Anyone else here a gardening extremist?

[Whateverist]

One of the longest lasting pastimes and sources of joy in my life has been the making of my garden .. along with visiting gardens others have made. More than twenty years in I like it better than ever.

Back when my wife was the driving force in the garden, I only wanted to grow things that fed you. Now the garden is my own plaything and I'm not interested in growing anything I can find at the grocers. Being on a bird flyway I originally started shaping the garden to make it attractive to birds. Moved on from there to attracting bees, butterflies and beneficials generally. Then the aesthetic possibilities starting calling out to me and the garden has become a compromise between pleasing the winged life and pleasing myself ever since.

Here are a few snaps of my garden through the years. Not quite sure how to do this but we shall find out.

 

[suncowiam]

One of the longest lasting pastimes and sources of joy in my life has been the making of my garden .. along with visiting gardens others have made. More than twenty years in I like it better than ever. Here are a few are a few snaps from around

Back when my wife was the driving force in the garden, I only wanted to grow things that fed you. Now the garden is my own plaything and I'm not interested in growing anything I can find at the grocers. Being on a bird flyway I originally started shaping the garden to make it attractive to birds. Moved on from there to attracting bees, butterflies and beneficials generally. Then the aesthetic possibilities starting calling out to me and the garden has become a compromise between pleasing the winged life and pleasing myself ever since.

Here are a few snaps of my garden through the years. Not quite sure how to do this but we shall find out.

This is so awesome! Thanks for sharing the pics. I see you have a pond too. Really nice.

What climate zone do you live in? Is water an issue for you?

I live in California and I would love more plants in my yard but the drought makes that a bit difficult.

 

[Buttercup]

Gorgeous! Your love of gardening is very evident and you have a great eye for design.

What kind of flower is in the fourth photo down from the top? It's lovely.

I used to spend half my day out in the yard back in the days before I started my business. I had a rose garden with 75 roses and perennials everywhere else. I miss those days!

 

[Revoltingest]

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

 

[Whateverist]

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

I'm sometimes envious of those with little standard sized lots. I toil away for more than twenty years (around full time teaching of course) but this place has never felt like it all reflected my best attempt to tease a garden from it. I've had friends get that feeling after one big push, though of course they have to wait for it to age in like everyone else. Gawd help you though, unless you can hire an army of help.

 

[Ingledsva]

That is a beautiful yard.

I have around five acres on the beach, - but live in Southeast Alaska, - which is costal rainforest. It is very hard to maintain landscaping in a rainforest environment. I swear the trees and weeds grow several inches a day. LOL!

We do keep lawns on both sides of the house, and have cherry and apple trees. Oh, and flowers along the driveway, and a Golden-Rain tree.

*

 

[Whateverist]

Gorgeous! Your love of gardening is very evident and you have a great eye for design.

What kind of flower is in the fourth photo down from the top? It's lovely.

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.

I used to spend half my day out in the yard back in the days before I started my business. I had a rose garden with 75 roses and perennials everywhere else. I miss those days!

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.

 

[Whateverist]

That is a beautiful yard.

I have around five acres on the beach, - but live in Southeast Alaska, - which is costal rainforest. It is very hard to maintain landscaping in a rainforest environment. I swear the trees and weeds grow several inches a day. LOL!

We do keep lawns on both sides of the house, and have cherry and apple trees. Oh, and flowers along the driveway, and a Golden-Rain tree.

*

I hear your growing season is like something on steroids. I wonder if you harvest any more of your fruit than we do. Our squirrels are big ones. Would love to see your Golden-rain tree in bloom. I think I've seen photos of one in a famous English garden.

 

[Whateverist]

This is so awesome! Thanks for sharing the pics. I see you have a pond too. Really nice.

What climate zone do you live in? Is water an issue for you?

I live in California and I would love more plants in my yard but the drought makes that a bit difficult.

Yes I'm sympathetic about the draught. I'm in Berkeley, across the bay from San Francisco. While we're not quite the desert L.A. is, we also don't get enough water. I mostly compromise by keeping the actual square footage I plant to a minimum and by zoning my plantings by water use. Officially I only have one area which receives regular water. But during the occasional hot spell I cheat. I was really troubled by the whether to water or not going into last season until I thought about who all benefits from my garden. We get lots of birds through and the garden was largely put together to that end by providing them with shelter, food and verge areas. If I let things die they'd lose out too. So that is how I justify it to myself anyhow. There is a year around creek on our northern border which isn't potable and I hope to devise a way to pump water from irrigating from there eventually. After it goes under the streets in out front, it is under ground until it reaches the bay in about a mile. It hasn't ever gone dry, fingers crossed.

 

[suncowiam]

Yes I'm sympathetic about the draught. I'm in Berkeley, across the bay from San Francisco. While we're not quite the desert L.A. is, we also don't get enough water. I mostly compromise by keeping the actual square footage I plant to a minimum and by zoning my plantings by water use. Officially I only have one area which receives regular water. But during the occasional hot spell I cheat. I was really troubled by the whether to water or not going into last season until I thought about who all benefits from my garden. We get lots of birds through and the garden was largely put together to that end by providing them with shelter, food and verge areas. If I let things die they'd lose out too. So that is how I justify it to myself anyhow. There is a year around creek on our northern border which isn't potable and I hope to devise a way to pump water from irrigating from there eventually. After it goes under the streets in out front, it is under ground until it reaches the bay in about a mile. It hasn't ever gone dry, fingers crossed.

I'm from San Jose so howdy neighbor!

Did you build that pond yourself? Is it a lot of maintenance? I've been debating to do this for a while.

 

[Revoltingest]

My pond is very low maintenance.
It's large enuf that it's self maintaining.
It was once a high maintenance swimming pool.
But now I actually enjoy it.

I grow mostly....
Catalpas
Norway spruces
Blue spruces
White pines
Redbuds
Dogwoods
Tulip magnolias
Hostas...a couple dozen varieties
Gaillardia (blanket flowers)
Echinacea (coneflowers)
Asparagus (my main veggie)
Daylilies
Black eyed susans
In the pond.....
Water lilies
Oxygenating plants
Others I forget the names of

 

[Ingledsva]

I hear your growing season is like something on steroids. I wonder if you harvest any more of your fruit than we do. Our squirrels are big ones. Would love to see your Golden-rain tree in bloom. I think I've seen photos of one in a famous English garden.

It is indeed on steroids.

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

And a close-up.

These are flowers, including wild ones, that I didn't plant. They go all the way down the driveway to the house which you can see below in the picture.

View through our cherry trees in winter.

 

[Revoltingest]

Your pond is bigger than mine.

 

[YmirGF]

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

 

[Whateverist]

I'm from San Jose so howdy neighbor!

Did you build that pond yourself? Is it a lot of maintenance? I've been debating to do this for a while.

Cool. Well warm really, isn't it? I have friends who attend meetings of Western Hort down your way. They're also active in the Mediterranean Society.

I did build it myself after years of fretting over the many people who told me they regretted something about their own. Mine too has issues and now that I'm retired maybe I'll get around to addressing them. Maybe.

 

[Whateverist]

My pond is very low maintenance.
It's large enuf that it's self maintaining.
It was once a high maintenance swimming pool.
But now I actually enjoy it.

I grow mostly....
Catalpas
Norway spruces
Blue spruces
White pines
Redbuds
Dogwoods
Tulip magnolias
Hostas...a couple dozen varieties
Gaillardia (blanket flowers)
Echinacea (coneflowers)
Asparagus (my main veggie)
Daylilies
Black eyed susans
In the pond.....
Water lilies
Oxygenating plants
Others I forget the names of

I remember reading about someone who did something like this in a garden magazine. Somehow they chose plants which would keep the water clean and allow them to swim in it. My favorite swimming is in mountain waterholes along rivers. Pictures please and, if you're not in a witness protection program, perhaps a location?

 

[Revoltingest]

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.

 

[Revoltingest]

I remember reading about someone who did something like this in a garden magazine. Somehow they chose plants which would keep the water clean and allow them to swim in it. My favorite swimming is in mountain waterholes along rivers. Pictures please and, if you're not in a witness protection program, perhaps a location?

I'm in Ann Arbor (SE Michiganistan).
But I don't yet know how to get pix here.
I'm sure it's really easy.
But I'm really lazy & prone to procrastination.

 

[Whateverist]

I'm in Ann Arbor (SE Michiganistan).
But I don't yet know how to get pix here.
I'm sure it's really easy.
But I'm really lazy & prone to procrastination.

The way I'm doing it is by using flickr as the hosting site and then just transferring the BBCode version and posting it straight into the post. Then I cut away everything except for what's between the "[ IMG ] and the [ /IMG ] if that helps any. I tend to be technology adverse but my wife, at ten years my senior signs up for one-on-ones at the apple store every week. At 73 she is my go to techie.

 

[Whateverist]

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

We need help.