Funathon (ficaFun?) last call and picspam! ...of the garden variety.

[stoney321]

Granted, it's going to be crappy picpsam, but I'm getting ahead of myself. TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO SIGN UP FOR THE GUD SUMMRIES FUNAFIC FICATHON WHATEVER. Go here to add your final choice, if you haven't already! Wheeee! Emails coming Memorial Day weekend (May29th, for UK/Ozians) as a reminder for the due date of July 4th.

Now, a little bit about my digital camera. It sucks. No, really. Mr. S bought it. He looked for "bargain" instead of "ability to take pictures you actually would keep." Keep in mind:

• the camera blows


• my garden, like me, is better looking in person


• my garden, like me, is a year and a half old (wait...)


• everything in my garden was started either by seed or 4 inch cutting last year, so don't compare your LUSH PENNSYLVANIAN GARDENS, zomg.


• It's Texas. Prairie. *sighs*

First off, this is an Angel's Trumpet (Datura, not Brugamesia, Julia.) and will grow to about four feet high and five feet around. Got the very first bloom this morning.





Behind it, about a foot is one that blooms eggplant on the outside, white inside. LOVE this plant. (the flower is nine inches in length. See? Crappy camera.)

This is my climber, put in June last year, about six inches of stem. It's done well. Currently it's 24ft. high. That's the top of my office window next to it. Got three blooms yesterday, we stopped counting buds when Em and I hit 30. I'll take more pics when it's in full bloom.



This is a bed I put in along our driveway last August. Everything is a Texas native. GOD I hate our camera. That's 26 feet long. Can't tell, can you? :(


For those who want to know, spirea in front (the feathery, plumey foreground, yellow rose, lavender, bluebonnets, autumn sage in the middle, silvery shrubs are Powis castle Artemesia, blue point junipers in the back. They'll get to 15 feet.

Here's the house of Stoney! Be it ever so humble... (The bay window is my office.)


This is my kitchen bed. Again, roughly 26 feet in length, and my camera sucks. Did I mention that? Basil, bee balm, rosemary, curry, oregano, five kinds of thyme, thai basil, lavender cotton, and a JFK rose that needs some work. Ergh. (foreground at right, beautyberry - gets to five feet in height - bare space to the left is for peppers, TAM jalapeno)


Eventually that concrete patio will be all flagstone with a pergola over head, one support will be stone with a built in fireplace for wintertime outside goodness.

And these are just funny pictures I found while trolling the web. AWWWWW! And HEEEE!




That last one came from "funkygraphics" Hahahaha!! Isn't that hilarious?? Are you making kung fu sounds?

HAVE A GREAT DAY EVERYONE! I'll post the masterlist to the FicaFun (Funkyfic?) tomorrow! (Off to shop for a birthday, then back later, for those who care about such things. :* )

Comments

[marlo.livejournal.com]

DUDE!

That is a formidable abode. Holy smokes!

The roses are beauuuuuutiful. ^_^

[wickedgrdn.livejournal.com]

Your garden is awesome. Very pretty. And I have to say I love your house- it's gorgeous. Love the asskicked pic-hee hee!

[swmbo.livejournal.com]

GARDEN!

Come fix my garden.

*looks wistful*

also, eee, KITTEN!

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

I swear that the hort types started calling it Brugmansia after The Teachings of Don Juan was published, just so people wouldn't associate it with them damned drug-taking heathen hippies.

I can't keep it alive here, alas, but on the other hand I saw one in Santa Barbara that was about 10'X10' with a six inch trunk, covered with blooms in December (it's as famous locally as The Big Fig, apparentgly).

Either my camera has had a stroke or photobucket is eating about 60% of my resolution.

Julia, such a tidy garden! Mine is shaggy and invaded by thugs, but 22 years of planing the wrong geraniums will do that

Heee! Dueling kitties!

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

(Oh, man, our house is MODEST in this neighborhood. We're practically ghetto. Erm, you can get a lot of house for your buck in Texas. It's one of the many perks. :D )

ROSES. I have three others that are covered in buds... I wish my camera didn't suck - the yellow rose out front is STUNNING. I've had people stop in their cars and get out to look at it. *preens*

I'm such an old lady.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Oh GOD I laughed so hard at the kitty kicking the dog's face! The spit!! Hee heeeee!

[crazydiamondsue.livejournal.com]

Hah! *I've* seen it! /Rocky Horror

Holy fahk you reech beech...okay, my Donnatella sucks. Dude - your house looks MASSIVE. I mean, it's big and pretty and very in keeping with your neighborhood, but the way that's framed makes it look very gubernatorial. Goober. Heh. If I'd never seen it I would be very impressed with you! Hah. I'm still impressed. But mainly for your knockers. *runs and giggles*

Anyway - love the climbers! They're gorgeous. :)

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

*rolls up sleeves, grabs hoe*

Dude! The dog is killing me with his complete shock! (and beeep! to the ladybug pic.)

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Hahaha! Well, here, the Brugmansia is an annual, so there's the reason I make the distinction. (But you can get some fantastic color variation with the Brug. over Datura...)

I would worry about you planting one up there, as the cows might get into it and it's highly toxic to grazers. My aunt lost a goat! :(

I've been busting my hump getting the beds cleaned out in the back - there are a good three more beds back there I didn't show - mostly because one is completely kitchen functional and not pretty, and the other has been taken over by an invasive golden artemsia that TAMU is going to get an earful over. (I'm testing it for them. yeah. It likes our soil and heat.)

[crazydiamondsue.livejournal.com]

Oh, and MASTER! MASTER! Master gardener is pulling your weeds...stuck in my head. Thank you!

[sdwolfpup.livejournal.com]

I am so in awe of your green thumb. And your house, which is stunning. Especially with the beautifully manicured gardens!

And, hee, that last picture is killing me.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

What? It does? Man, I just got back from the "rich" neighborhood with the lakes (remember our walk?) on the lookout for herons (we shot video of it!) and my house feels so SMALL when I get back.

It's just the two story entryway, that's all.

Gah - I wish that camera could pick up detail - those pink roses are bigger than my fist and smell fantastic. Um... I know the camera can't pick up smells. :)

[http://users.livejournal.com/peasant_/]

Your house is awesome. And I am deeply impressed with 24 foot of rose in one year.

Everything is a Texas native.

Um, no, given the plant list you give in your next paragraph - really not.

[wickedgrdn.livejournal.com]

That is the funniest thing I have ever seen. The spit doesn't even begin to describe it LOL! :)

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Dude, I am PANICKED about showing my gardens, you kidding me? Thanks! And if I have my way, that front yard will be nothing but native plants with only an 18 inch strip of grass along the sidewalk to appease the HOA. (And that crappy pear tree in the front will be GONE.)

I LOVE that last picture!! I was about to spam your journal with it, in case you didn't see it here! (Sure fire way to put a smile on someone's face, right?)

*squish*

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Heh. Yeah they are. They're all specific species either developed at Texas A&M University to withstand our heat, or natives found in the wild here.

I mean, roses are everywhere, spirea is everywhere, but these particular varieties are natives.

Roses do EXCELLENT here with the many many pounds of sun we get - thrips can be a pain in the neck, and are taking over my JFK in the back. (in the kitchen garden)

[crazydiamondsue.livejournal.com]

I really hope we can find a weekend this summer for you to come down and help plan my beds. Eddie and I can do the work if you give us ideas on placement and shade and stuff. The Agrilawn dudes said we have good soil. I just need ideas. Also on keeping my dogs OUT of my flower beds. *grr*

Oooo...herons!

I want smell-o-vision. :(

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

I have about 400sq ft of Southernwood, which is Aretmesia something or other, and absolutely invasive. Not to mention six feet tall and, shall we say, generous of pollen in July.

My rule is that anyone who gives you an artemesia is probably an instrument of the devil.

Julia, wishing, however, I could grow Aretemsia tridentata and Calochortus elegans/C.macrocarpa (Native E.Washington arid steppe vegetation) here, as it's an amazing sight in June. I only get about 45 inches of precip a year too much rain, though.

[lettered.livejournal.com]

I always feel like explaining that it's Texas to people when I show the garden, too.

Everything looks gorgeous. I especially love the garden along the driveway. I can't believe the blue bonnets are STILL blooming. I went up to Austin for Easter and the drive was pretty much solid blue, so gorgeous. Don't they usually get too hot by this time of year?

That's the spitting image of my parents' house. Actually, of the neighbor's house, because the model is the same so my parents had to choose a different facade. hahahahah! Oh suburbia.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

See how I pulled the kitchen bed away from the house? That was so Kuby (our old Weimaraner) wouldn't tromp over the herbs and such. Dogs walk the perimeter, so you may as well pull the beds out with a foot of space. Then, you can garden all the way around the bed and not have to reach way over to get at stuff, too.

BLUE HERON! And geese and many many ducks and coots. It was SO nice this morning!

Re: Heee! Dueling kitties!

[marlo.livejournal.com]

Today is 4/20 and you said "buds."

Heh. What's this about being an old lady?

Yeah, real estate here is craaaaaaaaaazy. Most houses in Vancouver (as opposed to the suburbs) are from half a mil up. Half a mil being a below-average lot and house.

So nice houses are only for the very, very rich here. It's a bit different in the suburbs, though still expensive. The house I grew up in is around half a mil to 600,000, I think. (What the fuck do I know, though - I am so clueless about money and banks and mortgages and all that shit. I went to buy gifts for my friend who's getting married, and they're registered at The Bay, and I was all like, OMG WHAT HOW DOES THIS WORK? I had to call my mom to check. Being a grownup is so weird.)

Sorry, I'll stop talking about money now. :P devilpiglet posted that meme about what stuff you own, and she has a lot of cool stuff, so I asked her what her husband does for a living (since she doesn't work), and then thought about how rude that must have been afterwards.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Hahahahaha!! I'm totally on board with that mindset. I've got about two plugs, three feet in width left to pull out. My compost heap is currently 5 1/2 feet high, half of which is artemesia. :)

Oh, I'll have to go look up those others you listed. Powis Castle is an old stand by, here. Very pretty and silvery, with deeply cut, fern-like leaves. Nice mounded shape, and can recover from my husband's errant weed-wacking.

[cherusha.livejournal.com]

PWNED!


(oh, and your house and plant thingies are so lovely I could eat them all up. ^_^)

[marlo.livejournal.com]

AHAHAHAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA

SDLAGHBLJKF BIOUNAIEOAWILAF

STILL LAUGHING

[marlo.livejournal.com]

That's the best part about roses, IMO - they smell so nice!