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berrytea4me

Landscaping Progress & flowers in my gardens (slide shows)

berrytea4me
15 years ago

Wanted to show you all the progress I'm making plus my flowers. Another flagstone walkway will be finished this week, then on to mulching & fencing.

Landscape project:

As it was starting in 2005

Landscape 2005

Landscape last fall and this spring...2007/8

Landscape 2007/8


Flowers in my gardens- mostly from this year:

Flowers in My Gardens

Comments (17)

  • berrytea4me
    Original Author
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Do these photobucket links let you see my slides? I was able to see them myself but sometimes it does not work for others. LMK
    -Debra

  • highalttransplant
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Debra, when I click on the links, it brings me to the photobucket log in page.

    Hope you get it figured out, I can't wait to see the pics. Besides, then you can teach me how you did it!

    Bonnie

  • berrytea4me
    Original Author
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    OK,
    Trying again. Please let me know if this works better. Click on the "view all images" tabs to view the slide shows.

    Landscape 2005

    Landscape 2006/7

    Flowers in My Garden

  • psittacine
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    berrytea4me, that just takes us to Photobucket home page. Am looking forward to seeing the slides. Please keep trying....

    Crystal

  • berrytea4me
    Original Author
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    OK, I finally got it fixed on my member's page.

    This should work. Photobucket has changed the code they create for slide shows and the new code does not work. However, because I had previously posted slides on my members page I still had a sample of the old code. I got all three slide shows working by cut & pasting the correct directory structure into the old code.

    check out my member page to see them.

    Here is a link that might be useful: berrytea4me Members Page

  • psittacine
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    berrytea4me, that just takes us to Photobucket home page. Am looking forward to seeing the slides. Please keep trying....

    Crystal

  • highalttransplant
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Debra, the link does take me to your member page, and the picture of the botanical garden pulls up, but the slide shows failed to load. I'm sorry you are having so much trouble, but I know you'll get it worked out eventually. Just keep trying!

    Bonnie

  • conace55
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Not to make things more confusing, but when I clicked on her link I saw a beautiful slide show of peonies and colorful iris. Very nice.

    Connie

  • berrytea4me
    Original Author
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I'm working with member support at Photobucket. Hope to get it resolved soon.

    Connie, glad you were able to see the slide show of the flowers. Were you also able to see the other two with landscaping progress?

  • Azura
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I can see all of the photos and landscaping progress and I could see them earlier today, I just didn't get a chance to comment.
    Wow! I LOVE your before and after photos and you have done a beautiful job in designing and implementing your design.
    Your walkways are great, were they labor intensive? What type of stone is that? I love the rectangular shape, very pleasing to the eye.
    I also love the black scroll screens you have behind your table on the patio, those are gorgeous! May I ask where you found them?
    Everything looks great, thanks for sharing!

  • berrytea4me
    Original Author
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Still working with Photobucket support BUT the slide shows on my member's page appear to be working correctly. PB Support suggests that if you cannot see these try clearing the browser cache on your computer following these instructions: http://forums.photobucket.com/showthread.php?t=23437

    azura, yes, the walkways were labor intensive...for my friend that I have hired to install all of the heavy/hard parts. He trenched and installed the sprinkler system, put in the patio, put in the >400ft of walkways, ammended all the planting areas with 3-5 inches of sheep manure, tilled the entire lot several times, laid out the yards and together we laid the sod. He will also be installing the fencing once I buy materials. He works a few hours per week after his day job...hence the long installation process...but much better quality job than I would have gotten from a professional installer...and they quoted me rediculous prices...$10,000 just for soil prep! $40,000 for entire installation less plants and fence!

    I hired a professional landscape designer to layout the general ideas (then modified and in some cases scrapped the materials & plants she proposed). It would have looked like a beautiful COMMERCIAL lot had I followed her planting ideas. Plus, she suggested things like a beautiful hedge of 26 Skyrocket junipers....the best price I've found for those is $250 each! Like that will happen in my lifetime! But having a general layout and printed design for my friend to follow was so important, especially for him to design & install the sprinkler system.

    The wrought iron screens were a purchase from SAM's Club. I saw them a few years ago and knew they were what I had been looking for. Before that I had purchased some planters with trellises to go around the patio but they blew over in the wind all the time. The wrought iron ones are bolted into cemented supports- they are not going anywhere.

    Those are the least expensive cement patio pavers I could find in the walkway. They are surrounded by Breeze. The landscape designer had suggested the pathways be just the Breeze only and the color she chose would have looked just like the pathways in a driveway at a national park...yuck! Installation process was: layout & dig the entire walkway 6 inches deep, put in 4 inches of cement sand, pack & level, at the same time install metal edging on each side, lay the pavers & level them in the sand, cover with Breeze & water/pack. It seems to work OK except in places where the surrounding beds are higher than the walkway. In those places the dark dirt washes into the walkway and makes a mess of the Breeze.

  • highalttransplant
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thanks for the tip. I deleted my cookies, and it ran perfectly.

    Loved the patio, the graceful flow of the walkways and beds, and the gorgeous flower photos!

    When you look back at the photos of your dirt yard, isn't it great to see how far you've come?

    Bonnie

  • berrytea4me
    Original Author
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Well, I'm glad you were able to view the slide shows. Yes, amazing to look at the difference. You know, I'm already forgetting what it was like for so many years before. It is also nice to have everyone in the neighborhood making compliments every time they walk by. But the biggest plus is that I love to garden and I was not able for so many years because I couldn't keep anything watered.

  • Vic Billings, MT
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Debra, looks GREAT! You are really getting a lot done, wish I could say the same, "sigh".....

    I love the slide show of your Iris!

    Vic(new to RMG forum)

  • berrytea4me
    Original Author
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Welcome to RMG Vic!

    Glad you enjoyed the shows.

    Check back in a few weeks. My daylilies are just starting to bloom so I will be adding new pictures of those to the flower show. Like everything else, most are new to me this season.

  • stevation
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hey Debra, it looks great! Two questions:

    1. What is Breeze? Some kind of compactable path material? How can I find out more about it? Trying to Google search for it, I just find a bunch of landscaping companies with breeze in their name.

    2. What was that comment in the slideshow about protesting overzealous government? I didn't get it from what I saw in the photo!

    Steve

  • berrytea4me
    Original Author
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Steve,
    Breeze is a crushed rock fines + clay mix for driveway/walkway base. You can find a descriptiong here:
    Pioneer Landscaping Materials

    Ah, the over zealous government. Well, that side of my fence is not my property. It belongs to the town (formerly 230 residents now about to boom to 1500 homes and a super WalMart).

    At one time long ago when the town was still a small country town, during which time most of the current residents that weren't born here moved here to avoid larger obtrusive governments, the volunteer government enacted an ordinance that requires residents who live adjacent to town right of ways to keep the right of way clear. We have no sidewalks, just gravel & weeds. So, we all mow and keep up the area surrounding our properties at our own expense so that our neighbors can walk along the trails beside the road. All well and good for a small town until....

    In 2005 the new town council decided to enact HOA type rules on all the landowners in town w/o anyone knowing they did it. Then, last year, they hired a little college girl to go around and report every yard that had "weeds" in it, rv's or trailers parked in their driveway, construction materials stacked behind the house, etc.

    I had allowed that tiny 1 ft strip in front of my fence to grow up while waiting for the proper time of year to pull out the iris I had planted there that were over run by the grass. The rest of the 15 ft right of way to the road was mowed. I was written up for allowing the grass to grow along my fence. Now also keep in mind that my neighbors, who have a natural "prairie garden" filled with the same varieties of grass in flower at the same time as that along my fence, were not written up.

    So, since the fantastic law writers could not distinguish in the law between ornamental and native grasses, such that "any grass that is allowed to flower or is greater than 6 inches tall" is considered a "weed" under the law (however subjectively it was applied), I planted the whole strip in ornamental grasses- the tallest I could find.

    The town now has multi-million dollar budget and still can't be bothered with taking care of their own right of way at their own expense or even put in sidewalks but they have the gall to monitor our private property for weeds! This is my protest. People on the exchange boards here even sent me grasses to contribute :)

    I've also allowed an 8' high by 6' wide thistle to grow and bloom inside my fence line. It is some strange variety probably from some bird seed. At first I thought it was going to be a white prickly poppy which I had scattered some seeds there. But since it isn't a poppy, and I'm Scottish by heritage so that is a national flower for my family, I thought I'll just let it feed the birds and annoy the town government. If they have the nerve to write me up about it I'll complain that they are descriminating against my heritage and see how far I can take that.

    Someone has got to start standing up for landowner's rights or we won't have any rights to our property left.

    So there you are, the whole darn story.