In 2000, we moved from the city to the country of California in the Sierra foothills near Bass Lake. For five years, I planned the decoration of my dream, a casual camp-style ranch house on a pretty steep slope. In February 2004, the building began and that August we moved into our trailer to wait for…
One evening near dark, I lost myself as I wandered, looking for turning leaves around the place. “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” Albert Camus French “the quicker you are in attaching verbal or mental labels to things, people, or situations, the more shallow and lifeless your reality becomes, and…
The natural meadow in the second year By that, I mean, this is the second year that I have weeded but not planted here. I’ve planted my 5 year old garden in irrigation zones. The area around the house gets the most water and has the most ‘non-native, but Mediterranean plants.’ We’re on a slope…
Many of us here in the California Sierra foothills have gravel driveways, paths and roads. This can be a help or a hindrance to gardeners searching for more space in which to garden. Gravel gardens could have their origin in formal Japanese ‘dry landscape’ gardens located on the grounds of Zen Buddhist temples. The raked…
Have you ever noticed a striking color combination when planting flowers together by chance? You suddenly see that the hot pink rockrose bloom looks stunning with lime and burgundy euphorbia. Or you see that an orange Monkey flower contrasts wonderfully with an iridescent lavender-blue Cleveland sage ‘Pozo’. I recently became aware of this particular combo…
Saturday– Hmmm, Tractor Man gone for the day? Having coffee and wondering WHAT to do today. I love having a day when nothing is planned.” Here is friend, Jeanne Sammons’s barn door which grabbed my attention. I first put it in my ‘Idea’ file, but then thought, ‘I have some of the things to make…
The back slope, then and now In a series of Then and Now photos, it’s satisfying to look back nostalgically to see how far we have come. Bought in 2000, and in a completely natural area, we’ve tried to preserve the beauty of our 7 acres near the Sierra foothills of California, as we make…
What is a rain garden? It’s a garden specifically designed to take advantage of where water naturally collects. In dry climates, this extra water allows a wider variety of plants to be grown. Rain gardens can also be planned just to direct water away from certain areas, like home foundations or low spots that collect…
Decorating with natural elements for a fresh New Year!
After the holidays, I like to decorate my house in a fresh new way sometimes. I bring out my favorite cobalt blue and aqua glass combination and if it’s snowy and cold, I lay the furry sheepskin over the back of the couch. This year I’m using the insulators that I found last spring at a yard sale and mixing them with a new color,.. red!
Bowl of berries
These Pyracantha coccinea or Firethorn berries are a bright spot on the steep bank to the south of the house. Why not bring some inside, I thought? I put on gloves and gathered a few sprigs along with some cedar and a bit of blue to match the Rainbow bowl used as a low vase. I also spotted some myrtle berries I could try.…
In 2009, I visited my sister in New Zealand and on one weekend trip we drove down to the city of Dunedin on the South Island. There, before breakfast and while Karen’s hubby slept in, the two of us walked over to the Dunedin Botanical Garden nearby our hotel. The most impressive garden for me…
First Views is a meme that Town Mouse started to show seasonal view of larger areas of your garden, rather than more focused photos of certain plants. She has a Mr Linky widget on her page so others can enjoy this idea, and add links to their blogs. Please visit her page to see her views and add yours: September First Views (Town Mouse). Now on to this month’s views at the Sierra Foothill Garden.…
House place, mountain, barn wood, waterfalls, these words describe the place we found in the mountains near Yosemite and Bass Lake. When we made the momentous decision to buy property in our favorite vacation spot, it started a whole series of changes, of mind, of lifestyle, of financial decisions and really, the meaning of our families’ lives together.
Keywords.
Thinking of keywords can help when brainstorming about what you want a new home to be like. When faced with the task of creating a new home, you have to come through. Planning is glorious fun, but at some point you have to make the decisions on what to build, what to decorate with, what possessions to keep and use and so forth.…
“I have found, through the years of practice, that people garden in order to make something grow; to interact with nature; to share, to find sanctuary, to heal, to honor the earth, to leave a mark. Through gardening, we feel whole as we make our personal work of art upon our land.” ~Julie Moir Messervy,…
My friend, Diane, of Oakhurst area, CA, has long dreamed of having a real glass greenhouse, and now after many years and a few obstacles, has it standing majestically in her rural garden, ready for use in all seasons. On my visit, she showed me this and future projects in her garden.
Diane's greenhouse
Diane grew up with a Dad who loved roses, so spending time in the garden was a time for them to do something together. She says, “At the time I believe it was the idea of just being with my dad, but the love of gardening bloomed inside me and I have loved it ever since. My love of roses has not changed either. I think it is the challenge of keeping something beautiful alive.…
Places to sit in the garden? You’ve got to have them. Especially when the place is affectionately called ‘Rancho Relaxo.’
First the paths…
We took our time to figure out where to lay out paths and the words “paths of desire,” I’d read about stuck in my head. Paths of desire are where you really want to go.
“Landscape designers sometimes talk about “desire paths”: the paths traced by people’s habits of movement from one place to another, the paths that make clear where we want to go, and how we want to get there.” Dominque Browning in “Paths of Desire”
Regardless of where a professional designer would lay out paths, it’s good to let a little time to go by and figure out where you want to go on your place and build your paths there.
The first places to sit were old furniture I got curb shopping or from friends. These we put on the patio, …we had two, one the same level as the house and one down a level, built from stamped concrete in place of the deck that we had originally planned.
Old furniture from trash day on lower patio.
We had two level 70′ long leach lines as the start to our paths. The rest of the place is on a slope. Each year we’ve ventured further out building a network of paths in order to be able to walk out without tromping through weeds. I laid out a path going through the garden planted around the lower patio.…
Everyone has seen these garden spheres in the garden, but recently after finding a bowling ball at Oakhurst’s “Clutter Clearance” I decided to try decorating one. I was inspired by an example found online on Google images, bought some bags of ‘gems’ used for filling vases to hold stems straight.
First the materials were gathered, 5 or 6 bags of 'gems', stones or tiles and 2 tubes of G.E. Silicone II for outdoors, in clear.
Start with a clean and prepped bowling ball. Use rubbing alcohol or vinegar to get any wax finish off. Sand lightly, then wash and dry the ball before painting. I filled the two smaller holes with tin foil and just glued right over them. Leave one hole uncovered and positioned at the bottom so if you want you can set it onto a piece of rebar in the garden. It helps to print out a photo of a design you like from Google images, shown. I used 5 0r 6 bags of ‘gems’, shown, and 2 tubes of G.E. Silicone II for outdoors, in clear.
With pencil I marked the top, opposite the largest hole and cut a five pointed star for a design to fill in
I used pencil to mark a dot on the top, opposite the hole I left unfilled. Then I drew freehand lines vertically to mark four sections, then used a paper cut-out of a star to trace around as a starting point.…
‘We are guided by nature in composition’ Bartók Down from the top where he goes to get the paper, my husband brought me a thistle flower. Very pretty, I love it! …I’m afraid it’s a bull thistle, not the lovely California native Cobweb thistle, Cirsium occidentale, written up by Town Mouse, here. The thistle bud Town…
The difference between trash and junk I posted a picture of my terribly messy potting bench area on my FB page, Flea Market Gardening, and asked for help with what I should do with it. They posted tons of ideas and I’ve been working on it for the last couple weeks. Here is the “before”: Why…
