Posts Tagged ‘Yard’

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My World: We’ve Made Some Changes

August 24, 2010

Our new house in Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. September, 2002.

This is my post for the My World meme.  It is hosted by Klaus, Ivar, Sandy, Wren, and Fishing Guy.  To learn more about our world or to join and share your part of the world, click HERE.

The picture above was taken on the day we closed on our house back in 2002.  We fell in love with the house the first time we saw it.  We still love it.

The front of our house. August 23, 2010.

But we’ve made some changes in the yard, as you may be able to see from this second picture.  We’ve added the flag pole (at the extreme right of the picture), the flower beds around the lamp post and the dogwood tree (there’s one more around a redbud tree to the right of the picture), and the three rose beds — two on each side of the driveway and one near the road.  We’ve also added the roses in the containers along the driveway.

This time of the year you are more likely to find us out in the yard or on the deck in back, than in the house itself.  But  that’s the way it is in our world.

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My World: New Roses in Our Yard

August 17, 2010

John F Kennedy Rose. May 27, 2010.

This is my post for the My World meme.  It is hosted by Klaus, Ivar, Sandy, Wren, and Fishing Guy.  To learn more about our world or to join and share your part of the world, click HERE.

We’ve had a very hot, dry summer here on the Plateau, which means we’ve spent a fair amount of time watering our roses.  Happily I’m still able to bring in a rose for Betsy just about every  day.

These are some of the roses that are new to our yard this year.  Most of them are in the new flower bed we built along the road.

Two of our new roses honor presidents.  The very fragrant white rose above is the John F. Kennedy rose.

Ronald Reagan Rose. June 4, 2010.

The Ronald Reagan rose is not as fragrant, but is a beautiful red-and-white bicolor.

Southern Belle Rose. May 13, 2010.

This cheery yellow is called Southern Belle.  Since Betsy is a Virginia girl, I just knew we had to add this to our collection.

Sedona Rose. May 26, 2010.

Sedona is a magnificent red-orange blend that is Rose of the Year (2010) from Jackson & Perkins Company.

We have a few other new roses, but I’ll save those for another occasion.

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My World: Lilies

July 13, 2010

American Original lily, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. June 25, 2010.

This is my post for the My World meme.  It is hosted by Klaus, Ivar, Sandy, Wren, and Fishing Guy.  To learn more about our world or to join and share your part of the world, click HERE.

Most of you know that Betsy and I have roses in our yard, but we also have other flowers as well.  We like to have blossoms spread out over as long a period as possible.

Our lilies started to bloom in late May and we still have a few blooming.  The lily in the picture above is called American Original.  It is in the long flower bed on the side of our house.

Golden Splendor lily, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. June 24, 2010.

Golden Splendor is another lily in that same flower bed.  We’ve had this lily for several years.

Garden Pleasure lily, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. June 3, 2010.

The new flower bed in front of the house contains some new lilies.  This beauty is called Garden Pleasure, which seems to be a very appropriate name.

Montenegro lily, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. May 29, 2010.

Montenegro is another new lily in that front flower bed.

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New Roses in Our Yard

July 8, 2010

Alec's Red rose, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. May 23, 2010.

We’ve had some very hot and dry weather since the first of June.  Most of the lawns around here are starting to turn brown.  We may get some rain this coming weekend, and it would surely be welcome.

I have been busy watering our roses, and most of them are still looking pretty good, although the blossoms don’t last very long in this heat.  I water the roses by bucket, which takes a fair amount of time.

The roses in this post are new for us this year.  My Beautiful Bride likes red roses, and the rose above, Alec’s Red, has blossoms that hold their shape and color for a fairly long time.

John F. Kennedy rose, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. May 27, 2010.

But Betsy also likes white roses.  John F. Kennedy is a new white rose for her.

Ronald Reagan rose, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. May 31, 2010

I tend to like bicolor roses.  Ronald Reagan is a pretty red-and-white rose that blooms in the new flower bed in front of the house.

Southern Belle rose, May 13, 2010.

Since Betsy is a Virginia girl, I just knew I had to get this rose, Southern Belle, as soon as I learned about it last year.

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I’ll be going to Hendersonville to check on my parents and to take care of some chores for them.  As a result I won’t be able to do much visiting in blogland, but I’ll get to you as quickly as I can.

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Sempervivum

June 24, 2010

As you know, Betsy and I have many flowers in our yard — daffodils, tulips, iris, roses, lilies and daylilies.  But we also have some plants that don’t flower very much (no, I am not talking about the weeds in our flower beds!).

I grew up on a small farm in northern Indiana.  The topsoil was rich and about 18 inches (or more) deep.  Dad used to say that when we planted seed we had to jump back to keep from being knocked over the growing plant.

That certainly is not the situation here in Tennessee.  Don’t get me wrong — I like the mountains and our home.  But in some places there is solid rock about an inch below the surface.  We’ve worked around that by building some raised flower beds, but there are places in the yard where we have rock right under the surface and there’s not much we can do about it.

Except plant sempervivum (hen and chicks).  Sempervivum seem to thrive in the most impossible soil conditions, and they look good all year around.  We have several different varieties and various places around the yard.  Some are bicolor, like the picture above.  Others are a solid color.  The most common are green, but we also have several maroon or deep purple plants, as you can see in the picture below.

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My World: Daylilies

June 22, 2010

Daylilies by our garage, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. June 17, 2010.

This is my post for the My World meme.  It is hosted by Klaus, Ivar, Sandy, Wren, and Fishing Guy.  To learn more about our world or to join and share your part of the world, click HERE.

When Betsy and I purchased this house back in 2002, it came with a patch of bare ground next to the garage along the driveway.  This bare patch was filled with rocks and long-buried construction debris as well as a few scraggly weeds.

For the first year we had the house we used it mostly as a weekend getaway since we were still living in Hendersonville.  But each time we came up we thought we have to do something about that ugly spot.

Daylilies will grow just about anywhere and require little attention, so we got three daylilies and planted them with fingers crossed.  The first couple of years the plants looked somewhat pathetic, but we kept working to enrich the soil with compost and each year the results were a little better.

The picture above was taken last week.  I think those daylilies are starting to look pretty spectacular.

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Lilies and Roses

June 10, 2010

Lilies and roses in our new flower bed, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. May 30, 2010.

If you’ve been visiting this blog for any length of time, you’ve heard about the wall and new flower bed that we built along the road in front of the house.  Building the wall and filling in the bed took several weeks, and during the winter after a severe thunderstorm, part of it had to be rebuilt.

But this time of the year all the aggravations were worth it, as you can see from the picture above.  Most of the iris planted in the bed bloomed and hopefully they will do so again in the autumn.  We are now enjoying the lilies and roses and the daylilies (which are hard to spot in this picture) are starting to bloom.

Betsy and I definitely think the work was worth it.  We are definitely enjoying the new view in front of our house.  And we’ve noticed an added bonus to having that new flower bed out there.  Most of the cars going up or down the road in front of the house are going a little slower this year!

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I’m happy to report that Betsy is continue to mend.  She can now stand with out pain, although that knee still complains if she walks too much at one time.  But she is making progress and is able to sleep at night without pain.

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National Rose Month

June 3, 2010

Our front yard, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. May 26, 2010.

I found out yesterday (Wednesday) that June is National Rose Month.  So I decided I would mark the occasion by sharing this picture of our front yard.  I have to admit that this picture was taken last week when it was still May, but you can see our three rose beds as well as the containers along the driveway that contain roses.  You can’t see all of them, but we have 55 varieties of roses.  Betsy says that taking care of those roses helps keep me out of trouble.

Speaking of Betsy, please keep her in your thoughts and prayers again today.  She will be having orthoscopic surgery on her knee this afternoon.  Her doctor thinks that a frayed Medial Miniscus in her knee is causing her problems and this surgery should fix everything.  We certainly hope the doctor is right.

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My World: Roses for my Beautiful Bride

June 1, 2010

Ronald Reagan rose, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. May 31, 2010.

This is my post for the My World meme.  It is hosted by Klaus, Ivar, Sandy, Wren, and Fishing Guy.  To learn more about our world or to join and share your part of the world, click HERE.

If you’ve read Betsy’s blog you know that we have 55 varieties of roses in our yard.  They keep us busy, but we have enough roses that I can bring in a rose for my Beautiful Bride just about every day.

The rose above is one of our new roses this year.  The picture really doesn’t do it justice, but the Ronald Reagan rose is a beautiful bicolor.  This is the rose I brought into the house for Betsy yesterday.

Speaking of my Beautiful Bride, Betsy is still in a lot of pain whenever she is on her feet for more than a couple of minutes.  Hopefully she will be able to see the doctor later today and get some answers.  In the meantime I can’t begin to tell you how much we both appreciate your thoughts and prayers.

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My World: I Promised Her a Rose Garden

May 25, 2010

Our new flower bed, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. May 23, 2010.

This is my post for the My World meme.  It is hosted by Klaus, Ivar, Sandy, Wren, and Fishing Guy.  To learn more about our world or to join and share your part of the world, click HERE.

Well, I didn’t promise a rose garden as much as a new flower bed.  This is the flower bed we built last year to keep me from having to mow the steep banks of the ditch in front of our house.  We built the wall and filled in behind it to make a new flower bed.

The irises in the bed have already bloomed, although they should all bloom again in the autumn.  The roses (7) are now blooming and the lilies have started to open.  In a couple of weeks we should have daylilies blooming there as well.

All in all, it’s not bad outcome for something to help solve a mowing problem.

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