Hanging Gardens - Part 5

I know this is what you have been waiting for. Thank you for being so patient.

Last year the iris plants were already needing dividing, but as one of a million tasks that needed doing, it didn't get done. So, we went from this in 2010...

... to this in 2011.

I have so many photographs of this area from this year. I did delete some, yet I still have too many, and I know some are almost identical. I couldn't cut out any more, because it was like throwing away my babies. You will just have to bear with me and keep scrolling down.






Growing on the slope with the wind and storms we have caused Holly Hocks to always fall over. They were moved into one of the fence bays.

Iris and young Holly Hocks

The section we call "Wings Over Water" is at the bottom. This was the largest clump of Siberian Iris in bloom this year.
Just past it, we enter the Woodland Garden by this path.

And, yes, there is a bench back in there for sitting...


... and looking back at this, and watching that Barbee' woman deadhead the irises.

*** The End ***

Hanging Gardens - Part 4

Hee-hee-hee, if you thought that was the end of the project, you don't know me!

So here you can see plants waiting in their holding station on the back steps... waiting to be planted into the next stage of the project.

If you remember these photos you might have noticed the following things:
In August of 2006 a portion of the old worn path is still there. In relation to the fencing for climbing plants the progress of construction is still below the fence.

Construction has now reached the top and final run. These next two photos show the fencing is now below the top edge of construction.

(The fencing is at the right hand edge in this photo.)
We still have a problem. The top run is completed, but there is still slope to slip and slide on. This was my solution:I am bad about getting my own shadow into my photographs. In this case it is helpful. In my shadow there sits the neighbor cat I call Shadow sitting in the shadow as he normally does. Beside him is the top and final run of blocks. Above it is a random scattering of two loads of limestone blocks ordered from a quarry in another county not far from here. They were cut from the same vein or layer as the stone from which our house was built in 1955. I am extremely color conscious and I find the color compatible with that of the terracing blocks (man made) and the stone of the house.

The following photos cover from June through October 2007.

In the left side of this next photo we can barely see how the large stone blocks were placed so that they dwindled out into the trees and shrubs to the right.




Husband/Best Friend/Chief Photographer said what I was doing was like 'taking coals to New Castle' considering that this used to be a limestone quarry, and I was now bringing limestone back into it.








I decided to plant a collection of several varieties of Coreopsis into the gaps between stones, and a few other plants. The next spring the only Coreopsis that came up was the good-ole workhorse, the old form of Threadleaf Coreopsis that we transplanted from E-Bed-3. All the others, including 'Moonbeam' died. I did not replace them.

October 2, 2007

October 31

The ideas were mine, but the skill and muscle were Neal's to whom I am so grateful!

To Be Continued