Your gardens are lovely!

have you ever been to NYState?

well Crystal - first congratulations on your marriage/retirement and the fact that you can thin it and he builds it. Funny...that is my husband exactly. I will find a picture of something I like and he makes it and I work with him. He likes the fact that most of my ideas are a little strange - eclectic I think. I am very into using things I find in the garden then come winter pull them into the house and incorporate them into our inside living. My gardens were started about 15+ yrs ago. We are both recently retired teachers and back in 86 we had the chance to buy a dairy farm - small - which was a dream of my husbands. we have A LOT of lawn and I didnt want to mow it all and I had a girl who took care of my kids after school at her house and she had perennials - and that started me. I just did one small garden outside the back of the house on the way to the barns. my husband and I built a large deck and I decided to take the garden around the deck. We added a pergola for a grape vine I planted and that had us adding another deck underneath. Then I decided to go south with the gardens and decided to make it have paths oly wide enough for a mower to go thru. each year I added another small bed because I kept buying plants.(you know how that goes) and soon I ended up with 14 gardens in different spots around the farm. I love looking at gardens like ours that are defined and the plants are separated with a good mulch keeping out the weeds. From my page and pictures I am sure you can see that my gardens are not like that. They are more like a meadow with many things mixed in. because we live on the farm, the house sits below the barns and when it rained a lot of the manure would wash down to the gardens so even though the land sits on a lot of shale, the soil was always very good. when we had the cows and we were teaching and with 3 kids we didnt have money to spend on mulch so I started planting everything closer together to keep the weeds down and it works most of the time. and even now I could probably afford to do mulch I dont. I love weeding (most of the time unless guests are coming!) so I dont mind. BOY that was a long description of my gardens huh??? sorry I get carried away with my passion as I am sure you do to. Isn't this so much fun?!

thank you for the 'friending' and the sweet comment and we are in the same zone!! how cool. nice to see what someone else is doing with the same type of plants. I have met many people on this site - and so talented like yourself. the fact that you are in another state is so intriging...I am so interested in what everyone is doing in their little part of the world. South Dakota...went through your state in 97 with our children on a 3 week cross country camping vacation. Your state was the last stop to see rushmore, badlands, etc. (that is right isnt it?) lol :)

Crystal, love the video. How creative! Your gardens are lovely and the colors are great. I love containers, and get distracted with them each summer when I should be working on my beds, lol! Deb :)

simply amazing video! did you lay out all your gardens alone? absolutely gorgeous!

Ask all you want....I'll try. My yard is still a learning experience!

Crys,
I keep forgetting to check this site! Just now saw your response!
Congrats on being published in the Argus! Great photo of you on the cover!!!
Barb

Hi Crystal!
Thanks for the invite! Keep in touch!
Barb