A Garden Grows in California

30 Oct '07 4:51 am

I have been wondering if you were ok Mark-the TV news said that the fire area would take 4 hours to drive through-to give us some idea of the extent.
I absolutely love your garden,and laughed when the Xpert described it as unmanicured-we all understand that!I love it that it is so inviting to go through-One would come to the Y and wonder which way shall I choose?
I haven't taken a photo of our two blue cape cod chairs yet,so must do so.
I have a folder with your garden in it so have put these latest ones in to enjoy.
Dixie.

30 Oct '07 12:48 pm

Dear Faith you are very kind to recognize an old brain's lapse for what it is. So a belated shout-out right back at you. When I go to talks by landscape architects I am always surprised by the detached lack of interest with which they describe plant 'material'. I mean, why do landscapes at all if all you care about is surfaces?

Hi Dixie. No worries here regarding natural disasters of any kind - knock on wood. Looks like I must have put together some pictures that help to understand the layout. I think the two together including the chair and the pond give a good idea of the two longest site-lines with the one from the corner deck to the gate and fountain completing a triangle.

Glad you liked them so much Jack. I have to think it is for the reason that it helps to see the overall layout better. I'll keep that in mind the next time I photograph and try purposefully to show these long and short sitelines and how they relate.

Liza and Gordon I'm sorry my earlier reply to you guys didn't post. I must of done something wrong. Liza I do notice a difference in the light, and I sure do notice a difference in the day length. We're getting sun down at 6:20 pm now and of course it is staying dark much later in the morning. Sorry to be so infrequent a visitor here and at Flickr. This is a heavy lifting year at school. With many changes to make in the curriculum, I'm creating a lot of new materials and doing a lot of fine tuning. So far it is going pretty well in the classroom but school is crowding out personal space more than usual.

I saw a gardening show on TV this weekend about a gardener in Alaska and I thought of you Gordon. I think your weather may be more like Alaska if you move inland than where you are, even though your total precipitation will decrease. The gardens they showed there were incredible but so much more demanding in terms of what you need to know to be successful than what I deal with.

Thanks everyone for coming by. Lets do this again soon. Next time I'll make scones.

30 Oct '07 4:20 pm

what a beautiful retreat, a sanctuary garden sounds right to me. The unmanicured garden comment kind of reminds me of my mother, whenever she was having out of town company, we would spend days cleaning home and yard, then inevitably when they arrived, she would say "Please excuse the mess" drove us crazy, Laughing

30 Oct '07 11:12 pm

A big shout-out back to you, Mark! What a captivating and impressive garden diary, Applause

power-packed from beginning to finish with delightful garden history, projects/plans splendidly accomplished and great photos that kept me fully immersed in their lovely details and beauty! Well done, dear friend! And thanks so much for a lovely enjoyable afternoon dragging into the evening, time well spent in your wonderful paradise! Very Happy

31 Oct '07 6:02 pm

Hi, Mark- I just read that there was an earthquake in your area tonight. Did you feel it? The article didn't indicate that there was any damage, so it must have been fairly small - I think it said it was a 5.6 or something like that.

Stay safe!
-gordonf

4 Nov '07 12:47 pm

Boy have I got a lot of photos to post today. Went out with the camera this morning and took a lot of pictures, many of which are usable. (I throw back many more than I keep.) Most of the photos are in the area around the pond and entry area, mostly because the light was better there.

I haven't been doing much in the garden lately, other than walk around in it and look things over - a Moosey approved activity at least. I've turned all the watering off so I have to remember to water things. If I do anything outside today it will be to pot up some plants that are overdue for upgrades for more room.

4 Nov '07 5:00 pm

Hi, Mark! These pictures are just too cool!! Especially when everything here is somewhat battered from the rain, wind and zero temperatures at night! (That's Celsius!) The raccoons have (literally) come out of the woodwork at the neighbour's place just behind me and are having family gatherings and disagreements over the bird feeders. I don't usually hear them, but Joey does, and goes wild barking when they start their conversations at night! I'm worn out after my tribulations of yesterday. I cleaned house and cooked all day for a neighbourhood get-together TupperWare party that I hosted. As if that were not enough, about 2 hours before it was due to start, the carpenter arrived to begin installing the new 8-foot long fluorescent light box on the kitchen ceiling to repair the ceiling that had fallen in one section due to the constant leak from the roof. Well, as he pushed up the ceiling panel to do the installation, a mini-Niagara Falls gushed from the ceiling onto my newly-washed floor! I had baking in the oven but couldn't open the oven door because of the guy's ladder so some of my squares were well tanned, to say the least!

And, after all that, only a third of the guests showed up!! The party went all right, though, but I was up all night, sick, as a result of overdoing it!

I've been taking it very easy today, so it was great to see your wonderful garden in pictures. I loved the aloe and the scenes of the dry garden and persimmons. And you have fruit on the tree!! Mine died off completely one year, then grew back 2 years later. It's now about 3 feet tall once again. I wonder whether it'll EVER have fruit!

Your spider web is remarkable, too! You got it with just the right light, didn't you?

The little euphorbia seedlings from the seeds you sent me are now about 10 inches high and need repotting. I'm SO proud of them!!

Don't forget to turn your clock back tomorrow (or is it tonight?).

Cheers!
-gordonf

5 Nov '07 2:27 am

How very strange. I've just posted a response to your lovely pics and it has completely disappeared. Now I must bolt. If it doesn't appear later, I shall rewrite it...

5 Nov '07 4:52 am

Wow Mark, you have been busy with your camera. Good job getting so many photos of your gardens with this late fall light. Your light appears to be much like mine right now with lots of dark shadow contrast. Not my favorite time to try to photograph gardens. I think the photos I take look too harsh or something. The details just seem to disappear. However, you got some wonderful shots. Maybe I just need to stop whining about light and go out there and take loads of pictures. At least we are finally getting some fall color.

5 Nov '07 8:08 pm

I'm not sure about my light level preference, Faith. For highlighting texture I find the sharp contrast between light and shadow a plus. Since bloom color -though not entirely absent- isn't dominant right now, the texture and color of folliage have to carry the day. Even in Spring in Summer, I've always found that bright sunshine washes out a lot of color. There are no doubt ways to deal with that but neither my camera nor I are that talented.

I always shoot a hundred or more photos if I bother to carry the camera out in the garden at all. Usually there is lots of sand and only a few nuggets out of all those. I used to save everything but now I throw out all but the best of each shot I attempt unless there really are two that are good in their own ways. I figure if a bunch of chimps could pound out Shakespeare given enough time, I ought to be able to rival Ansel Adams at roughly the same rate. So the more to choose from the better.

Glad you found some you liked Gordon. I often think of you when I shoot the dry island bed. Looks like we might both be in for a wetter than usual winter if I remember correctly what "La Nina" means. I liked that photo you posted on one of Jack's threads I think, of Joey in bed. How funny that a couple of tough guys like our boys should be so camera shy. Fletcher actually let me take a bunch of photos of him today and yesterday. He still doesn't like it but he has become more tolerant.

A Garden Grows in California

Hi there

Mea culpa!

Wow! Wee!

Earthquake!

Feast or Famine

Too, too cool!!

Odd

Busy Mark