses.  It’s November!

There’s and old folk tradition that after Samhain, October 31st, anything not removed from the garden should remain there for the Fey.  But up until this October, there wasn’t that much left for the Fey anyway.  I decided to harvest the blessing of these late season veges and flowers and ask pardon from the Fey.  I left them some extra shiny things in the garden as payment.

These Roses were harvest mid November, before what would be the first hard freeze and snow fall of the season.

November Roses
November Roses

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And, still more November Roses. Who’d a thought?

Water feature?

I’ve been designing elemental gardens at the edges of the main sacred space, between the Dragons.  I’ve been having trouble figuring out what to do for water.  What I want is a shallow fountain that will continually circulate water and mist it downward from a trellis-like support above.  I’m still trying to talk my husband into that idea.

I set up some temporary bird baths to bring water to the area instead.  Then I noticed that the city was cutting down a large dead cottonwood tree at the end of the block.  So I asked Jester (who’s time I paid for) and my fired Don to come over and help me get enough log segments out of the ditch under the tree to make a better display in the water feature.

Hauling the logs home

We dug holes to stand the logs in, according to the individual size of each log, added some gravel for drainage and tucked in the logs.

Don and Jester unloading the logs and setting them in the holes

 

 

 

 

cutting to size and cutting off the pockey parts

 

 

 

I filled a set of fancy matching pots that I have been  saving for the right project with spring bulbs, and then tucked them inside of some larger black plastic pots, adding mulch for insulation between the pots.

Stumps in the ground, pots filled with bulbs, waiting for spring.

 

The fancy pots will get dug out of the bigger pots and placed on top of the logs.  Their flowers reaching upwards and green vines hanging down mimicking water flow.  we’ll have to see what it looks like.

Spring bulbs coming up! (2016)

After the bulbs faded, I replaced them with annuals. (2016)