Walking around Chez Ymir

[YmirGF]

Well, this is going to be a bit exhaustive. It certainly was a bigger project than I had expected, lol, but I was out doing the grass today (cutting it, not smoking it) and thought it would be wonderful to share the horrid place I have to put up with on a daily basis. If all of you could be so lucky.

Shot 01: Directly outside my door, heading right (west).

Shot 02: This is the Daffy/Tulip (or Three-Lips, as I like to call them) bed with over 1200 bulbs planted therein.

Shot 03: A closer shot of "Bed Daffoldillus"

Shot 04: Is a bed that resides due south of the "Non-Powered Power Shop" (Don't ask.)

Shot 05: Is a closeup of the Daffy's as we keep heading around the Daffodil bed and just behind the guest house.

Shot 06: A closeup shot within the Daffy Bed. Awesome, eh.

Shot 07: Taken just behind the guest house with sight of the first trail to the lower gardens. (Note the handrail in the background.)

Shot 08: I am such a sucker for a good closeup. A tulip "in heat".

(con't below)

 

[Willamena]

Argh! Vancouver Island, disgustingly green.



Do you tend the whole garden yourself?

 

[YmirGF]

Shot 09: Is looking east behind the "Home Improvement Center", down into the lower gardens and focusing in on a fabulous Rhododendron.

Shot 10: Is just past the "Home Improvement Center" and "Garden Tool Shop" looking Northeast into the "Goat Hill" (A terrace that you have to be a fricken mountain goat to traverse. It's on about a 50 degree slope.)

Shot 11: Is of a Rhododendron that sits to the right of the staircase heading down to the lower gardens. It will probably bloom in another 7-10 days.

Shot 12: Is of a miniature Rhododendron with very delicate while/pink flowers. Too sweet. Pity the image is a tad over-exposed.

Shot 13: We have come down the stairs and are standing, facing west. This is a composite of two images and the product turned out quite well.

Shot 14: Yet another closeup of a "Three-Lip"

Shot 15: We have come back up to the main garden level and have gone through the gate. This shot is looking north down a deer trail I cleared (it's about 6-8 feet wide) and is on a fair slope.

Shot 16: This shot is taken from just outside the middle gate on the eastern fence. (There are three gates on that fence alone.) Witness #10 Downing street, which is now a decommissioned outhouse.

 

[Kathryn]

Absolutely LOVELY! I am so impressed, and encouraged. We've been working hard on establishing our yard and garden areas for the past two years. When we moved to our house, it was brand new with not a stick of grass in sight. It was new construction on a hill of hard, red Texas clay. I'll put some before and after pictures up in a bit.

You've done an amazing job with your yard. It's a beautiful oasis. I have a feeling that you enjoy working in it as much as we do. I mean, it's very hard physical work, but the results are worth it.

 

[Valjean]

So true, Willamena. The poor guy probably couldn't grow a proper cholla, barrel cactus, yucca or even a nice agave.
We can't all enjoy a nice climate, I suppose.

 

[lunakilo]

My first thought was, a gerden can't look like that this time of year...
...then I remembered that the whole human race does not live in Denmark

 

[YmirGF]

OK, Tea time is over now... back to work...
Shot 17: Is of an old stump that has a Salal bush growing out of it. This whole zone is "my" zone, as I have done all the landscaping and have endeavored to make it a "wild park".... but not too wild...

Shot 18: Is of a 12" wide creation with two wee fairies that are permanently stuck on the bit of reworked (smoothed) sandstone.

Shot 19: Is of my "famous" S-shaped bench that would likely survive a direct nuclear strike. It took me two years to finish it. *sigh* It is approximately 10' x 4' x 4' and likely weighs several tons.

Shot 20: Is looking out into through an old access road built in the 30's, but now overgrown with moss. It's a bugger to rake after the winter storms. I average about 5 - 8 wheel barrows of "shrapnel" during that cleanup phase.

Shot 21: This is on the trail I blazed last summer, around the perimeter of the adjacent 1/2 acre lot. This is at the "summit", looking down and north-east.

Shot 22: Carries on down this path... into the thicket below. It was great fun clearing brush up to my shoulders... *pant, pant, pant*

Shot 23: Further down and around the trail

Shot 24: Yet a bit further down the trail. I was hoping to get a deer in the shot, but alas, none were bounding about this afternoon. This shot is coming up to the "ravine" that gets about a foot of water in it, during the winter rains.

(continued)

 

[Kathryn]

Well, my yard is not nearly as lush and established as yours, but we're working on it! Here is a picture from a year ago:

The house was brand newand we had moved in just a few months before. Every bit of the ground on our lot was nothing more than hard, red, Texas clay. AUGH! Not to mention that since the yard slopes, and there was no loam or much grass to stop it, with every rain red clay and water ran toward our house and pooled at the back door.

YIKES! No bueno!:

Here are a few other pictures as well - of the travesty of a yard we had to deal with:

(Grass? I think not!)

So we did this:

 

[YmirGF]

Shot 25: Is from within the "ravine" looking north. When I was clearing this section, I had deer sitting placidly in a little copse just to the left of this shot, while I was working. They are pretty used to me.

Shot 26: More trail... still heading north...

Shot 27: We have now come to a 3 foot mound and are turning west towards the gate in the lower gardens, which we are outside of still.

Shot 28: Is closer still to the lower garden gate.

Shot 29: Is the same fence line shown earlier, only this is looking from the bottom, by the gate, looking up (south).

Shot 30: We are back up on the main level, heading to the left (east) side of the main house. There is a heck of a lot of moss on the "garden rounds" that make up the path on this end.

Shot 31: Continues along this side path. It never really gets light down this side of the house.

Shot 32: Is still at the side of the house looking out into the front yard.

 

[Kathryn]

And this!

The dogs seem to like it!

We've still got a long way to go - the summers are long and hot and dry here, and sometimes our water bills are horrific. We've brought in a ton of top soil and planted a lot of perennials, so hopefully things will improve each year. I hope to have a yard as beautiful as yours, Y, but I doubt it will ever be as green and lush as yours is!

How many years have you been working on your place? This is the first house that we've ever bought that we had to start from scratch with the yard. This year has been very exhausting so far because we had such a mild winter that the weeds have gone completely crazy. I could spend DAYS on my hands and knees pulling stuff up in the yard! I hate to use unnatural chemicals. Any suggestions?

 

[YmirGF]

Shot 33: Is the first in the front yard/garden, and is a composite shot of two photographs. Yeah, Photoshop!!! This image is looking south-west.

Shot 34: (There's not too many more.) Looking west, along the glass wall of the sun room. (That's where a couple of dozen cacti are growing, producing blooms all summer long.)

Shot 35: Is a shot of the garden looking east, in the front yard.

Shot 36: Is of another evil Rhododendron in the most southerly part of the front yard. It too has very small blossoms, but is just gorgeous.

Shot 37: A pentagon garden in the front yard where my dad's ashes are spread.

Shot 38: Yet another Rhododendron by the west gate, leading to the driveway.

Shot 39: Is of along the front of the sun room, looking west.

Shot 40: Out in the driveway, looking east, through the trees, I have maintained for several years now. Just added the rocks around their base last summer.

(continued... last group)

 

[Kathryn]

Absolutely gorgeous.

 

[lunakilo]

Around here it is supposed to llok like this (from last year, this year we just have rain )

 

[YmirGF]

Shot 41: Is the corner of the driveway looking out to the main road.

Ok, Ok, Ok... I have a thing for shaping bushes. LOL.

Shot 42: The roadside entrance to the path I created last summer. I will be opening up the final leg of this path in the next few weeks.

Shot 43: Just inside the trail, heading north, from the road.

and FINALLY,
Shot 44: About 100 feet from the road, when the camera's batteries died. Count yourself lucky.

and... that's all... :faint::curtsy::thud:

 

[dawny0826]

Paul, it's beautiful! I'm telling you, I'd love to go running around those grounds barefooted and play "fairy princess". It just looks so pretty.

 

[Gharib]

Nice place you have there Ymir, enjoyed the first pics, it looks like something you see in a movie with good graphics and not actually real.

It's quite a beautiful place.

 

[YmirGF]

Nice place you have there Ymir, enjoyed the first pics, it looks like something you see in a movie with good graphics and not actually real.

It's quite a beautiful place.

Thanks folks, it is why I state my location as "An island paradise" :drool:
The wild deer are just gravy... and the hummingbirds... and the eagles...

 

[atanu]

Ymir, will you adopt me?

 

[zenzero]

Friend Paul,

A zen garden on its way!
gr8! shows so much of your love, dedication and hard work that is going into the creation of this paradise.

personally do not even have a potted balcony; lazy bum!

Love & rgds

 

[Kathryn]

Oh, Zen, you've got to get some plants - they are food for the soul!