Friday, August 27, 2010

Living Wall


A planter with a twist. It's made to hang on the side of the house, or an outside wall or fence. The compartments tip downward to hold the soil in. Filled with succulents, it requires little watering. You can arrange as many of these cube as you want to fill an area. I'd love a 3 x 3 group hanging. I've planting trailing sedums along the outside edges and lower edge of this one so as it fills it will spill over the edges.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Have a seat.....



And two more benches in what we call 'farmland'. We park some of the yard work implements here too.

Have a seat.....


And our canopy in the side yard

Have a seat.....


And our back pergola, one of our favorite spots. Every place you sit, you get a different view of the yard.

Have a seat.....


And our back canopy, although we haven't put the canopy on it in a couple of years.
We like the structure.

Have a seat.....


Another bench tucked in along the path

Have a seat.....


And in the secret garden. Note the broken fence. We think the same bear comes in the yard all the time. This is his favorite exit.

Have a seat.....


And this is the front pergola

Have a seat.....


And here is another seating area near the end of the driveway.

Have a seat.....


We like our little seating areas scattered throughout the yard. You are never too far
from a place to rest.

This is a new swing we bought over the 4th of July weekend. Made by some Amish people that have a produce stand near here.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Less Lawn



Some new flower beds Gary has been working on the past couple of weeks. He told me I was not to plant anything until he gave me the 'all clear'. Who? Me?? He's all done now and I can start to fill them up. This area actually gets a little sun too.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Hosta Blue Angel



She's an older variety, but a big girl. Hosta Blue Angel can reach a mature width of
6 feet with flower scapes reaching 4 feet.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

arisaema Ringens



You can see some smart little spider has made a trap for himself.

peony Karl Rosenfeld




It just glows in the shade.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

arisaema speciosum


This one is going to be tall. Tag says is will grow up to 24" but it's already over 30" tall. Love the stem, looks like snake skin.

Hosta Sum Total


Hosta Sum Total is a sport of h. Sum and Substance. Ultramarine is the blue hosta about to be devoured by Sum Total. I guess I need to move Ultramarine.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

arisaema Kiushianum


This one is cool with it's long whip coming out like a snake's tongue.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Hosta Creek



My friend Suzie, sent me this Castle. Of course, the Queen does need a castle.
I need to pick up some crushed glass to make a moat around the castle.

And a gnome living in a tree trunk

Hosta Creek


And here is Hosta Creek today

Monday, May 17, 2010

Arisaema Sikokianum

Asian Jack in Pulpit. Now I hope it will set seeds. I've read it produces a lot of seeds but a very low rate of germination. This particular variety can reach a mature height of 30 inches. One of the plants I have added along Hosta Creek.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Another year, another May, another freeze


Yes, again. Monday night we went below freezing for a short time. Not as much damage as last year, but the bigger hosta suffered the most. Drat! And they were looking so good too.
Dreamweaver pictured, before the freeze.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Arisaema Serratum

Cleaning up in the spring is a major job and will wear you out. It's important to rest often.
Here we see arisaema serratum emerging. I'll be adding about 10 more arisaema varieties
to Hosta Creek this spring. We had a couple of days of really warm weather and a lot of plants are sprouting. Nights are still very cool though. Just hope we don't get a frost.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Spring?




It was snowing two weeks ago and now it's 80 degrees. I've got lots of daffodils coming into bloom. Today they are swooning from the heat. It's wonderful to see all the perennials coming back to life. We still have a big job of cleaning up leaves and branches from the winter, but we try to get a little done each day.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Hosta Creek




Well, it's not really a creek, it seldom has standing water. It's really just a diversion ditch across the back edge of our property. The area is slightly lower than the neighbors yard and was flooding during heavy rains. So hubby made this slight ditch to divert the water run off into the woods and down to the street ditch. Hosta Creek is 100 ft with 2-3 ft on either side of it. It's mostly shady with a few spots of dappled shade as the sun passes overhead during the day.
And you can see the fence along the property line to keep the deer out of the yard.

These photos were taken in late summer 07. Since then, I've been planting hostas and arisaema, daffy's, tiarellas and other plants along both sides. This year, I'll be adding more shade plants such as tricyrtis and epimediums, ligularia and brunnera.
So, these are the 'before' pictures of Hosta Creek. And in a month or so, we'll start to see what it looks like this year.