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Saturday, August 4, 2012

A face lift for an old landscape.

This is what you see as you drive into my driveway. The chair tells you to stop and park at this point, as the driveway goes down to the lake past this juncture. The terrain is crushed stone, pounded down to feel smooth and even to the walker. The trees in the background are all growing down by the lake.

From the street, you can see arbors, chairs, stone benches and flowered pots.


You are invited to stop here and chat before you approach the entrance. All plantings are deer-proof and mostly native to this area. In a few months the arbors will have vines growing above, with profuse flowers blooming from late summers to late fall.

Across the arbors, the house entrance sits at the end of a suspended bridge crossing a dry creek. The pots' colors are blue, sienna red, grey. The gravel is sand/grey; the stones are grey/slate. The star magnolia in the dry creek will bloom from December to February. The Camellia, from October to December.


 The dry creek is made up of sand, rocks, and gravel. Plants and bushes and ferns appear here and there.
Outside the front door, on the far side of the picture, the dry creek under this footbridge spills out on the concrete and meets the arbors at the opposite end.



And finally, a place to turn the car around once out of the garage, or off the concrete pad!

Now, we are going to walk down to the lake, past the boat house, and into the deer-proof enclosure to visit my vegetable/fruit garden.


These rusty chairs will greet you at the entrance. They are supporting  small grape vines too small to stand on their own at this time. The posts are set for a future grape arbor right here.


In this enclosed area I grow my vegetables in raised boxes. I can stand up and putter around with ease. In this box, my salad greens are ready to be thinned. Arugula, fennel, basil, parsley and sage grow among the various musculus mixes. I can decide to harvest just bibb lettuce for a special recipe, or escarole to use in a pasta dish.

Having a variety of greens makes it easy to plan meals.

Notice the bird netting, suspended by a metal pole, to keep birds and other critters out. The boxes will be equipped with drip irrigation on timers. Even if I ended up in a wheelchair, I could still manage to grow my own veggies here.

I have ten boxes, each with different variations. I'm even attempting to grow corn here; though, I don't think I've ever seen corn growing around these parts. This area faces south, and it is protected from the prevailing north winds that blow in summer. I might get lucky!

We spend mornings down here, watering, weeding, planting.
With coffee at hand, we forget the world here,  listening to the ocean, picking berries, weeding roses.

We were meant to be in gardens.


Note: design and construction done by By-the-sea Gardens, in Bandon, and by Mike Hewitt Construction and Excavation in Port Orford. Our thanks to these fine professional for a job well done.



26 comments:

Brian Miller said...

nice...the coolest part for me is your entry way...it looks very neat....lots of cool texture too in your remodel...i like....

Diane said...

Loved this walk around a beautiful garden. I envy you the raised vegetable gardens, so much easier on the back. Have a great Sunday. Diane

Terra said...

You are right, we are meant to be in gardens. That was a nice tour of your outside areas in this post. How good to be right near water.
Right now we have herbs and snow peas to harvest.

Helga said...

I especially love the house entrance, the colorful pots and flowers, the dry creek, the arbors, the vegetable boxes, the lake...

No sign of worn-outness in all the beautiful planning and in what you have accomplished with your landscaping! Enjoy every moment in your well-deserved paradise, Rosaria and Ken!

Rian said...

Give me a garden... and a cat
Beauty and quiet contemplation
Add a favorite book and a cup of tea...
'This' is all the world... to me.

Your post brought this to mind.

Patricia said...

Looks just wonderful, Rosaria...I wish you many delightful hours spent in your beautiful setting. Really like your raised beds!

yaya said...

Yippee! It's done! Thanks for sharing the pics with us. It turned out super! Love the dry creek bed under the bridge to the house. I think the grape arbor will be cool too. The raised bed are very nice and so smart. That is a goal of mine to have just raised beds. Enjoy your time in your own personal "Garden of Eden"!

Rob-bear said...

A huge project completed! And it looks wonderful; beauty crossed with functionality.

Thanks for the pictures.

Cloudia said...

You have created a heavenly garden.




Have a Sweet Weekend -
Aloha from Waikiki
Comfort Spiral
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Joani said...

It looks so inviting and so beautiful. Love that the beds are raised. Thanks for sharing. Hugs.

Unknown said...

Lovely!

the walking man said...

That, Rosaria, turned a beautiful spot into a lovely garden of life.

potsoc said...

Very nice, Rosaria, very nice. Thanks for the visit.

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

I enjoyed the lovely tour - thank you.

Linda Myers said...

Lucky you!

dianefaith said...

Beautiful! I've looked forward to seeing pictures of the completed project and loved enlarging them one by one on the screen. You've created something very peaceful and beautiful that doesn't look to require a lot of maintenance. How tall are those beds?

rjerdee said...

loving your facelift! so fresh and fun and i bet you can't wait until those arbors are dripping with vines.

RNSANE said...

My goodness, you've done a wonderful job and this is such a perfect, relaxing spot. No wonder you have your coffee here in the morning and I don't doubt you might linger in the evening with a nice glass of wine. I do hope to see it in person one of these days. It seems you've thought of everything, Rosaria.

Unspoken said...

I miss my gardens so much. I am not sure I ever posted them :(. LOVE the rusty chairs, arbors, and raised beds.

Rosaria Williams said...

Our raised beds are two feet tall, and since I'm short, I never have to bend to cultivate the area. I'm enjoying planting, weeding, and harvesting without hurting anything.

In the last nine years, it became more and more difficult to get down to the ground to maintain my vegetable garden.

The ten boxes have five feet of mowing space between each of them, and all around, allowing the tractor mower to maintain the rest of the area.


We had to remove some trees, disassemble the old arbor, move roses, move blueberry bushes, and add a new pump and new pipes to bring water to the new areas.



p.s. we filled the boxes with new top soil and amendments, making sure the bottom had chicken wire to keep moles away. This morning, I noticed mole piles around the yard, but none in the vegetable boxes!

Thanks for the visit, everyone.

NitWit1 said...

I loved the tour of your home and gardens. It is very beautiful and also utilitarian.

A drip irrigation system is my next project. We lost our teenage laborer. He was in a number of troublesome and dangerous situations, and has been transferred to a foster home.

We knew all this and were trying to contribute to his well being by showing him he could work, had some skills worth paying a wage for.

cheshire wife said...

What a lovely place to live!

Tom said...

Nice ... thanks for the tour. My favorites are the arbors and the raised boxes for the garden. I've been thinking about a raised garden for the few tomatoes I grow, but so far I have only managed a very primitive version. Maybe you'll inspire me for next year!

ds said...

Beautiful. Simple, serene...yes, I can understand how you could become 'lost' working in your garden. Thanks so much for sharing!

Midlife Roadtripper said...

Thank you for taking us for a walk. I like the ideas of your garden boxes. Certainly will offer gardening for a long time. I get things grow pretty up there for you.

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Rosaria .. it's looking just great - and you've obviously worked out exactly what you need .. and then incorporated nature into your landscaping - well done and you'll be so enjoying those salads and veggies ... cheers Hilary