Just what is important to you?

Is it a vase full of perfect roses? The tallest fruit trees in town? The best looking leaves? The most of one kind of fruit/flower? Enough veggies for your family? The prettiest yard on the street? The greenest lawn? Is it healthy soil that can grow most anything easily?

A photo some one posted, not on this forum, really sparked some thought for me. It was a photo of some beautiful flowers, but what struck me was not the flowers, but how sad the dirt behind it looked. Was it missing the forest for the trees? Just how much chemical intervention was required for those flowers out of that poor dirt.

We have spent an incredible amount of time working with our dirt to make it in to a good growing soil. Dirt that needed a hammer to break clods has become soil that crumbles and grew vast amounts of veggies in the past couple of years. I know I did not put that kind of effort in to the soil for the roses. Kind of interesting to me I guess, that I valued them differently than veggies. Makes me wonder what the roses would have looked like if I had put that effort in to them.

It could have been the heat, or sore muscles that had me wondering about what my ultimate goal in the garden is (or just why it seemed like a good idea at the time to spread all those chips) And that we are having an open garden to celebrate what would have been dads 100th b-day and moms upcoming 90th in what was/is their pride and joy, the garden.

It also is an outlet for my everlasting curiosity.

Cath

Cath

Ingrid

From across the room, you'd first notice the basic green of the plants glowing under the strong lights. As you got closer, you'd say "oh, there's fish in there" which made you go even closer and start examining the smaller parts of the whole. You'd see the pair of angel fish first, then the four blue gouramis. Then you'd notice the smaller cardinal tetras darting about at the mid-layer. That's when you'd also see the subtle beauty of color, texture and form provided by the driftwood with attached moss and ferns. Get in really close and you'd see tiny red shrimp picking around in the moss on the wood, and in the mulm at the bottom of the tank. Perhaps you'd gasp when the "branch" suddenly darted clumsily across the aquarium, and I'd tell you that that's my royal twig catfish.

The point is that the goal of my aquarium was to provide interest from different perspectives -- from far away, it was mostly a soothing glowing tapestry of green and some hints of other color. But you'd also keep finding more as you looked more closely, because there were many layers of life teeming about in there. And that's how I like putting together my backyard garden -- pleasantly attractive from afar without being glaring, and inviting you for closer inspection. This is why virtually all the roses I picked are very fragrant, but the color scheme I'm going for is mostly cool colors with some soft yellow, apricot, and peachy-pink mixed in.

To me, backyards are about wandering around and finding things interesting if you're in the mood to look for them, but also for relaxing and sitting back without anything being too strong of an eye-distraction. In contrast, front yards can get away with being like neon signs -- catching the eyes of passersby who don't have invitations to investigate more closely. When I lived in Franklin Square, the front yard bed was of a tropical theme -- two big Musa basjoo bananas formed the centerpieces, with strong-colored annuals and perennials filling in, and three big Artemesia spilling over the raised concrete bed. Flowers of bright gold-orange, red and yellow went there. But the back yard was much more subtle.

Where I am now, I don't have much of a front yard at all, so I'm not doing any tropical looks or loud colors at all. I have 'Jaune Desprez' trained to climb the Japanese maple, 'Souvenir du Dr. Jamain' to climb my white porch railing, and a few small roses to form further "bones" out there, to be accompanied by other cool-colored perennials.

The back yard is not huge, either, but I'm taking advantage of all the "surface-area" of the fence, deck, garage, etc. by cloaking them with climbing roses, and then further using them as trellises for future clematis. The other roses will be the skeleton for the beds, but no single plant is meant to be the "star" of the garden. As with my former aquarium, the backyard will be something to appear subtly pretty from afar, and ever more interesting and beautiful (and fragrant!) with closer inspection. And for me, having something requiring frequent but simple tending is a much-desired calming activity.

I do miss my aquarium. After an overnight filter disaster left everything dead in the morning, I had to break it all down. This happened about the time I was considering going back to school, so the tank was never repopulated, and I gave it away when I moved to Buffalo. I don't have any room for an aquarium that size where I am now, but I do look forward to starting one again in a few years when I move on. If you're on Facebook, you can see a photo album I have of my aquarium, taken at various times over the years, showing how it evolved as plants grew, or when I felt like a change.

:-)

~Christopher

The tank I always liked was a big cube with a terrarium in the center. A huge school of 100+ neon tetras swam around and around. It was fantastic to watch. I also love the split level tanks that have a waterfall cascading over rocks or wood. Gardening in a fish tank is fun.

What is the big picture in my garden? I suppose it is the happiness of each plant being where it grows best. The tall ones in back and the short ones in front. Fussy plants in pots that can be moved into shade or sun depending on the weather. And I like spaces that change. I like to use bricks and flagstones and pavers to make paths and then tear it all up and move the path somewhere else. A little soft green lawn exists and then becomes a flowerbed. Arches and trellises go up and come down. Its like a stage where there are permanent trees and walls and everything else moves around. I like to bring the potted plants into the house and the furniture out in the garden for a party. I like flexibility and creative frivolity in my garden.

And that's a part of how everything died. One night, the filter conked out, so the fish and the plants competed for oxygen. Plus without oxygen running through the canister filter, all the bacteria in there died and polluted the water. Lesson learned -- rather than rely on just one big canister, ALWAYS run at least two per large tank (either two medium, or one large and one small).

My dream-tank will be over 200 gallons and feature discus, along with live plants and some schooling tetras, shrimp, etc. I already have my list of plants and companion-critters which I researched that will do well in the conditions discus require -- just waiting until I'm ready to start it, even if it isn't for ten years....

:-)

~Christopher

Sometimes that process is a physical thing. Much like a gestural artist/action painter like Jackson Pollock where the end product expresses the physical action involved in creating the painting--slinging, throwing, dripping paint, my garden is an expression of the physicality I undertook in creating it--digging, weeding, trimming plants. (Although, I am no Pollock!)

Sometimes the process is simply watching nature as a brilliant dynamic creation of the God I believe in, moving and evolving it what seems to be such a pre-ordained manner.

For me the big picture has almost nothing to do with a finish product that meets some visual standard that I have conjured up in my head.

It has been an interesting few days.

Yesterday dad would have been 100. As luck has it some people he used to know 20 years ago stopped by (guess they some how thought he would still be raising bees and selling honey) I discovered just how far from garden visitor ready I am! I need to remove every over ripe orange off the trees cause even telling some one who "knew all about oranges cause she has 2 trees" can not tell that an old shriveled orange at the top of a tree is not going to be tasty. Even after being told several times not to eat it, it might get eaten and while pointing out the location of the trash can, they might try and spit that nastiness out in your hand. (Note to self, need lots of signs)

I need more locks on the chicken coop. Because even people with chickens who are told "No you can not go in the coop" do not understand "Bio-security"

It is a good thing when we can see how far we have come, and an enlightening thing when we see just how far we have to go.

Today, I helped a neighbor pick some pomegranates before the varmints eat them and completely enjoyed her butterfly garden. Only 20 or 30 of them today, but what a treat! And all the little birds enjoying her bird fountain.

(Note to self need bird fountain asap!)

Happy Gardening!

- when I am inside my house, I realize the value in a big healthy looking bush, not just a spindly thing with a couple perfect flowers on them.