My Lovely Garden … Mon Joli Jardin

No matter the language, my garden is my paradise. To watch the lovely birds that nest in the trees and bushes. The bees, butterflies are such a joy to see.

Tag Archives: Gardens


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Gnarley beauty of trees. Stoney landscaping. Beautiful leaves .. and .. painted windows!

Monday, November 12, 2012

Ha ha .. I was visiting a local dollar store and saw a display of foldable flower vases, and just couldn’t resist this one.  Thought it was going to be like the type you find at Ikea .. where you just add warm water and the vase can be shape shifted .. kind of fun.  Turns out this one is a little different.  The vase is heavy plastic, and can indeed be folded (when empty!)  There is a little packet of green crystals that are added .. and voila!  These marble type formations result.   So rather cool, I thought!

Had to stop and look at the gnarled beauty of this venerable old tree.  Loved the rugged dignity of the gnarled bark, this tree has seen a lot of the world .. and then there is the delicate beauty of the little tree growing beside it.   Will the intelligence of the older tree be shared with the younger one?   Sharing knowledge from one species to another, one era to another.

Loving the randomness of nature’s beauty .. windblown leaves resting on the branches of this California Lilac.

 

Now .. this here .. is your industrial “non-maintenence” type of landscaping.  Only very brave plants could grow through these stony layers!  Alas.  Oh .. and “shudder” …

Yum … lots of oak leaves for mulching in the garden!!  I’ve been gathering lots of them for the winter protection of my garlic and potted plants.

Don’t know if you can tell .. but those little dots are actually seagulls, soaring in a little thermal that was developing.  Scenes from “Jonathan Livingston Seagull”    If you ever want to watch one of the most wonderful films in the world, I highly recommend this one.  And .. to hear Neil Diamond singing throughout .. is just too magnificent for mere words to describe.  I can only watch this film in little bits . .there is so much beauty therein.

This window is from the little strip mall that I visited a few days ago ..love this!

 

And . .an old-fashioned type of ice-cream parlour is there also!

Sometimes it’s good not to have a viewfinder .. in order to discover unexpected sky shots like this one.   Almost looks like a little “glory” to the right and I love the translucent layered look of the clouds.  And of course, the brilliant sun .. sending rays of light in all directions.  Quite a happy little picture, hey???

The cherry tree is tenaciously clinging to the leaves .. but it’s a losing battle.  Already, the ground is covered with the lovely yellow vegetation .. which I shall rake up today!  And place them ..like a blanket .. on my perennial gardens.

Took advantage of a recent sunny day .. to clip more roses.  Which I dried to add to my soaps.

A little sparrow is nibbling away at the suet.  Even the starlings are welcome.  There are only a few of them. I admire their plumage .. and like their gentle cooing sounds that they use to communicate with each other.  Quite the little singers, these birds are.  And I look forward to a  few glimpses of the Flickers when they appear.  Magnificent birds.

Just a short little post today …lots to do …including more studying of the landscape materials for my very intensive course.  The doors of knowledge are opening and I need to continue on!

So away I go on this lovely rainy day!

🙂

 


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Time for a playing day .. in the garden.

Friday, August 10, 2012

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One think that I like about gardening is that I can spend one day working very hard outside and the next day I can play if I want to.

Playing means to me .. things like .. finally sifting the beach stones that I’ve collected, separating the tiniest stones and rounded rocks from the vegetation that has been mixed in.  Ending up with little buckets of these and a bucket of fine sand & grasses, to use on a garden bed.

And putting together a little raised bed from boards left over from a project that dh has done for the yard.   I had to get help from him in putting them together.  I won’t even go into the details of how I was trying to assemble the boards, but his way made more sense.   I am just not gifted in building things with wood.  I learn really easy, but the hows and whys are just not part of my creative bent.

So I ended up with a raised bed that is truly creative .. in that it is not perfectly square and two ends are higher than the sides .. but this will go on the ground and filled with lovely mulch and so no one will ever be the wiser.

DH looked at my results, shook his head and laughed .. I told him that it was just perfect for the garden .. a true garden is not perfectly square and in alignment.

Next in my playtime . . I separated the seeds from the dried flower pods from the white flowering sage plant.  I’ve read in one of my gardening books that sage would make a good garden border, so I’ll try that.  Free sage border, gotta like that.

Then I decided to cover up my tomato plants.  Having given away yards of Remay years ago … I wasn’t sure what to use in place of that .. so ended up fetching some Ikea lightweight cotton sheers and spent some time wrapping up some of the larger plants .. I’ll take pics later today.

I was on my hands and knees, pulling out grass and plantings from an overhead bird feeder, when I noticed a young Anna hovering above .. finally settling on the  tiny perch of the hummingbird feeder.  And the camera is at least 10 feet away.   So I quietly observe this little visitor.  I believe it must be one of the babies, there is still fluffy white downy feathers on the lower part of its body, and tiny little markings at the outer edges of the eyes.   He watches me and I watch him .. timeless magic.   One of those gardening moments that money cannot buy.

Sigh.

Next I mix up dilutions of EM so that I can install some perennials in one of my newly tidied side gardens.  Which gives me an idea .. one rainy day .. I will spend some time looking through photos of the past few years and I’ll show the transformations that I’ve made in the yard.  Creating areas of beauty from badly neglected spaces.   If I hadn’t taken the photos, I would have forgotten how much I’ve done.

I planted several lavender plants, carefully removing them from their plastic pots.  Soaking their roots in EM, trowelling out a space and putting them in their new home.  Gently tamping in soil around them and a final watering of EM.

Then I notice that the sunlight has disappeared .. .dusk has arrived.   I walk around this garden edging … noting where I’ll be digging in more plants and then finally decide that the time needed for this chore is going to take hours.   So might as well pack it in for the day.

Thought back over my day, what I’d accomplished .. and reflected on my playing time (that’s where creativity kicks in and time stops) and decided that I’d had yet another most wonderful day in the garden.

So, time to take a mug of freshly brewed Yorkshire Tea (the lovely loose leaf type) and go outside for another playing day.

🙂