My Garden Is Amazing

The last two evenings I have come home, taken off my gloves, put down the hand tools, taken off my weeding glasses and kept picture taking to a minimum. I walked through the garden with the sole intent to experience it, nothing more. My garden is amazing right now.

The planted trees, shrubs, mass plantings and big leaved perennials have reached a size where they are now an integral part of the garden during the time of vegetation. The paths are inviting and mostly easy to walk. Focal vignettes can be found throughout. Junk art plays with your sensibilities.

My garden is now magazine worthy.

The Almighty Falls are pushing my physical endurance. I come home knowing my body needs to rest, for the work to end. Sitting I fear will cause me to tighten into an unbreakable knot. So I stroll with the best upright posture I can muster. Stretching. The paths are a labyrinth to walk and wonder, to meditate and clear my head.

The Tall Flower Meadow is at shoulder height. It has become more finely edited over the years and weaves more among the planted than dominates the whole as it once did.

It is still imposing. I can imagine it rubbing on the primitive human brain of the savanna that sill lives within us.

The cold hardy Fargesia rufa clumping bamboo and Oakleaf Hydrangea that started as one gallon pots and rooted twigs are now eight feet tall. Contrasting texture in the green is a big component of the garden.

In this green Lush, my stated objective to have a garden blend in seamlessly with the wild is a reality. This is more so now than in the barren time when the Under Garden is more pronounced,

I walk and ponder. My plant geek self can get a little giddy. Plant diversity is very high. The unique dwell in my garden.

There is Fly Poison.

The Great Lawn is a place to rest and feel safe surrounded by wildness. In between passing traffic on the scenic byway, the forest is talking all around me while I listen in. Human sound is absent.

What have I done? Is this a master piece of New American garden art only in my own mind? I need to get some jaded opinions from outside sources.

It has amazed me for two days running.

An intermittent neighbor saw this and instantly thought it belonged with me and my garden. I have done something it seems.

All In One Garden

So I lied a little. I do have loud rambunctious color. And it is good.

The roadside vegetable garden is the only place on this mountain that would qualify as truly full sun.

Sun changes everything. It makes the wild things bloom.

Enter the forest and you are in another world.

The Mini-Me rode in to my life late this afternoon. Where shall we go?

I thought about it on a very slow walk through the Tall Flower Meadow where it is so green.

Green Is A Color

Summer blooms arrive later high on the low spot. The month of June tends to be the green lull between the high points of late spring and mid-summer.

Green is a color though, a distinctly different one from the greys and browns of the long barren time.

The gardens I tend during the day are well on their way to high summer bloom. That is what the clients want, color, flowers, pretty. I make more of an effort for continuous bloom for them than I do for myself.

I come home to green calm. I'm more than good with that.

There is structure in my green. There is texture.

My green says garden. In many ways a garden's true merit is better seen in just plain green.

I do have a lot of white right now. Several iterations of Hydrangea arborescens are in full bloom along with the Oakleaf Hydrangea.

White is green.

Green will turn silver. Green is good.

I Mow A Little

Therefore, it is a garden.

It starts out in a wide welcome

Leads to narrow side paths

And forks in the road.

The new direct path into the back forest is now on the regular maintenance list. Make a path and it will get used.

Creation keeps spinning in the time of the Lush.

This is only the second mowing of the Great Lawn. It's true function is a negative space in the bigger picture from above and a lure to draw people in. A proper lawn in my improper garden would be absurd. It's okay if it gets a little shaggy in between haircuts

The reality is I do very little mowing.

Just enough to say garden.

An Almighty Garden Destination

A stone pathway was installed maybe two years ago. Almighty Falls wasn't just talk. It was inevitable.

A new stone staircase was put in about a year ago to replace the old stairs that had collapsed. That cut off machine access which has been replaced with my back, God help me.

One of five rolls of rubber liner awaits. That roll weighs about 250 pounds.

The Almighty Pond got more gravel and my rock man got excited and added some big boulders to hide the hole in the wall.

That big box is the skimmer for the pond. Yes it is that big. The pump is huge and weighs 85 pounds.

The real geology is an exposed, tiered vein of solid rock with a spring coming out of it. I have been digging through the decomposition of its former life as a water course and decades of falling debris to the solid slab of stone below.

Then forming channels for the new rubber lined Almighty Falls on top of that. This is where I plan to split the stream.

Along the way I have to hide sections of the decomposing wall. The rock man refuses to repair them saying that trapping the water that caused this will only make them fall even sooner.

The channeling is about two thirds done.

This is really only step one. I am creating the channel base for the geotextile and rubber liner.

That gets laid over the base and the whole thing is covered in rock to build the actual Almighty Falls. That's a whole lot of rock toting. I'm going to need some help.

Mixed in with all that are skimmers, filter falls, plumbing and electrical. Just a few other details.

Sure looks tidier already.

I stopped here at the end of the day, the scary part at the base of the falls. Those two big flat stones on the left need to be moved out of the way. The stacked stone steps beneath the falls from its former life are half gone. There is another hole in the wall to hide on the right beneath that giant boulder.

The bare muddy part is another solid slab of rock and water is seeping out every where. Oh my!

The filter falls for this is four feet wide. This is twice the size of all my other ponds.

Almighty Falls is going to make Twin Falls Pond look like a puddle.

Wet And Wild

It rained all day which forced me to sit still for the most part. That is probably a good thing. Rock tossing is strenuous. A day off could save me from ruin.

I do have an umbrella. No reason not to go for a walk in the garden. The top half would stay dry at least. Rubber boots would have kept the lower parts dry.

It is thoroughly wet out there.

Planted vignettes are growing more common in my wild. Editing, growth and regular additions are starting to make an impact.

But it is still very much a wild cultivated garden. I make strong suggestions. I am not in control.

The very late blooming Lemon Drop Azalea is getting ready to bloom. Of all the rhododendrons and azaleas I have planted this one has done the best. I attribute it to location. They get the most sun.

This is going to be a good liatris year. I have planted dozens of them and tossed sacks of seed over the years. This year I finally see lots of bloom spikes. In the meantime I have some nice contrasting texture and foliage for entertainment.

Hidden in the glass.

I was hoping for another color. If they are both going to be white, they should bloom at the same time for maximum impact one would think. Just ten feet of separation changes the sunshine dynamic and so it seems the bloom time.

The evergreen Under Garden of winter interest is now in hiding. I have made sure to give all the plants a skylight through the Lush. Smothering shade is the enemy. As they grow bigger it gets easier.

Wet and wild on a rainy afternoon after a nice long nap.

The wild Hydrangea arborescens is the parent of the infamous 'Annabelle'.

'Hass' Halo' is the newest family member that I was lucky enough to be gifted. Interestingly, I have noted a number of the wild hydrangea here attempting to be lace-caps.

Tomorrow I go back to rock tossing. By the end of Saturday I hope to have the base of a new stream bed formed in the Almighty Falls.

Today was wet and restful.