Marble Gardens & Fish Ponds

[Marblehead]

Hi Folks, A request was made that I show my gardens so here is the first of six pictures showing most of the garden areas.

(Pix deleted to make room for the next pix.)

Along the sidewalk there are five 10-foot sections, the two outside and the center having Mexican Petunias and the other two having Daylilies and Dwarf Zinnias.

Right side of the stone walkway are two 10-foot sections with (newly planted) Muns (I just removed the dying wild perslane).

Growing on the fence at the back of the picture (side fence) are Honeysuckle and on the ground is a row of Juniper.

(I will leave this picture for a few days and then post the next one as I am limited as to disk space of my uploads.)

Edited February 19, 2014 by Marblehead

[Protector]

Where are the tomatoes and pumpkins?

[Marblehead]

Where are the tomatoes and pumpkins?

I buy those things at the store when I need them.

[Marblehead]

Marblehead, thanks for sharing. Nice! (BTW -- That section of your garden is about the size of my city apartment. )

Hehehe. I had to live in conditions like that many times when I was in the Army.

[Apech]

I think I could climb that fence ... is it electrified???

 

Is that an irrigation pipe on the right? How much rain do you get? Where I am we have to irrigate twice a week in the summer ... its a pin in the neck and takes ages. Mind you I grow mostly veggies.

 

Thanks for the pic (should have said that first)

[Protector]

GROW SOME SUN FLOWERS AT LEAST

They're awesooooooooooome

tho you would need to wash your hands a lot

[Marblehead]

GROW SOME SUN FLOWERS AT LEAST

They're awesooooooooooome

tho you would need to wash your hands a lot

I grow sunflowers every three to four years - when inspired. No inspiration for them last year or this year. Year before that there were some though - the rust red colored ones.

[Aetherous]

Mmmmmm gardenzzz. Good topic.

 

city apartment

 

http://www.windowfarms.org/

[Apech]

Yep had sunflowers ... couple 6 - 7 foot high.

[Marblehead]

Mmmmmm gardenzzz. Good topic.

 

http://www.windowfarms.org/

I'm not good with house plants so I don't even try anymore.

[Marblehead]

Yep had sunflowers ... couple 6 - 7 foot high.

About twenty-five years ago I grew some right next to the house and one of them grew so large that I was able to sit on the roof of the house and the top-most flower on the plant was right next to my head. I might try growing a few in that same area one year just to see what happens.

[Protector]

DO ET

[Apech]

About twenty-five years ago I grew some right next to the house and one of them grew so large that I was able to sit on the roof of the house and the top-most flower on the plant was right next to my head. I might try growing a few in that same area one year just to see what happens.

 

Yep I can imagine ... those things get really big ... with flowers like dinner plates. You can eat the seeds of course but here the birds get them all.

[Marblehead]

Yep I can imagine ... those things get really big ... with flowers like dinner plates. You can eat the seeds of course but here the birds get them all.

Yeah, the last of my cats passed on almost two years ago so I have a lot of birds coming around. Of course, I feed them so they have cause to come around. Lately I have had herds of pigeons coming around pigging out on the bird feed (lots of sunflower seeds in it). Too late to grow any this year anyhow so even if I do grow any it won't be until next spring.

[mYTHmAKER]

Nice garden - looks like you will never run out of Lillies

Thanks for posting

[Marblehead]

Nice garden - looks like you will never run out of Lillies

Thanks for posting

Thanks. It was suggested to me that I thin them out last winter but I am glad I didn't considering how many and how long I got flowers this year.

 

Did I mention that I started them from seed?

[Stosh]

_{That is admirable , growing from seed ,Im thinking lillies take a long time that way,}

_{I started some rain lillies which didnt accumulate enough size to flower until the third year.}

_{And they arent even big.}

_{Most folks I know never really bother to grow from seed but there is so much more}

_{variety cheaply available that way ....}

_{Purslane grows pretty easy from seed too, if you catch them.}

_{Oh , get another cat too.}

_Stosh

 

_{Whats the pink flowers behind the ruellia ? nicotania?}

_{The orange looks like lantana , but behind that looks like juniper.}

_{Juniper? what do you think of russelia as an accent for it.}

_{OOps Im running off on on tangents again , before the bird hobby}

_{I was a plant nut , I had over a hundred species in my back yard.}

_{The girlfriend wanted everything to match like dinnerware}

_Ughh.

Edited September 19, 2012 by Stosh

[Marblehead]

I got lily flowers the second year after planting. I had 100 seed and ended up with 85 healthy plants the first year.

 

I have one area where there are Purslane and Rain Lilies. Have had the Purslane (actually in two areas up against the house) for about twenty-five years and they keep reseeding themselves. Of course, they die back in the winter but are very quick at coming back as soon as it warms up.

 

The Rain Lilies have been moved three or four times until they got where they are now (they were growing wild in my yard when I bought my house). They normally flower in Fall and then again in Spring. I got some flowers later this year during early Summer because I have been able to water with rain water collected in my rain barrels (I have 30 55-gallon plastic drums I catch rain in for both the fish ponds and for gardening).

 

I won't talk about the other plants I have as that will come when I post more pictures of my gardens.

 

But I will say that I think having russelia up against juniper would not be such a good idea because of the foliage of the russelia. I would look for a broad-leaf flowering plant, preferably shades of yellow or red.

 

Anyhow, I will post another picture soon and talk about it as well.

[Marblehead]

Deleted picture.

 

Okay. Standing in the driveway, first along the driveway are the juniper, then an area of marigolds.

 

The other side of the stepping stones parallel with the juniper is a mess right now. The base plant is Cyclamen. They don't like hot temperatures and have died back for the summer. I had some beautiful Moss Roses earlier this Summer in the area but they got root rot and died back. Right now there are a few Torenia and Mum plants there just so it isn't bare.

 

The circular area are Mums, just recently planted (store bought) then the bird bath and the bird feeder.

 

There are three trellises I will talk about more with other pictures but visible from front-right to rear-left are Bleeding Hearts, Creeping Trumpet (coral colored flowers) Vines, and then again more Bleeding Hearts.

 

Yes, behind the birdbath are Lantana. They are the best flower I have had so far for attracting butterflies. The red flower in there is a Starburst left over from last year that wanted to grow and I didn't have the heart to pull it out.

 

At upper-right please note the 1984 Honda Civic Wagovan. It is converted over to total electric and I have solar panels on the roof used as a trickle charger to keep the batteries charged after charging with the system charger. I did the numbers a while back and I get the equivalent of 70 MPG (comparing cost of gas to cost of electricity for charging the batteries).

 

Note also the blue water barrels. There are 8 along the front of the work shop that catch the rain from that side of the house.

Edited September 24, 2012 by Marblehead

[Stosh]

_{Since you arent crazy abou the area with the torenia I thought I might toss an idea out}

_{,extend the junipers which are driveway side to that side of the 'walk' so there is a path amongst them}

_{the border of which should be assymetric like a golf course green.}

_{( if you need to keep the pavers at all ,since only a foot over you have the mulch)}

_Stosh

_{Red does look nice against juniper , I cant tell what space you have over there.}

_{Russelia is rather broad .}

Edited September 20, 2012 by Stosh

[Marblehead]

That variety of juniper is very slow growing. It took about ten years to fill in the area that I have and then I went and ruined some of it and had to buy more starter plants and hope it fills in again. Even if it does it will take 2 - 3 years for it to do so.

 

Actually, I really don't have any free space. Just enough room to walk between the different arrangements. If I want a different plant I would have to pull something up and I am getting tired of doing that. It is enough work changing from the summer plants to the winter plants.

[Stosh]

I hear ya

Stosh

[Marblehead]

Removed

 

Standing on the sidewalk:

 

Lower center are the Lantana,

 

Upper left are the Creeping Trumpet vines with Hummingbird feeders,

 

Upper right are Bleeding Heart Vines (all but one are the white outer flower with the red inner flower and the other is a dark red outer with bright red inner.)

Edited September 25, 2012 by Marblehead

[mYTHmAKER]

Nice. How about an aerial shot.

Google earth should do it

[Protector]

Wait... for Marble Gardens I don't see that many marbles, did you loose them?

 

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOH