Lovely!!! You have such an inspiring garden!!!!

I hardly ever think to visit the gallery. I'm glad you mentioned it. Your gardens are beautiful ... true cottage style!

We've been eating chard a couple times a week all winter/spring. I don't think I could handle every day. ;)

I love all your purple... Is that a missile mailbox?

I also love all the landscaping you've done with rocks.

Didn't you say you lived in the city? (Maybe I'm just confused, that happens a lot, LOL.) Your main garden looks like it's way out in the mountains or something. It's beautiful.

How long ago did you put down those stone pathways? Do you have to refresh the stones in them every year?

I'm drooling over that lovely strawberry patch! I am thinking about trying a strawberry pyramid bed...I Love spirea! Mine is just starting to bloom(Ialways worry that things won't grow, and I just moved the spirea, and it seems very happy so am I too!ha!

So beautiful! Love your Japanese maples, stacked stones, spilling of plants over them, Swiss chard - I planted it this year mostly for ornamental reasons - love the color combination.
~Natalie

GGG just what I needed thanks for sharing. Spring is still struggling to break through here. I don't know about your 90 degree weather tho... I'd be melting and doing a lot of whining.
It looks like it may be a little warmer here next week. You have beautiful roses blooming, mine are just starting to signs of growth, that bed of greens of yours.... has me wiping drool off the keyboard.

Annette

GGG, your pictures are beautiful! What a fabulous job you have done and I love how you are so carefree with paint. The mailbox is so cute. You have such a great veggie garden. Do you have any pests? Rabbits, voles, moles, woodchucks, etc.

The temperatures have become much more reasonable after some storms on the weekend!! Thank-you for all the lovely compliments. This is a very good garden year, we've had plenty of rain although I still notice that the ground is very dry in some areas. The rain simply can't soak in well after years of drought and the clay I worked so hard on year after year is so hard again.
To answer some questions. Yes, that is a missile under my mailbox! It made me WANT this house! I love crazy stuff like that.
We live in downtown Atlanta, in the first suburban annex - after The Great Fire (which occurred a mile from us) people built in this neighborhood. There are some Victorians behind my home.
Our pathway was laid in 13 years ago. It was originally solid concrete. That is simply broken concrete with pea gravel, we set it right into the clay with no base. Dirt has washed into the pea gravel and holds most of it pretty firmly.
I took some more photos yesterday and I'll try and post them (some of the roses which have been spectacular the last two days). The spring storms have effected the phone lines here so my internet has been intermittent the last two weeks!!

Oh my....you have such an amazing touch. I love love that rock wall in the last pic...the whole thing is perfect as you say. What lovely places to sit a spell. Your raised beds are perfect. I don't have room for them but I have a new one that I will post soon...think of it as a raised "bed" bed :) c

This post made me so happy! Our earliest plants are just barely turning green now, so it was awesome to see your beautiful garden this morning. I'm growing edible stuff this year and would love to see more of your vegetable garden. What is your favorite way to prepare swiss chard? Thanks again!!

I always love your photos. Thanks for sharing them!
~Renee

Dahli22, I made my own version of a swiss chard wrap this week, and they are the biggest hit ever! We had it tonight at a party, and yesterday I took them to the neighborhood picnic. I'm going to use them in some classes this week.

As much chard as you need individual leaves. For every 70 leaves you need a full cup of the raw rice.

1 cup uncooked brown sushi (sticky) rice or shortgrain brown rice (needs to be short grain, and sticky is best). Cooked until well done (do not rinse first, let it go sticky)
1/2 c. miso mayo (my mayo of choice, but I'm sure you can use regular mayo
4 leeks or an onion sliced
olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
4 larger sized radishes finely chopped
2 carrots finely chopped
6 bite sized pieces of 9 day pickles (I think 3 tablespoons of sweet pickle relish would substitute nicely)
Seasoned vinegar: I make my own herbal vinegars but a seasoned rice vinegar to taste will work. Probably 2 tablespoons
salt
pepper
assorted chopped herbs of your choice: 4 tablespoons

Cut the swiss chard stems off of the leaves, cut down a bit to get all the firmest part cut away from the leave but leave the leaf intact. Chop finely.

Saute the onion or leek and swiss chard stems until soft. Add finely chopped nuts, pickles, radish, carrot in a bowl to cool. Add in the fully cooked rice and herbs. Mix together well. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil, the miso mayo and stir - season to taste. I found I needed some raw garlic, just a small amount for some kick. This will seem very strongly flavored, and it needs to be to compete with raw chard.

Add a dollop of the mix on each clean and dry chard leaf. Wrap in a bundle and secure with a tooth pick. I make each one into a two bite size.

Rave reviews, now my fave!! I'm in the process of removing the old garden, ammending soil to plant so the veggie garden is not so pretty but you can see it with last years photos: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v192/girlgroupgirl/2010/

Here is a link that might be useful: girlgroupgirl 2010 photos of garden

wow that sounds fantastic! thanks for posting!

You mentioned you fertilized the beautiful purple Iris. What did you use? Do you recall what variety of iris those are? I love purple and pink and versions of it.