Anyone else here a gardening extremist?

[Whateverist]

I begged for help awhile back to try to combat this horrid infestation.

http://www.religiousforums.com/threads/weeds-weeds-and-more-weeds-help.64278/#post-1124753
and this one...
http://www.religiousforums.com/threads/visions-from-paradise-spring-2009.79924/#post-1524677
and this one....

http://www.religiousforums.com/threads/images-from-paradise-1-of-3.72044/#post-1314122

You kidder. You don't have an infestation of anything you shouldn't want. Personally I like plants that want to be there. Just be careful with a few because they're very hard to remove once invited.

Where do you garden. The siding reminds me a little of England but I'm guessing you're here in the states somewhere. Nice to cyber meet you.

 

[Buttercup]

The lavender, tubular flowers belong to an Iochroma cultivar .. a plant that needs a mild climate in terms of both cold and heat. It blooms nearly year around here in the coastal San Francisco bay area, only shutting down for our occasional heat wave and for the coldest part of winter. The other is Verbascum 'Southern Charm' which I found at Annie's.

Ahhh, thanks! It's the Verbascum that I thought was so pretty. It's nice to know they grow in California because I live in Paso Robles. We're classified as zone 8B and while we have quite the variance in temps from winter through summer, I'd give them a try because they're definitely worth a shot.

Hope you enjoy your business and that you're doing well with it. My wife was the only gardener here for the first ten years or so we were together. She'd point to a spot and I'd dig a hole for another hybrid tea rose, all the while threatening that it would die if she counted on me for watering. But she's an artist who works a lot in her studio and had no trouble handing the garden off to me as I got more interested. I do like some roses but am unwilling to use pesticides or to treat for the legion of diseases so many are prone to. Plus they are water hogs. I still have some and am working up the nerve to get rid of more of hers. With the draught, they're hard to justify, especially when there are so many great plants which can thrive with less and even none at all.

The way I keep water usage down is by making very wide pathways and zoning plants by water usage. We have a year around creek on our northern border and someday I'd like to work out a way to pump it up for irrigation. Probably couldn't do it legally though.

My business is doing very well, thank you. I hope your wife is still having fun out in the garden.

My last garden of significance was when I lived in Oregon. We had 2.5 acres with our own well so I didn't have to worry about water. The only roses I purchased were from Heirloom Roses out of St. Paul, Oregon. They're root grown roses which makes them heartier than grafted roses and they're virus-free which means much less maintenance. Plus, if they freeze down to the ground, they'll still come back because of being cultivated from root stock. Their roses are superior to any tea rose hybrids I've ever bought. If you've never heard of them, here's their website.
http://www.heirloomroses.com/

Thanks for sharing your garden pics!

 

[YmirGF]

You kidder. You don't have an infestation of anything you shouldn't want. Personally I like plants that want to be there. Just be careful with a few because they're very hard to remove once invited.

Where do you garden. The siding reminds me a little of England but I'm guessing you're here in the states somewhere. Nice to cyber meet you.

My island paradise is in the Canadian Pacific North West. I was a long time resident of Vancouver, BC (born and raised there).

 

[Whateverist]

My island paradise is in the Canadian Pacific North West. I was a long time resident of Vancouver, BC (born and raised there).

I'll bet you know this place we camped a long time back, 1987 maybe. It is one of your provincial parks called Hot Springs Cove. To get there we had to drive across Vancouver island after crossing to Naimamo from Vancouver by ferry. We drove as far north as you can drive to the town of Tofino where we caught an indian motorboat headed north for another hour. They let us off at a dock from which we walked a mile on a plank pathway through rain forest. The camping was completely primitive and much to our chagrin the only water was the sulfury water of the hot spring - yuck. Luckily there was a young computer game writer from Britten camping the same nights we did and he'd brought along some good beer which he did share with us.

But the experience was pretty wonderful. Nine foot high water fall with a wide curtain falling to the tide pools below. You could choose the temperature you like just by sitting closer to the source or closer to the ocean.

 

[Ingledsva]

I begged for help awhile back to try to combat this horrid infestation.

http://www.religiousforums.com/threads/weeds-weeds-and-more-weeds-help.64278/#post-1124753
and this one...
http://www.religiousforums.com/threads/visions-from-paradise-spring-2009.79924/#post-1524677
and this one....

http://www.religiousforums.com/threads/images-from-paradise-1-of-3.72044/#post-1314122

Nice garden and pictures. It must take a lot of work to keep it looking nice. I particularly like the staircases, as I am going to have to put some in on my hill.

*

 

[Ingledsva]

I had no idea there were so many other maladjusted gardeners out there.

Some ramblings.....
It takes a long time for stuff to mature, eh?
My hostas take 5-12 years to mature.
And trees....don't get me started on trees!
At my age, I plant a lot of catalpas (fast growers).
All the heavy stuff is done, so I sold my off-road forklift.
I have a lot of concrete penguins around the place.
They guard it.
The lawn damage from installing the new septic field is now fully repaired.
I build cairns....just can't stop.

LOL! Sounds like home.

We just had to do some work on the septic system.

We still have our John Deere backhoe which helped with the building of our house. It's great for clearing, upkeep, and lifting big plants.

*

 

[Terese]

I want to pursue a hobby in gardening. Your backyard looks very pleasant @FaithNotBelief!

 

[Whateverist]

It is indeed on steroids.

Here is the Golden-Rain or chain tree in glaring sun.

Just realized I never thanked you for these photos. I love this and would grow it if I thought I could but I suspect it would be thirsty and stingy if not allowed to drink its fill. I wonder how you came upon this plant yourself. Also, I like that I can click on your photo and it enlarges. Mine don't do that. I wonder how you do that?

 

[Whateverist]

Hey it would be great if anyone else who is into gardening would go ahead and post some photos of their own. It could be of your own garden or someone else's. I belong to a couple of garden groups and get to visit a lot of gardens. I'm in charge of organizing garden visits for Calhort (California Horticultural Society). I'm a member of the Hortisexuals (aka Bay Area Horticultural Society) only because they like my garden well enough. Most members are garden designers, artisans, care takers, artists, photographers or in some other way make their living in horticulture. We're mostly on the West Coast and the three founders are all here in the bay area. Here are some photos from a garden I was excited to see for the first time this past spring. The opportunity to see it was the inspiration for a tour I put together for Calhort.

 

[YmirGF]

Hey it would be great if anyone else who is into gardening would go ahead and post some photos of their own. It could be of your own garden or someone else's. I belong to a couple of garden groups and get to visit a lot of gardens. I'm in charge of organizing garden visits for Calhort (California Horticultural Society). I'm a member of the Hortisexuals (aka Bay Area Horticultural Society) only because they like my garden well enough. Most members are garden designers, artisans, care takers, artists, photographers or in some other way make their living in horticulture. We're mostly on the West Coast and the three founders are all here in the bay area. Here are some photos from a garden I was excited to see for the first time this past spring. The opportunity to see it was the inspiration for a tour I put together for Calhort.

Magnificent @FaithNotBelief Since writing previously, I have sold the property on Gabriola and moved to Vancouver Island, on which, I am very close to the exact centre of the island. I bought a tiny house and parked it on a 5 acre plot. I do not have a garden, per se, any more, as I am still doing the rough landscaping on the property. Perhaps I'll post some shots. My nearest neighbour is about 1/2 a mile away and I am on the top of a hill surrounded by lush pine, spruce and cedars. It's a miserable life, but someone has got to do it. *giggles*

 

[Whateverist]

Magnificent @FaithNotBelief Since writing previously, I have sold the property on Gabriola and moved to Vancouver Island, on which, I am very close to the exact centre of the island. I bought a tiny house and parked it on a 5 acre plot. I do not have a garden, per se, any more, as I am still doing the rough landscaping on the property. Perhaps I'll post some shots. My nearest neighbour is about 1/2 a mile away and I am on the top of a hill surrounded by lush pine, spruce and cedars. It's a miserable life, but someone has got to do it. *giggles*

Pics would be great. We probably drove by you on our drive from Naimamo to Torino. Of all the Canadian gardens I’ve seen Van Susen in Vancouver was right up there with the best of the Victoria gardens.

Not sure how pictures work here now but on the Senior Forums I use now that runs on the same platform you can post five photos directly. Guess I’ll try one to see.

Nope at least not from my phone. Probably could from my lap top with BB code.

Yep that still works but I’m not tech savvy enough to do it on my phone.

Plenty or too much, but just for fun:

 

[Revoltingest]

I've done a little landscaping.
I play with 4.75 acres.

That’s exactly the size of Revoltistan.

 

[Brickjectivity]

But I don't yet know how to get pix here.

The easiest way is to drag an image file from File Explorer onto the actual post in the browser. Do it before you type anything into your post. You may be asked how you want your picture to be sized (thumbnail or full size). Once the picture is in, type around it and submit as usual. The browser and RF should take care of the rest. Of course it doesn't always work for every kind of image file, and there is a tiny curse that sucks part of your life away.

 

[Audie]

I extremely have a little pachypodium
in the window of my flat.

 

[rocala]

@FaithNotBelief thank you for the wonderful pics. They are truly inspiring.
The only gardening that I have done is in some places owned by a spiritual/eco charity. It has given me enormous satisfaction. My dream is to live somewhere rural and take up the hobby properly.

Here is a pic from a garden that I have worked on. It was taken at sunrise.

 

[Whateverist]

@FaithNotBelief thank you for the wonderful pics. They are truly inspiring.
The only gardening that I have done is in some places owned by a spiritual/eco charity. It has given me enormous satisfaction. My dream is to live somewhere rural and take up the hobby properly.

Here is a pic from a garden that I have worked on. It was taken at sunrise.

View attachment 79544

That is my favorite time of day. Nice to look out past the garden to stretch of. water too.

It is also my favorite time to walk. I often used to drive to Fort Funston Beach in San Francisco very early to miss traffic.

Other times we'll walk in the Eastbay hills in the morning. There was no descernable voice coming from the clouds in the first one, just sun rise coming up above the ridge above.

From the other side of that ridge looking East toward Mount Diablo.

More often pics in my garden in the morning. From when we were getting smoke from the fires it did make for some weird morning skies.

Somebody, stop me!

 

[Rachel Rugelach]

All of these gardening extremist photos are glorious!

I'm a bit of an extremist with my own garden, and my gardening extremism is geared to completely hiding my house behind a living wall of hydrangeas and evergreens in order to create as much privacy as possible.

This is the entrance to a curving walkway that leads up to my hidden front door.

This is a secret sitting area within that pathway that leads to my front door:

And this is all that you can see of the front of my house from the road. My gardening goal was to make my house disappear from sight. And I can stay comfortably hidden within.

 

[Whateverist]

All of these gardening extremist photos are glorious!

I'm a bit of an extremist with my own garden, and my gardening extremism is geared to completely hiding my house behind a living wall of hydrangeas and evergreens in order to create as much privacy as possible.

This is the entrance to a curving walkway that leads up to my hidden front door.

View attachment 79631

This is a secret sitting area within that pathway that leads to my front door:

View attachment 79632

And this is all that you can see of the front of my house from the road. My gardening goal was to make my house disappear from sight. And I can stay comfortably hidden within.

View attachment 79634

I love the way it cloaks your house and the secretive feel to the entrance. Looks like you’ve been there a while. There is no substitute for age in a garden.

 

[Rachel Rugelach]

I love the way it cloaks your house and the secretive feel to the entrance. Looks like you’ve been there a while. There is no substitute for age in a garden.

Thanks! Well, hydrangeas grow very quickly, so I guess I've been at my property long enough. The limelight variety of hydrangea (which is what I mostly have, in addition to climbing hydrangea) is especially suited to Long Island. Limelight hydrangeas are my favorite because their large, conical blooms start out the color of lime green, then turn brilliant white (they are starting to turn white right now, as you can see in these pictures I took yesterday), and by fall the blooms turn a delicate shade of pink.

I like the symbolic meaning ascribed to hydrangeas in the language of flowers: "Thank you for understanding." Another meaning is "heartlessness," but I'll take that to mean "heartless towards those who violate my privacy."

 

[Whateverist]

I think you might appreciate how cummings described a home/house in the second of his Six Nonlectures on page 21 of his book by the same name:

"For the benefit of those of you who can’t imagine what the word “home” implies, or what a home could possibly be like, I should explain that the idea of a home is the idea of privacy. But again - what is privacy? You probably never heard of it. Even supposing that (from time to time) walls exist around you, those walls are no longer walls; they are the merriest pseudosolidities, perpetually penetrated by the perfectly predatory collective organs of sight and sound. Any apparent somewhere which you may inhabit is always at the mercy of ruthless and omnivorous everywhere. The notion of a house, as one single definite place particular and unique place to come into, from the anywhereish world outside - that notion must strike you as fantastic. You have been brought up to believe that a house, or a universe, or a you, or any other object, is only seemingly solid: really (and you are realists, whom nobody and nothing can deceive) each seeming solidity is collection of large holes - and in the case of a house, the larger the holes the better; since the principal function of a modern house is to admit whatever might otherwise remain outside."

It continues of course but not about homes and houses or even gardens.