it's really beautiful! I'd love to see larger photos, actually! :)

Oooohhhh Annette ~ I just love your place. I feel right at home, and would love to sit and have a cup of tea with you. It's hard to believe that you have a highway at the back of your place. You've created a real peaceful haven there.

I always thought you had luscious fuchsias.

Enjoy.

FlowerLady

that is awesome! thanks for posting (again--i didn't see it the first time). love your arbors and that trickling pond. fabulous!

Annette, it's always a pleasure. The climbing rose is simply glorious, but then again I love it all..

I'll come back to this post again and again. No- I'll clip this post just in case something happens to it. What a talent you have.
Renee

I want the lathe house. All your garden rooms are beautiful.

Annette,
You've been holding out on me!
Your place is fabulous!

What is that fern-looking plant on the right front at the foot of those gorgeous Clematis and Pink Roses by the gate in the 2nd to the last photo - your "Dancing with the Weeds' pic? I LOVE that photo. Your arch and pergola and paths are beautiful too. Love those winding alpine paths and look of your gardens. And with that backdrop of gigantic firs in the background, you have a breathtakingly beautiful garden.

I had plans to turn my old shed (goat barn) into a lathhouse, but couldn't get The Heathen to help me do it. I have my Gird grape growing up one side now where I wanted to put the lath. He wants to tear it down. Says it is about to fall down. Taint so. It looks rickety because the tin roof is loose and flops and bangs in the wind. All it needs is a floor, a new roof and lath on the outside. Heck, we could knock that out in a fortnight! I swear if he tries to do that, I will chain myself to it and go on strike!

I love your Bonsai in that anchor stone with the lichens growing on it. I like "mossy" things in the garden.

Everything is Beautiful!

"Dancing with the Weeds" indeed! How absurdly funny. (hahaha) Not a weed in sight, woman!

~Annie

Thanks Annie, most of these pictures are from 2 years ago, everything pretty much looks the same but I have couch grass running amuck through almost everything. Parts of the garden are being redone from scratch it's the only way to get rid of that %$#$%& grass.

I've had to remove a couple of shrubs because they've gotten too big. The pink magnolia you can see in one of the pictures is coming out, 4 out of 5 years the flowers get frosted and turn brown before they bloom, doing this will let more light into that section of the garden so some good will come of this, I'm actually looking forward to redoing this bed this fall.

The older I get plants that will act as ground covers are becoming more appealing to me. I have a campanula 'Blue Waterfall?' spreading along the edge of a path mingling with ladies mantle and ajuga, quite pretty in my eyes.

It has cooled off, down in the seventies now so hope to get quite a bit done by this fall.

Annette

Annette, your garden is just wonderful! I love and envy you the lath house. What a useful place that would be.

Every time I see garden pictures from BC, I think maybe that it should be the gardening capital of the world. Things always look so lush. Do you never have droughts?

Annette, your gardens are absolutely beautiful. What a peaceful place you have created. I love the bench. What are your plans for that area?

I'm interested that you have problems with magnolia flowers getting frosted before bloom. I guess I would never have expected that in Z8. When does your magnolia want to bloom?

Thyme, I had to smile when I saw the word peaceful, right behind the fence in the first picture is a 4 lane highway. But you know after living here for 45 years we're used to the traffic noise. I love to go sit up by that little pool late at night with a cup of coffee, the traffic has usually died down by then and you can here the other night sounds.

That little bench is situated between two small beds, there's a gravel path in front of them which runs from my pergola to the enclosed area where the first picture was taken, on the other side of this path is a longish perennial bed. This section of my garden is behind the garden shed seen in the second picture.

I'm still scratching my head over what I'm going to do with this whole section, I want to keep a lot of the plants but the two smaller beds are being dug several time over the next couple of years to get rid of the cursed couch grass. The long bed isn't bad so hopefully will get that done in the fall. I wish I had a magic wand to wave but I can't seem to find one. Me thinks a lot of constructive staring will be done before the my light bulb comes on.

I think climate change has a lot to do with the browning of my saucer magnolia blooms, just when they start to open we get some heavy frosts and then rain, rain, rain. Our springs have changed drastically from what they were when we first moved here. On the other hand my stellata magnolia that has grown into a small tree, blooms a little later and most years it's lovely.

Annette

Annette, if only those people speeding by on the highway knew what was hiding behind the fence! You have done such a nice job really creating something special.

At least you have a beautiful place to sit while you contemplate the garden plans. I always find it interesting how sometimes thoughts and plans can just come to mind so easily about certain areas of the garden but then other areas can just sometimes really stump us gardeners.

What is the small tree/standard in front of the bench? And in the stump photo please don't tell me that is some of your Astrantia! That is huge. Do you fertilize? I think you posted Phuopsis before. Is that the pink by the path with the Astrantia? That's a really nice pairing and a very nice collection of plants in that photo overall.

Also, in the photo earlier in the season with the rhodie, is that a spruce or fir of some sort in that square cement pot? Do you keep that as a sort of bonzai? This is very interesting to me and I'd love to hear more about it. I've always wanted more evergreens in the garden but never want them to grow to 40 feet.

Thyme, the small tree by the bench is a miniature lilac, one of those grafted patio trees that have become popular for small gardens. Syringa meyeri 'Palibin' is the one I have. Actually I lost the grafted top of this little tree one winter so I begged a small piece of this lilac from a friend early in the year, wrapped it in damp paper towel and kept it in the fridge in a plastic bag until the spring then we cut the old top off and grafted a new piece on.

The Astrantia in the stump bed is Hadspen Blood, it's been there for a few years now, never been fertilized and yes that's Phuopsis by the path.

I'm not sure what the little tree is in the hypertufa planter, I bought it for the planter DS2 made for me back in 80's, Picea something 'Nana' seems familiar, I've lost the tag. The little tree was only about 6 inches high when I planted it. All it gets is water, no fertilizer. I grow it lean and mean. Look for varieties of dwarf Conifers that people plant in rock gardens. Dwarf Alberta Spruces are very nice slow growers.

Annie, sorry I didn't answer your question about the ferny looking plant at the base of the rose and clematis, if I'm looking at the right plant it's Sweet Cicely. I usually cut it to the ground and let it come again when it gets tall and floppy.

Annette

Its all beautiful! So peaceful and serene. I love it! Now tell me what is a lath house?? I have not got a clue. Judy

Pretty petals, a lath house is a framed structure built facing as near east and west as you can manage, without solid walls, these can be lathed or open. The roof is made up of strips of wood (laths) with spaces the width of a lath in between them. These laths are positioned north to south on both roof and wall if done right so when the sun passes over the lath house the light and shade is always moving. Plants like fuchsias, ferns, begonias and other plants that like filtered sun do well in lath houses. They're also a nice place to sit on a hot day for a spot of constructive thinking :). We also have our meals out there occasionally on really hot days.

Annette

That sounds so cool Annette. Now how can I talk the hubby into building me one?? hmmmm...... I have a patio out in the shadiest part of the yard but your lath house sounds like more fun. Thanks, Judy