| There are several beds of peonies. All of them are 3 foot tall or larger. The heads are full and I am getting impatient with how slow they are to open. When they first begun to spring up from the ground they looked like red stalks of asparagus. |
| This is the garden on the easterly side of the house. The sun shines bright into these windows and gives the livingroom a warm glow. I often stand in the streams of sunlight and look out at all the things sprouting up and blooming. This garden is the most diversified of all the gardens on the property. There is vinca, hosta, plain and varigated ivy, red, pink and white azaleas, a holly shrub, pink bleeding hearts, purple bearded irises, and liriope to name but a few. The statue in the middle is a HUGE fountain sitting in a deep saucer. We added low voltage lighting and set them to come on at around 7:30pm. It is nice to look out at night seeing things illuminated gently. |
| We have planted alot of things in the kitchen garden. I took these photos within 3 days of one another. Last friday the lettuce was just breaking the ground. By monday it looked like lettuce! We also have cabbage, broccoli, butter beans, okra and many herbs growing. We are behind on the rest of the planting due to the RAIN and COLD! Not mention all the problems we have been set back due to the breaking in and repair of the tractor. Please overlook my weeds! I am having trouble getting to everything at once. Everyone knows a kitchen garden is probably one of the hardest battles to fight with weeds. Why don't the vegetables grow as rapidly as the weeds? |
| The potted herb garden sits atop the well cap. We only got to eat 1 strawberry from the strawberry jar, which highly angered my daughters. The birds however supped and enjoyed them immensely! I cannot remember the name of the large vining plant hanging above the pots. Does anyone know? I am told it is an old fashion plant prized in this area of Virginia. We have MANY of them. All were overgrown and had not had a clipping in years. It took almost the entire afternoon when I started cutting this one. It was so thick and overgrown things were nesting in it and I am not sure they were bird nests. :-/ |
| This is the path leading to the koi pond and 3 other gardens. I am looking for sturdy yet not so expensive furniture to tuck into the nooks and crannies. These gardens are all large and you cannot see from to the other. Each will make a nice place to sit and read in spring, summer and fall. We have added solar lights, a park bench, bird bath and several bird feeders. Hopefully feeding the birds will keep them from eating everything in the orchard nearby. The path is lined with roses, an old grape vine, lambs ear, hollyhock, vinca and too many other things to name. |
| Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes. All of the tomato plants had begun to blossom but we had a set back and many lost ground due to the weather changes. They are all now beginning to bush out again and are full of blossoms. I have planted several varieties in 2 locations. I have planted roma, better boy, beef steak, cherry and grape. I waiting a little longer to plant the seeds I have for blue/purple, peach, pink and oxheart varieties. |
| The biggest change has been the koi pond. You can see we had to rebuild it. The cleaning out was an entire weekend job! I am impatient to see the blossoms of the lotus plant in the center of the pond. |
| In the gardens behind the koi pond are several beautiful trees: japanese magnolia crepe myrtle and dogwood. The dogwood blooms were impressive! |
| Since cleaning out the koi pond we have discovered more than just koi. The frogs, newts and other reptilian creatures are thriving. I have only been able to capture the frogs as they climb out to sun themselves. |
| The fish are surely enjoying the changes to the pond. By cleaning out the overgrown vegetation and removing the dozen or more pots filled only with pond sediment we doubled their swimming environment. The big fish on the left is "Leroy". He is approxiamately 10 - 11 inches in length! We have many other smaller fish and have seen what appears to be babies. :-) |
|
The wisteria (on the left) lends truth to the old saying that you should never plant a
wisteria vine unless you plan to invest at least 15 years in its growth. This one looks to be
very young. As it grows I will be working with it to train it over the arbor.
On the right is a photo of one of the many grape vines. We do not know the variety. We only know that most of the grape vines are somewhere near as old as the house. The trucks are as thick as a man's wrist and covered in the hairy beard of age. |
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