Making Your Own Path

Oh those weather surprises....last February we had an ice storm that took many of us by surprise. The weatherman had forecasted rain for our area and no mention of ice. The cold front moved further south and this is what we woke up to in late February.

A closer look at the poor Magnolia grandiflora 'Little Gem'. Branches were snapped off and others were laden heavy with ice, ready to join the others on the ground.

The roads were icy and the trees all coated with a layer of ice, creating a winter wonderland.

A view of the house with the now arching tree and those that snapped off.

My lovely assistant and I cut up the fallen tree into six to eight foot lengths. I wanted to save those pieces.

These fallen trees were quite tall pines.

All cut and stacked along the driveway.

Where were these logs going to go? I had a plan to put another pathway in the shade garden. Looking at the garden from the house, it is the left side of the property. I have some small plants, like Cyclamen, nestled into the trees, quite far from existing path. Whenever I took someone through my garden I cringed as they walked along with me....hoping they don't step on any of my babies.

I had enough logs to dress one side of a pathway meandering along the western edge of our property. This pathway had to wait for the growing season to get underway as I couldn't find/ remember where some of the ferns and various bulbs were planted. I certainly didn't want to put a path or log on top of an emerging fern! 

Here is a view of the new path from the house to the lake.

And once you are at the bottom, turn around and walk back up to the house.

The entrance has two logs framing the path. As we have other trees come down I will add logs to the pathway to define both sides. One of the benefits of putting in a path on this side of the garden is that I get new views. Walking halfway to the lake and looking to the right gives you a totally different view of the garden. Before the path, my references were from the center of the garden on the original pathway. 

I am quite glad I added this pathway and use it more often than the one going through the center of the garden. It might need to be made wider, which is means moving a few plants. Time will tell.

©Copyright 2015 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.

Oh My Achin' Back

All rocks are in place!!  With the assistance of my dear husband, we now have placed both pallets of river stone into the gardens.   We were able to get the first pallet done rather quickly on Sunday, a day that was not hot.  Sunday was a beautiful day, low humidity and in the mid 80's.










Our backs were not stressed too much as we bought a cart that hooks on the lawn tractor to haul the rocks downhill.  I have two wagons and a wheelbarrow, all of which are a pain to push/pull back uphill.  Even though they are empty on the way up they get heavy, heavier with each trip.  This cart made our task manageable.  Charlie got a lot of the rocks into the cart, especially the large ones.  We off loaded them into the general area of the garden and I shifted them around to where I wanted them.





Today we took the second pallet to their new homes.  The second pallet had some much larger rocks.  We had a few extra that were place in less critical areas.    This is the area where I had much of the washout in May and June.  Mulch still needs to added....not this week though. Not next week or the week after....will wait for fall.

 These two pictures were taken from the deck, a bird's eye view.  It gives a nice overview of the whole garden.  Love the white Phlox in the center of the picture!!

This is a two stage plan for curtailing washout...rocks and mulch then more plants that will hold the soil.  I have some that I can divide and some seeds that I will sow this winter.  I also hope to find some end of year goodies in September.
You can see some of the tire marks in the grass... this low spot stays wet a lot longer than any other part of the yard.

 Same section, looking uphill instead of down from the deck.

And of course I had company in the garden as I was walking around--- another little Fence lizard.  To give you perspective these are blades of grass.

And finally, a shot from lower in the yard.  

This is an area of the garden that needs to be replanted.  Soil from the top of the hill covered baby plants at the bottom of the hill.

Will let you know if my back is sore tomorrow, but right now....feeling pretty good.  Glad this part of the project is done.  I like how it looks.



©Copyright 2012 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.

We Have Our Work Cut Out For Us

Today we went to the Landscape Supply Company and looked at the pallets of rock that they had available.    Now that my labor force (visiting kids) has gone back to NJ we bought two pallets.  It was so hot during July, I certainly didn't want to work toting big rocks down to the backyard....imagine the kids and Charlie didn't want to either.   Now we can do the work at our own pace, a little bit each morning, while it is cool.
Waiting for the delivery I had my camera and walked around the yard.

Right out the front door was this tiny little anole.... very young, but fast!!

It is on the wall up by the soffit.    These little lizards love the stonework on the front of the house for hiding spots.

I took the camera out because I saw some more daylilies were blooming.  This one is another Hemerocallis 'Stephanie Returns' 

And next to Stephanie is H. 'Scottish Fantasy' another very pretty ruffled bloom.

I saw some more buds, I really didn't think these new daylilies would bloom this year.  What a great surprise. 

Above the daylilies are three very large  Beautyberry bushes.  The berries are starting to turn to their fall lavender/purple color.  My bushes are Callicarpa dichotoma 'Issai' which is supposed to be a smaller variety than C. americana but it sure has gotten quite large in the few years we have been here.

As  I walked around the side of the Beautyberry bushes I heard a noise in the mulch.  Hard to tell what critter would be skittering under the bush except that I saw it.  It was another tiny lizard, a Fence Lizard.  These little guys look like little dinosaurs.

These leaves that he is standing near are from the Gardenia bush, about half an inch wide and two inches long.    Never know what you are going to see when you walk the garden.

Some of you have read about Clematis Wilt from other bloggers.  I have been watching one of my Clematis vines and unfortunately I determined it was suffering from this wilt.  It is a fungus that affects the stems, not the roots of the plant.  Treatment is to literally cut off the infected stems.  Since the roots are not infected, new growth will emerge... so be brave and cut!!  The leaves on the infected stems get brown and withered, finally dropping all foliage.  An attractive vine can go to ugly quite quickly.  When pruning the infected stems off, make sure to clean up all the leaves as the fungal spores will remain on the leaves and the soil.   As I was checking for more Fence Lizards, I saw a little bit of new growth, a bud, coming out on the sad little Clematis.  I saved some seeds from the spent flowers for this one as it is in my family garden, this is C. Rebecca.  I certainly don't want anything to happen to this pretty addition to the family garden.  

Thinking I heard the truck, I hurried up the hill to the front yard, stopping to take a quick picture of the pretty blue damselfly.  Randy to the ID rescue again-- a Blue-fronted Dancer.  

thanks Randy!!

Coming down the driveway was our first pallet of round medium river stones.  We chose this type of rock as it matches the ones we have for our riprap along the shoreline.  

Pretty cool forklift. 

Here is what we will be working on for the next week or so--

For those who aren't  sure why we are doing this... the big section of the backyard garden has had some serious washout from our gullywasher rain storms. 

On the left side of picture near the big stones we had a lot of washout which carried downhill to the rock edging the pathways.  From there, a large ravine has been created on the garden side of the rocks.  Once the new rocks are placed, creating little 'pockets' we will get mulch and see about keeping the soil dressed to prevent more runoff.  This slope is pretty steep, we are hoping to redirect the water and split it so ravines don't get created.  Stay tuned! 

Before the kids left they were able to see my Epiphyllum oxypetalum blooming.  It is always so exciting when this blooms... I must have thousands of pictures of the opening blooms.  Rachel took a picture of me taking a picture.   You can see the plant itself isn't very attractive.  Will be doing more pruning on it this fall.  If you are interested in having a cutting, let me know and I would be happy to send a couple pieces to you.  

Don't you want to have one of these blooming on a warm summer night?  The fragrance is wonderful.

Will post pictures of our progress.  This is my summer workout program.  

©Copyright 2012 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.

The Start of Year Three

Hard to believe that this 4th of July marks the beginning of our third year here on Lake Greenwood.   I walked around today in this unbelievable heat and tried to get some good comparison photos to see the changes.  The post last year had these collage photos, I apologize for the repeat of photos, but it is easier for showing progress.  The photos all look better when you click on them and enlarge them a bit.  

2010 & 2011

2012 Added some colorful chairs on the flagstone patio

You can see the grasses on the right side of the stone steps Muhlenbergia capillaris will be a pink cloud come fall.  The steps are lined with Nandina domestica 'Ruby', Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Gold Threads', and Abelia x 'Kalidescope'  Behind the chairs are five Catmint, Nepeta faassenii 'Walkers Low'-- the bees love it!!!

2010 & 2011

Looking from the front door you see plantings have filled in a bit and I moved to mulch instead of pine straw.  Added the weeping redbud this spring.   The shed has been painted but I have to paint the shutters and window boxes still.  

New shed, new little redbud Cercis canadensis 'Ruby Falls'

 These two collages are looking at the front of the house.  I forgot to prune back the Acorus this winter/ spring.  

2010 & 2011

2010 & 2011 Blue Fescues moved out now as well as the Pennisetum from the first year

Turning around you see the front gardens filled out.  You can see the Gardenias have gotten larger.  

2012

As we move around back the changes continue to amaze me.

2010 & 2011

Plants have grown & more added  

2012

 Looking to our left to the shadier part of the yard, again, what a difference---

2010 & 2011  Pathway added 

Specific plant material hard to identify, but the garden is filling in!

2012
 More rocks added around Japanese maple at top of the pathway,
 more to come to assist with the washout

If you walk down the path through the garden and turn to look back at  the house, you will see this lower part of the garden is still filling in

2010 & 2011

This is a really dry area and many of the shrubs and trees are struggling down here.  Have another hose to water this lower part.  Hoping that will help them get established.

2012

From the deck steps you come to the side yard, semi shady garden.

2010 & 2011 Hellebores moved to shade, Acorus getting larger

A variegated Hydrangea that was added is going strong.  It just finished blooming.  You can see these Acorus needed to be trimmed as well as the ones by the front door!

2012

 Walking toward the street we see how the grass, Miscanthus sinensis 'Little Zebra', and Artemesia 'Powis Castle' have grown from the beginning ---

2011 

2012

 And facing back to the house---from rough construction gravel mess .......

2010 just after moving in & 2011

......To this easy to maintain garden.

2012

 I am glad you came along with me on  this yearly assessment of the growth of my gardens.  Since this is the third year for many plants, we should see a leap in growth!  For more photos of last year, here is the link to last year's post.

©Copyright 2012 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.