Garden tours, Day 3, Part 1

A true Cottage Garden has no formal plan. It is just a riot of color, with plants close to each other. If you let the plants self-seed themselves where they will, you will have no weeding to do ~ those weeds won't stand a chance against such closely-packed in plants.

I read the above quote and wrote it down, I'm definitely not a gardener that needs everything in "it's place" - things around here grow where they want to and I pull self seeders like weeds just to have room to walk or plant something else I desire. Can't say I don't have weeds though :-) This morning's coffee walk has so many photos (my apologies to those with slower internet) that I broke it down in 2 postings and left out the coffee cup (it was a big one for this tour)! Our first glimpse of the garden as we walk around the garage to the backyard.
Let's take this path towards the rock...
we turn at the pond and...
head towards the cabin.
Here we will stop and look back to where we just came from...
before heading to the back arbor.
At the arbor, we look back towards the cabin...
before heading back up to the bridge...
we pass the back side of the rock fountain on our way.
At the bridge, we take a look back towards the arbor...
before turning and heading towards the gazebo.
We stop to take a look at the main feeder area...
before continuing on to the glider, where we can sit and rest awhile.

Garden tours, Day 3, Part 2...

We've finished that coffee in the glider and are ready to continue the tour. From the gazebo, we can see the tamarix in full bloom...

and look back to the path from the bridge.
Next we will walk over the dry creek bed to the red chair...
and from here we get a view of the "bird girl" (I love her purse) and a birdbath.
We take one last look up towards the gazebo...
before heading towards the side arbor.
At the arbor we take a look back towards the red chair and...
continue along the back side of the house...
where we get a great view of the pond.
Finally, we reach the end of the paths and look back towards the side arbor. Did you notice a tv theme in this garden? The gazebo is made from an upside down satellite dish and this arbor is an old UHF antenna.
We are back to the patio...
and we get to sit and enjoy the view.
Next week, I'll take you around the perimeter of this garden and highlight some of my favorite flowers and bird visitors. Have a wonderful weekend!

Garden tours, Day 2...

Every house where love abides
And friendship is a guest,
Is surely home, and home sweet home
For there the heart can rest.
(Henry Van Dyke)

I took my coffee out front this morning but quickly came back inside. It was dark & thundering and lightening and within minutes of being inside it was raining. I am not complaining as we need the moisture very badly! My cup reads "Oh, what a birdiful morning", but today it is a beautiful morning with the much needed rains. No worries though as I took all the photos yesterday since rain is in the forecast for the next several days...
I searched my albums and found a photo of my front landscape "before" all of our work. We started in April with a repair job that blossomed into new windows and siding that blossomed into a new front landscape. It was a lot of work and my muscles are much stronger from carrying all those blocks/pavers but the end result is worth it.
Gabi's playing hostess to show you the new front "courtyard" entrance...
she's even in the shot when I stepped back to show the whole front landscape.
This area along the driveway used to be rocks and a few planters. It is now my "rose garden" with 9 different roses, irises, daylilies and a few other plants.
The centerpiece is a Kyushu hydrangea tree and scattered throughout is my rock collection. A little known fact about me is I love rocks and bring one home from every vacation/state we travel to. Where's Ruger?
Did you spot ET? I actually found this rock on my brother's farm, those eyes aren't painted on...they are a natural coloration in the rock.
Next is the bed in the front, I have to find a better way to disguise the rain gauge :-)
This bed has a burning bush "standard" tree which is actually a shrub grafted onto a standard trunk. I'm looking forward to the bright red fall color show it will provide and since it is a standard it will not get taller just fuller on the top. I also added a Contorted Filbert (Corkscrew Hazel, Harry Lauder's Walking Stick) because I think the branches will be awesome winter interest, a small Pee Gee hydrangea tree and a "Hope for Humanity" rose. The budget was extended on this area so the rest of the plants were transplanted from the backyard.
Next is the low maintenance shrub garden planted in the retaining wall. In the front is a dwarf Korean Lilac tree followed by several Pygmy Globe arborvitae that they tell me will never need pruning. In the center of the arborvitae is the Tinkerbelle lilac I bought early this spring and on the far end is a Northern Gold Forsythia. My design choices are probably not what a "professional" would plant but my experience is you plant what you love for the most enjoyment.
Finding annuals to plant in the pots on the four pillars in mid-July was quite the challenge but I did find some scraggly ones at 75% off and hopefully soon they will fill out. I'm already looking forward to next spring and finding "fun" plants for these planters. This landscape is so new I just finished painting the post yesterday, I laughed when I noticed my protective wax paper showing in this photo :-)
Finally, we walk along the side of the garage which hasn't changed except for new free standing trellises. We didn't want to screw the old ones into our new siding.
Tomorrow we start the backyard...I hope you are enjoying the tours.

what was then....

I was so in the present moment the past was no longer part of me.
(Laurel Hoodwrit)

I shocked myself this morning when I was looking for a "before" photo of the front landscape to post on the front garden tour. This is what the angel garden/veggie looked like in the summer of 2005, I had actually forgotten how big it was compared to the small size it is now.
The arbor was actually designed to be the center of the garden and not on the very edge as it is now.
The big tree in the upper left background blew down in a storm this spring.
and I had to forfeit the huge lilac bush in the upper left background of this photo in order to completely remove it.
While it was great to have fresh veggies and lots of color in the middle of the yard, I don't miss all the extra work :-)

Look who showed up at the rock yesterday afternoon!
Were they here all along and just not coming to the feeders or the garden? Or did this one just bring his lady friend for a short vacation at the resort?

Garden tours, Day one...

Oh I believe there are angels among us.
Sent down to us from somewhere up above.
They come to you and me in our darkest hours.
To show us how to live, to teach us how to give.
To guide us with a light of love.
("Angels Among Us" lyrics, Alabama)

As promised, I'm taking you along on the next 3-4 days as I take my morning coffee walks through the gardens. This morning we head out to the center of the yard to the oldest of the gardens, the Angel Garden. It is now only 1/3 of the size it was when it was built in 1999, in memory of my dad. Jeff needed more room to turn trucks around on the yard so most of this garden had to go including the large attached veggie garden.
Pardon me, while I set down my cup of coffee. This morning I chose one of the "tea rose" cups that my parents received as a wedding gift in 1943. Dad has been gone 10 years and Mom 31 years this week.
I've showed you this weathered sign before, "Leave Room In Your Garden For Angels To Dance"...
but here is a little secret that hardly anyone has seen, if you sit in the glider and look up while you rock there is an inscription on the inside of the arbor behind the angel sign.
Ooh, I'm getting all sentimental here...let's move on and take a walk around for the tour. First the birds can get a drink surrounded in flowers and the cabinet in the back stores my hand tools and supplies...
This whole garden got an update this spring when I took out the rotted landscape timber and field rock edging and put in the recycled landscape blocks we removed from the front gardens. I'm not one to throw anything away...
next we come to the front corner. Here morning glories are slowly climbing the angel trellis and it is still early enough for the evening primrose blossoms to be open...
then we round the corner and head up the east side of the garden.
Next we come to the back where the extent of my veggie gardening is 2 tomato plants, climbing green beans, sage, rosemary & basil.
After rounding the veggie corner we come to the back of the arbor...
which is mostly yellow/blue right now.
Then it is back to the front and time for me to sit, finish my coffee and have my morning conversation with these two.

Tomorrow we'll tour the new front landscape followed by the backyard on Friday and maybe Saturday...there is a lot to see out there right now!

After following bird girl's link - yes I do believe I have a female indigo bunting. She has come back to the rock several more times and close up photos definitely show the two toned beak! How exciting...now where are those handsome males?