Our beautiful gardens (a break from food farming)

Wow. Gorgeous!

These are amazing pictures! Here’s a ???. I forgot sort of like lenten rose.

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That’s one! Also known has hellebore.

Yes! Hellebore. Lenten rose is so much more memorable.

In France, they are called rose de Nöel - Christmas rose.

I’ve a few here, they are smallish. I tried some from seeds, need to wait 3 or 4 years for them to bloom. Such a delight to see them in winter.

Do you garden alone, or you have some help? Your garden seems immense.

“In France, they are called rose de Nöel - Christmas rose.”

I believe there are a few Hellebores, named for when they bloom.

Ha ha! Sometimes it feels immense, and it’s a big area by Bay Area standards, but hardly immense. I am careful about my pictures to make it appear better than it is!

I do have a “mower-blower” guy, who keeps the front yard “lollipopped” and tidy like husband likes it. :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

Last week he pulled up some California poppy seedlings , and left the weeds.

Last summer I added a “permaculture” lady who is on a closer page, and she had done a lot of mulching, and some summer pruning.

It’s all still a bit overwhelming, and I do more planning than doing.

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All my plants are in pots, some need repotting, and I keep delaying a year after another. Then I’m late with the seeds for vegetables. I do more fantasying than doing. LOL :roll_eyes: :smirk:

I don’t think I can handle a garden your size or that of @ccj. (Even full time)

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I have been looking at some pictures of the garden since we’ve been here (25 years) and it started out much smaller than I realized. We are on a hillside, and the majority is on moderate slope, which I gave up trying to control years ago. This is a picture of the hillside we are cut into, taken over the soundwall behind our yard.

I uses a LOT of self-watering planters for anything that can’t survive on weekly or bi-weekly watering in the summer.

What CAN survive with weekly watering is on automatic drip, which are run by two controllers with about 10 stations each.

Mrs. P bought a beautiful fiesta hibiscus tree today at Fairfield Farms in Clifton, NJ. She originally bought a puny little one at Stonehouse in Wyckoff, but then. saw these beautiful ones at Fairfield Farms. Luckily Stonehouse will allow her to return it.

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Mrs. P spent her Mother’s Day digging up this beautiful Japanese Maple leaf tree (during a torrential downpour) from someone’s garden who had this for sale on FB Marketplace for a bargain price of $50! This would normally go for at least $250 retail. She came home covered in mud from head to toe with a big smile on her face from the bargain she just got :grinning: She just has to shape it a little.

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Fantastic!! Great looking tree, and a bargain to boot.

I LOVE Japanese Maples!

All the more rewarding since the Mr.s “earned” it by getting down and dirty. :slight_smile:

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Thanks @Google_Gourmet! Yes, Mrs. P is not afraid to get her hands dirty, unlike me :grinning:

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My husband would love (for me to do ) that! He loves Japanese maples too, and we’ve lost three that were here when we moved in.

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We have a beautiful one, free! As our neighbour moved, they left it behind. Not as big as yours, but in pot, it’s in great shape now.

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We have the same one, or very similar, also in the front garden. I bought it from the garden centre years back as a tiny, spindly thing but it’s now about 3 metres high and, in truth, overly dominates the space. I really should prune it back but it’s so lovely - even when there’s not a leaf on it, the branches are still attractive.

By the by, we moved here in 1982 and I’m forever changing the garden as my fads change. There are only two plants left now that were there when we moved in - a buddleia and a laburnum which may well have been planted when the house was built in the late 1930s. It’s in full flower and looks fantastic.

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Well, I guess so. Finally my Maxillaria tenuifolia or the coconut orchid rewarded me with ONE flower!! The last time it bloomed was in 2012…with 10+ flowers. Today the flower is one month old! Still with the lovely coconut scent!

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A month is a long time for one of those flowers to last!

To get more flowers, try a bit more light, keep the cooler/drier winter. I also use a seaweed mix fertilizer “Maxsea”, spraying the foliage and base about once every two-three weeks, during the growing season. They just started blooming here.

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We bought a beautiful weeping blue atlas cedar tree the other day. It still has to be planted.



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