Monday, July 20, 2009

Garden Chores and Pond Tour

Yesterday was the second and final day of the Pond Tour. So today Kim and I tackled some dirty and messy chores. He put together a vacuum to suck crud off the bottom of the pond and worked with that for a while (in and out of the water), while I chopped off a load of English Ivy that has been needing to be dealt with for a while now. I also pulled out some plants from a garden bed that has never made me happy. Now it's a third empty and I'm excited - I get to plan something new to fill it up! What could be better than that for a gardener, right?

Here is the garden bed I like; with coreopsis, echinacea, day lilies, crocosmia, daisies, lambs ears, sage, viburnum, butterfly bush, golden chain tree, etc. There are a couple of hibiscus which will be blooming next month. But mostly groups of things.



I should have taken a pic of the one I don't like, but suffice it to say, it's just messy looking. Too messy. Way messy. Confusing.

I'm looking forward to seeing an improvement. All it took for me to start pulling stuff out was for Kim to easily agree that it "needed something." Funny how someone else can get me motivated.

The Pond Tour went off well. About 100 people paid to view nine ponds in the Boise area.















Kim took the week off before the tour and he worked and worked getting all sorts of little details completed in the garden. Everything looked great, thanks to his efforts.




















He turned this large pot we've had in the shade garden into a water feature. It looked so nice!


If I recall correctly we received more compliments on the garden than on our pond. Kim did have it looking pretty spiffy!








Our next door neighbors were also on the Pond Tour. So the next pictures are of their pond and garden. Very nice.
























Peggy completed the Master Gardener classes and it shows in her garden.
















See the nicotiana to the left of the Hebe statue? They're about 6 foot tall. Really nice looking.








Their pond has a great water fall with huge rocks making a wonderful sound.













The tour was fun but I'm glad it's over. Now back to regularly scheduled gardening!

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow thanks for giving us the online tour of your beautiful garden & pond. Your neighbor's is pretty spectacular as well. I would of paid to see all the homes on the list. :)

Janet, The Queen of Seaford said...

Great tour! I love the cottage garden look -- full of blooms.

Jen said...

Fantastic! What beauty and talent and eye for design you have. It is absolutely gorgeous! Wish I could have been there to be on tour! You are so blessed to have such a gorgeous yard and the space to create such beauty!

Heather said...

I can't imagine your garden looking any nice than when I saw it! I am happy that all went well and that you enjoyed yourselves. I love bed that you overhauled. It looks so nice!

Rosemary said...

Beautiful Pond tour, knowing how dry your area is I am amazed at the lush green gardens.. Very impressed with the large pot water feature Kim did. Would love to have the directions on what he did..

KrisMrsBBradley said...

I love that messy garden! I love gardens that look wild. I wish I had enough yard to create something similar!

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

Your garden is so pretty, and I love the bed you showed, the colors are really pretty together.
Your neighbors have a nice pond and garden too. I tried growing that nicotiana but it never made it past seedling stage. It is tall and I bet it smells great.

Dirt Princess said...

First of all I LOVE the new header! Second...I want to move to your neighborhood! Any houses near you for sale! I am in love with your garden...it is amazing!!1 Your neighbors is beautiful as well!

Connie said...

Your garden is looking very lush and lovely! Wish I could have sneaked along on that tour.... :-)

Anonymous said...

Oh my Victoria! I don't know where to start. I've missed so much good stuff on your blog during the week I took off. LOVE, love, love your garden. I wish I could live next door to both you and your neighbor! Oh the things I would learn and the cast off's I would beg for!! Your favorite bed looks fantastic. I need to do something with my front bed. It's looking a bit lopsided, if that makes sense? I was excited to see Inula pictured on one of your posts. I started it from seed this year, planted it out front and now you've reminded me to go look for it. I hope it's still alive as your blooms reminded me why I wanted it. The chickens are cute as ever and could you cook me a birthday dinner?!!! ;-)

Pat said...

You must have a gazillion flowers and they're almost all perennials...
I'm very impressed !!
Color, color everywhere and lots of land !

Kim even made a water feature?
He did do a spiffy job. Can I borrow him?
My hubby has a hard time using any tools. lol

Hope the hundred people were careful in your gardens. That's the one thing I would have worried about.

ps
When you have a chance stop by and take a look see at my current post.

Valerie said...

Those are some great pictures! I'm impressed!

Megan said...

It's nice motivation when you have people coming over to check out the garden, you do always get a lot of chores done. And then a big sigh of relief when it's over and you can relax. Looks like you pulled it off beautifully.

danger garden said...

Your garden looks so cool and inviting! Beautiful!