Just a Little Lagniappe

Storm clouds moved into Vicksburg late yesterday afternoon, and I took advantage of the "calm before the storm" to capture some pictures around our yard. 

The rose vine on the arbor leading from our front courtyard to

the backyard is covered with pastel pink roses ...

I think I'll cut these buds today and make a bouquet for Mother's Day ...

  

I bought some flowers at Home Depot this week and they

seem to be happy in their new home ... so far.

Red Impatiens

Pink "Knock Out" Roses ...

  My "hand-me-down" garden cart holds red "Sunpatiens" (Impatiens that will tolerate sun),

a yellow Primrose, and a pot of pink English Daisies ...

I hope the flowers will do well.  I think it's going to be a long, hot summer here in Mississippi.

The focal point of our courtyard is a small waterfall.  I love the sound of the water running over the rocks, and it is home to several little night creatures that serenade us all night.

Our "Midnight Black Elephant Ears" are coming back nicely.  They will stand two to three feet tall by the end of the summer.  

Midnight Elephant Ears love very moist soil, and are perfect plants for ponds and water features.  They prefer sun to partial shade.

I love armillary spheres and found this one several years ago at a Mexican Pottery market in West Monroe, Louisiana (home of the Duck Dynasty guys, if you're a fan).  

Harry the Heron, is looking a little faded around the edges these days, but I think it just gives him character ... and he seems to be quite happy and content in his home amongst the pond grasses.

Best wishes to you for a memorable and peaceful Mother's Day weekend filled

with love and lots of sweet memories-in-the-making with your loved ones.

We're going to have our family all "under one roof" (ours!) to celebrate our granddaughter Avery's 8th birthday Saturday, and Mother's Day on Sunday.

Happy Mother's Day, Mama ...

I love you and Daddy more than words can ever say.

November 2010

Landscaping Project: Stone Path

I have been working in our yard and a couple of days ago, this was my project:

It is the path between our house and our neighbor's house that leads to our backyard. That picture was taken in July last summer when everything was blooming and the Majestic ferns were just starting to come back from their winter's hibernation.

If you would like to read about the construction of the path and its "rocky" beginning, you can click here.

Unfortunately, the extremely cold winter we had took its toll on the ferns and we lost several of them.

I love the way they make the path look lush and green, even during the hot summer months, and hope to replace them this week.

The latest addition to the path area is what I'd like to share today. I'll give you a hint: it's something I've wanted ever since I saw these, which I captured with my camera during past photo shoots:

I just love those gazing balls, especially the bright cobalt one in the first picture, and was delighted to find one in a catalog from Touchstone.

[Photo borrowed from Touchstone's web site]

Aren't they pretty! I think I'd like to have one of each color, but that might be a little too much, I guess. Here is mine in its new home, along with some pictures of the path after I finished working on it.

This is a view of the path standing at the front looking toward the backyard. The gazing ball is at the end of the path.

I took this picture of the arbor early this morning and like the way the flash highlighted the arbor and gate.

This old rusty lantern was in a storage shed at my mother-in-law's house. I love it hanging beside our path.

This is the view of the path we see from our bedroom windows. That's Trailing Verbena in the planter, and I'm hoping it will trail out over the path.

This shadow caught my eye as I was taking pictures of the path. It's a shadow from the fleur de lis design in the metal gate cast on the stones.

This is the view of the path looking toward the front to our courtyard and waterfall area.

The path has certainly come a long way from its "rocky beginning," and is like a little garden linking our courtyard to our backyard.

I can't wait for the Crape Myrtles to bloom because that's when the pathway is at its prettiest. I'm sure I'll take more pictures to share with you then.

An Old Iron Plant Stand

This old iron plant stand belonged to my mother-in-law, and I recently adopted it. It was originally painted white, but, after sitting outside for many years, the paint was flaking off and part of the metal had rusted. I scraped it with a wire brush, gave it a couple of coats of black satin paint, and added some plants. Here it is in its new home (the path leading to our backyard) ...

The Making of a Stone Path

We have an area on the side of our house between our house and our neighbor's house which leads to our backyard. We landscaped the area last summer, and made a path in the center. When it came time to choose the material to use for the path, I made a big mistake. I chose black lava rocks which looked okay, but we soon found out that they are very difficult to walk on.

A lot of hard labor was involved in laying the rocks. My husband is a firm believer in doing things "the right way," so the path area had to be leveled, then he put down a fabric mesh liner and installed edging on both sides of the path to hold the rocks.

[You can click on the pictures to enlarge them, if you'd like]

The rocks had to be hauled by wheelbarrow from our driveway in front of the house all the way around the back of the house to the side where the path is located. Then finally, the rocks were spread between the edging and leveled.

This is the lava rock path after it was finished ...

We lived with the path for a few months, but it didn't take us long to realize that it wasn't what we wanted. I really didn't like the way it looked, and, as I mentioned earlier, the rocks were difficult to walk on.

Naturally, after all the hard work (not to mention the money) involved in building the path, I was hesitant to ask my husband if we could take the lava rocks up and replace them with natural stones. I waited a while longer before I broached the subject, and he said, very sweetly, that if I wanted to take the lava rocks up, we could have stones put down, thinking that I'd never attempt to remove all those rocks by myself. Well, that just made me even more determined to tackle those rocks!

So, early one April morning, I decided I was going to begin the rather formidable task of removing the rocks. The first thing I did was go to Home Depot and buy gloves and a small wheelbarrow. This is the one I chose and I just love it.

It's lightweight, yet sturdy, a perfect size for me, and has a neat little storage place for my gloves, gardening tools, a drink, and my cell phone (in case I get bitten by snake or something and need to call 911).

I used a "flat blade" shovel and started where the path ended in the backyard, working toward the front. About an hour ... and three or four wheelbarrow loads later ... this is what I accomplished. I was pleased with my progress and when my husband came home that afternoon, he seemed to be surprised at how much I had gotten done in so little time.

This is where I put the rocks as I took them up (behind our house) ...

After two or three more rock-moving sessions (and probably a dozen more wheelbarrow loads), I finally found the rock I had been looking for all that time -- the last one! I was so happy to be finished, and was proud that I did it all by myself.

Another month or so went by and we hired a landscaping company to install an irrigation system and lay the new stone path. They "put us on their schedule" and work was begun two weeks later (no one gets in a hurry but ME).

We chose blue stone because it blended with the natural stones used around the pond and waterfall in the courtyard.

I discovered that there is definitely an art to laying stone ... even randomly. The guy who laid them does tile work in his spare time and it was amazing to watch him work. He did a beautiful job and we are thrilled with our new path.

But there was one more project to be done -- the addition of a stone bridge to connect the pond in our courtyard to the new stone path.

A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I went to the stone place and picked out the stone for the bridge. It is eight feet long, weighs approximately 1500 pounds, and has lichen and moss growing on it which gives it lots of character. And yesterday was the day they put it in place (I was sorry I didn't take pictures of the guys bringing it in, but I was so excited, I didn't think about it until it was too late).

Here is the stone after they got it set ... Doesn't it look like it was just made for our bridge? [You can tell more about it if you enlarge the pictures]

We waited so long for this project to be completed and couldn't be more pleased with the results, especially the bridge. I've walked back and forth across it I don't know how many times "trying it out," and I just love it. The only thing I worry about is our little granddaughter falling off of it. We'll just have to keep a close watch on her until she gets used to it.