Rolling Water

We have had an inch and a half of rain the last couple of days and this morning I was out enjoying the quiet early morning and I could hear the water in the creek behind our property. The creek is probable a couple hundred yards from the house, but you usually can't hear it unless it has rained recently. I have never walked all the way down to the edge of the creek but decided to this morning. With camera in hand I truged down the hill. With the recent rain and the steepness of the hill I almost landed on my rear a couple of times. I probable wouldn't have been so bad but with the camera in one hand and my coffee in the other it was kind of tough. I am working on getting steps down the hill at least on what we own. But then you have to walk down the narrow animal paths from where our property stops. And lets say I am a little larger than most of our animals around here. I snapped a few pictures so everyone could see what the creek looks like when the water is higher than normal. Hope you enjoy the pic's.

Stick Arbor

Well it is finally done. I have mixed feeling about it. I guess in reality I am not the rustic sort of person. I wish some of the sticks were straighter or lined up better.

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The first picture is where I was laying the sides of the arbor out in the garage. It is hard to work with sticks like this because they aren't straight. You get the top and bottom of them the same distance apart and the middle looks out of line. What I ended up doing is just eye balling it to make sure it looked good.

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The second picture is the completed side of the arbor. It looks ok but when I got it outside and all put together the left side looks way out of a line.

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Third picture is both side set up outside. It took a couple of attempts to get them set the right distance apart. I didn't put the arbor in the ground at all. The wood I used would not last a long time being in the ground. What I did was drive T posts into the ground and wire the arbor to the posts. A T post is what a farmer would use to put up a fence to keep the cattle in the pasture. I hope that explains it well enough. You can find T posts at any of the big box hardware stores.

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The last picture is the completed arbor. You are looking at the same side as the second picture. See how it looks worse in the last picture than it did in the second picture. Once all the vines cover it you won't notice it. I guess I am most worst critic.

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The top of the arbor I tried to use odd shaped pieces of wood. Like ones that were really curved or bent to give the top a little additional height. I haven't decide if I will seal this or not. The chairs in an earlier blog I sealed with an outdoor sealer and it made them shine. Not sure if I like that or not. It does add a little polish to the rustic look. Anyway let me know what you think.

1st set of garden pic's

Here are pictures of how the gardens look now. In the next 2-3 weeks I will be add pictures on how the garden looks then. A few weeks later more pictures and continue doing this progression through summer and into fall. Tonight we went out and I took pictures and Scott wrote down where I would need to stand next time. This way I could get the same view each time and how it changes. I took about 20 pictures and it is hard to decide which ones would be the best. I have limited it to 5 which will give the best over all view of the gardens.

Northland Garden Club Garden Tour

Well we were asked to have our garden on the garden tour this year for the garden club we belong to. I am excited about it but also dreading it. There is so much I would like to get done before the tour which is Sunday, June 24th. Here is the list I have come up with.
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*Build a trellis for pole beans to grow on
*Build stick trellis
*Install white trellis in front of the house
*Finish edging along the path in the woods
*Build waterfall in the woods
*Make stick chairs and small table
*Flower box under window in front of house
*Plant red twig dogwood
*Set up existing water fountain
*Paint wicker chairs on the front porch
*Refinish the deck
*Add some landscaping to the front yard
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Here is the website to the Northland Garden Club if you would like to check it out. They show some pictures form last year and have a short write up on each of the five gardens on the tour.
http://www.northlandgardenclub.com/
Click on the upcoming events link in the middle of the page.

Water Fall

These will be the last pictures from the Wichita Garden Show that I will post. I was really impressed with this water fall. I am planning on doing one in the woods behind our house. It won't have as many levels as this one but I hope turn out as nice. Since we live on a hill it should be easy to do. But usually when I think something will be easy and it turns out to be a hassle. But I am going to try it. I will be posting some pictures of the before, during and after so stay tuned.

Last snow of the season??

Happy St Patrick's Day!!!!!!

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Saturday

We went to my mother's farm Saturday the 17th to trim her fruit trees. The 3rd picture is of the orchard. As you can see that didn't happen. Boy was the weather nasty. Started to snow in the morning and continued all day. I think the birds liked it but that was about it. It was 36 degrees when I got up Saturday morning and put wood in the stove. Sometime around 3:00 it hit 37 degrees and was 31 Sunday morning.

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I included some pictures of the birds that my mother feeds. I have always been particle to cardinals. Maybe it is because I grew up watching the St Louis Cardinals play baseball, which my mother likes to watch on TV or listen to on the radio. Red was my favorite color but now I tend not to have one favorite color but like earth tone colors. Then with a splash of red or blue to make it come a live. I like to use a lot of blue pots in the borders and on the deck and patio. It is whatever strikes your fancy. Tuesday Morning had these copper pots that I really liked. They weren't cheap or lets say what I could justify paying. I am thinking if I go back now and they still have them that means they were ment to be mine!!!!! I guess as long as I can justify it someway.

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Since it was nicer today Scott and I went a head and started to prune the apple and peach trees plus the grape vines. Was only able to get the grapes and a couple the apple and peach trees done. I have no ideal how to trim the trees. I just do what I think Dad did when he trimmed the trees. It really doesn't matter if they produce any fruit or not. Mom is going to be 84 here is a month and doesn't really have any business canning or cooking up the fruit. I just hate for the trees to go wild and over grown. I guess I shouldn't worry about it but I think mom feels better if it gets done. Not sure when we will get down there again might not be until Easter weekend. The trees might be blooming then. Oh well, can't do it all.

Wood Arbor

Here is the arbor I am trying to replicate in my yard. I will post pictures once it is done so eveyone can compare my end results to the one at the garden show. the wood they used was Hedge Apple. It is also known around here as Osage Orange. It is a very durable and long lasting wood. Needless to say I do not have any Hedge Apple wood but do have a lot of misc. wood that I will use. I know it will not last as long but I will have the same effect for a few years. If I seal it that might make it last a few more years.

Sunken Prayer Room

I know I am redundant with the photos but some show a little different angle or better color. I hope you enjoy them.

This was so amazing. You couldn't get down to the room you could only look into it from above. But it was built 4 to 5 feet lower than the rest of the garden and and so private. I don't have a spot I could do anything this nice in my yard but I am going to keep it in mind. Check out the fog coming off the waterfall in the back. These pictures just don't do this room justice.

View from above

This display had a tropical theme with the boat, water and tropical plants. They also had a cabana that had steps going up to the roof so that is how I took these. Gave you a different perspective over this display and you could look out over more of the gardens.

Uses for old farm equipment

This display was very unique. Just loved what they did with the old rusty farm equipment. Now I wish Dad hadn't gotten rid of the old truck that my much older siblings used to learn to drive. I guess I could use the old 69 Chey Malibu that I wrecked to make water flow out of. I am sure Dad kept it around all these years to remind me that I wrecked their car.

Wichita Flower Show - Japanese Garden

The Japanese Garden was one of the smaller ones. It was done very nice but Japanese Gardens are not my style. They just don't appeal to me. I thought they did a good job on the set up and design. To me it looked like a good representation of what a typical Japanese Garden would look like.

Wichita Flower and Garden Show

I am planning on having several posts on what I saw at the Flower and Garden Show in Wichita Kansas this last weekend. It was snowing to beat the band when we left Kansas City at 7 in the morning on March 3rd. But I didn't let that descurage me. I was needing a weekend away from the Kansas City plus we went with a friend so I didn't have to drive. We stayed at the Hyatt in Wichita. What was nice was that it is connected to the convention center where the show was held.

Here are some pictures that show the size of the trees and rocks that they brought in. I was impressed. I can't imagine how long it takes them to set some of the displays up. The back side of one of the diplays they had the rocks stacked 10 to 12 feet high. I am envious of the talent that the people who set these up have. The one thing that is amazing is that I was very impressed with the design and how much effort they went through to get everything set up but I couldn't tell you the name of any of the landscape companys that did them. I didn't see any tables set up to tell about the company or business cards to take. It could be that I just missed it. Since I am only looking for ideals that I can do.