Gardens

Pauline · Gardens

HI !!

My parents are searching for a nice garden shed / cottage /chalet /pavilion. It will offer some place for the storage of things like bicycles, lawnmower, chairs as well as to be a nice little house at the back of the garden for sitting.

anyway, probably because I was thinking about what style building it would be the nicest and about the things in the garden, last night I had a dream about the garden: there was a very nice hot tub *suddenly* on the grass, but it rained so we moved it to nearby the house

it was possible to carry it

What a funny dream!!! What a pity that my parents don't buy a hot tub and a swimming pool as well!!! There's very much m2 but they've replied that we won't get a pool

because it's too expensive to maintain it, clean it, heating etc.. and take too much time.

Have you a garden, and what have you in the garden?

Uriel

I have oleander

butterfly bush

Spanish broom

many kinds of sage

lots of roses

desert willow

dianthus (pinks, sweet william)

petunias

artemisa (wormwood)

honeysuckle

prickly pear

Deborah

Mine is a roof garden, so everything is in pots. I have several pots of petunias in all colors, which give you lots of color for very little effort. I also have Cape daisies in both orange and purple, both of which are thriving. There are several geraniums (white, light pink, hot pink, dark red, lavender), which are great because they seem to live no matter what you do to them.

Some of the others:

kangaroo paw
trumpet vine (still hasn't bloomed after 2 years)
yucca (ditto)
a large, spiky Australian desert plant & some baby cacti
a tub with sweet alyssum & California poppies
a tub with sweet alyssum and jasmine
blue marguerites
marigolds

And 2 pink carnations which were disappointing last summer, when they were new, but which have gone crazy with blooms this spring.

Uriel

I like the way container gardens look. I'd love to have one, but man, you have to water every single day in my climate, because small amounts of dirt dry out quickly here! I've definitely learned the value of mulch....

One fun thing I've learned is that if you plant potted chrysanthemums outside, not only can they survive the winters just fine, but they are one of the last things to bloom -- so when the rest of your garden is dead or dormant in late fall, they're just bursting into flower! I swiped a bunch from the aftermath of a convention once, and had gorgeous fall color for years.

Also, miniature roses grow like crazy when planted in the ground, and are pretty hardy, too.

Deborah

I planted 3 chrysanthemums early last fall. They were already blooming and seemed to die soon after. I could see a bit of green, though, so I left them alone, and now they've become nice and bushy. And flowerless, of course, as it's only May.

I think this recent heat wave probably marked the end of the rainy season, which means I'll actually have to start watering the plants again -- and I have so many more plants than I did last summer.

Uriel

I think you can cut mums back once they've finished blooming. But mine stay green all winter -- bedraggled and pathetic, but still at least a little green around the base.

I try some different plants every year. This year I tried columbine (which may be better suited to higher elevations, since I usually see it in the mountains here, and it's the state flower of lofty Colorado:

And stock:

Other beauties I've tried in the past are Nicotiana (yes, flowering tobacco):

Texas bluebonnet (a type of lupine)

and Mexican evening primrose:

Deborah

The Rocky Mountain columbine (the one in Uriel's picture) is one of my favorite flowers.

I once had a garden with a bed of nicotania. It was gorgeous -- the plants were 3-4 feet tall, with lots of beautiful white, pink and red flowers. But then the SF summer wind and fog came along and completely flattened the plants, which are not sturdy.

Uriel

Yeah, I had to plant mine up against a chainlink fence to give them some support, and I don't think they survived the summer.

One plant that is a common landscaping choice that I took a long time to warm up to is ocotillo:

At first I didn't care for it much because it's not conventionally beautiful and it's just freakishly tall and spiky, but now I enjoy those ridiculously cheerfyl orange flowers!

One thing I miss about California, especially your neck of the woods, is the stunning displays of blue or white agapanthus (Lily of the Nile) that were always massed along street medians. I tried to grow it here, but no dice....

Deborah

Uriel, I think ocotillo looks beautiful.

I think I forgot to mention that I have several agapanthi, all blue.

Uriel

Agapanthi....

I love it!

Have you seen this one? It's called a Chicago Peace rose, and it's basically a darker version of the original Peace rose (I have one of those, too).

I saw some at Wal-Mart, of all places, and thought it was gorgeously striking! I have a weakness for variegated or two-tone flowers. One of the reasons why my favorite flower of all time is the fancy bearded iris -- in any color; I don't care!

Deborah

Uriel

Oh, I know what you mean -- we have one corner gas station that has gone far, far out of its way to plant all kinds of roses and border the entire lot with an oleander hedge!

There is also a Mexican restaurant closer to downtown that has lines its walkway with every color of rose imaginable, along with pretty wrought-iron fencing. And when you go inside, there is a big central mural of a desert landscape, complete with a trompe-l'oeil ocotillo trailing out of the frame.

I have three massive red oleanders that screen my bedroom window, so that you can have it open and walk around in any sate of dress you like -- no one can see in, and all you see is green leaves and red flowers!

In addition to the usual purple sages that are either large bushes or small perennials, I have planted some red and hot-pink sages that sprawl on the ground like a psuedo-groundcover.

I had a chance to buy orange butterfly bush (I don't think it's related to Buddleia) when there was a nursery in town that catered to xeric gardening, but it has since closed. Bummer!

One tree I was quite taken with when I visited Arizona was gorgeous green-skinned palo verde, which it is supposedly too cold for here -- but the same nursery said that they had one that had been special-ordered by a customer who never picked it up, and it had weathered several winters just fine.

Deborah

Oh, I love the palo verde! I became acquainted with that tree a couple of years ago when I was in Arizona.

There used to be a big tree outside my bedroom window, which provided me total privacy even with the blinds up. But it's roots were starting to destroy the retaining wall that protected the next house down the hill, so it had to go.

Uriel

I had never seen a mimosa tree before I bought my house, but there are several in the yard -- it seems to be pretty invasive, even, since the saplings crop up in all kinds of weird places! And you can't hardly kill it -- my pit bull ate half the bark off the trunk of the main one, wood borers are undermining the rest, and we had to chop off allthe dead branches on one whole side -- but damn if the thing doesn't still bloom happily every year!

Pauline

I think that your gardens are beautiful with those wonderful flowers and trees!!!

In my garden is an old oak tree, but not so big or old as this one!!

A vegetable garden wiht potatoes, carrots, onions, raspberries, strawberries and many more comestibles.

There's a flowering cherry tree with pink flowers.

As Uriel's garden, there's a butterfly bush in my garden as well: this was planted about 4 years ago but it's big: those plants grow *very* quickly!!!!

We've some rhododendrons

I like magnolias so i would like to buy one and put it in the garden

, also wild flowers - i will make a place for those.

Deborah

Pauline, your garden sounds beautiful. How wonderful to have fresh berries! I love rhododendrons, but I think they'd be hard to grow in my garden because of the wind and constant full sun, and they'd need a lot of water.

If I ever own a house with a yard, I'll be sure to have a section of the yard devoted to California wildflowers. As it stands, I only have a tub with California poppies, the first one of which bloomed yesterday!

I just visited a friend in North Carolina who showed me the house that he'd bought as an investment and recently sold. The backyard was quite big, with a gorgeous grouping of some very old, beautiful, tall trees (I can't identify them) in the middle of it. To his chagrin, he found out that the new owner intends to build another house on the land, which would entail cutting down at least some of the trees. How could she do that? However, while we were looking at the place, one of the neighbors came by and started talking to us. On learning that my friend was the former owner and that he was upset about the new owner's plans, she told us that the rest of the neighborhood was upset about it too, and that the neighborhood organizaton was pretty strong, so maybe there's hope.

Uriel

Shoot, one of my butterfly bushes started out life three or four years ago as a stick in a bag, and now it's grazing the porch ceiling!

My mother lives in a covenant community in Georgia (residents must sign and obey covenants regarding landscaping, fences, etc. -- basically they're a bunch of aging hippies ... with money) that is dedicated to keeping the land as natural as possible -- they even have commons and wooded land set aside that can't be built on. A lot of them had to really work with their builders to find house configurations that would allow them to keep as many trees standing as possible. This has led to some very interesting houses -- a lot of these people put up some pretty unique dwellings, in terms of design and building materials.

Georgia is the capitals of azaleas -- they grow everywhere! my mother is a botanist, so she is a big proponent of growing nothing (or almost nothing) but native species in her yard, and she has a local variety that's an unusual orange color:

Deborah

Pauline

Deborah

I wish I had a real garden so I could grow cosmos.

Click to see full size image

The photographer asked that his works be shared on the internet. Here's the url:

http://flowers-photo.com/

Pauline

Deborah,

Those flowers are beautiful. I vsisited the website as well, and there are more wonderful photos.

Today an american visited us and we've eaten lunch in the garden. I'm not exactly sure why she's in belgium but she showed us some very nice photos of the US. she live in Toucson, Arizona where there are enormous cactus plants, and one picture was of her and the cactus - the plant was about 10 x higher than she

Here, if you want a cactus you must have this plant inside your house, because it's too cold!!!

Uriel

Tucson is a very pretty little city; I spent a weekend there once. The saguaros (the cactus you mentioned) are a little freaky at first, but you get used to them after a couple of days. They grow absolutely everywhere. Most are young and have no "arms", which only develop after the plant is 80 years old or so, so it's like having tentpoles everywhere, as far as the eye can see.

Right now all of our yuccas are blooming -- the tames ones in people's yards (I have two), wild ones along the highways and in empty lots, it's just white, white, everywhere.

Deborah

Uriel, do you ever eat your yucca blossoms?

How old does a yucca have to be before it blooms? I have one that's in it's second summer (with me -- I don't know when it was born) and only has the spiky leaves at the base, with no stalk.

Pauline

Deborah

Uriel

EAT yucca blossoms? No. I didn't know they were edible!

I'm not sure how old they have to be before they bloom. I know they start out as little balls of spikes and don't send up a stalk until they get a lot bigger, so it might be a few years. There are also many different species.

According to this site:

http://www.naturephotographers.net/articles0902/jg0902-1.html

soaptree yucca (Yucca glauca), which I know grows here (settlers made soap from it, hence the name) takes 5 or 6 years to bloom, and can live for decades.

Deborah

Yeah, just saute them in olive oil with, e.g., green peppers, tomatoes, onions & garlic. They have one of those tastes that are like a cross between a couple of tastes you know very well, but can't define. I read online that someone thought they tasted a bit like asparagus, which sounds right to me.

Uriel

Wel, I'll be darned! I'm tempted to go outside and munch one right now, just out of curiosity.