The Story of the Courtyard

This story starts out with a picture or maybe two or three.  When we moved into our house in Walker we noticed how everyone seemed to come a long way to go to the front door.  There is no door on the side of the house where the drive is so mostly they walked back down the drive to the sidewalk then up the across to the house walk and up to the front door.  There is a gate to the back yard right on the drive but there was a section of grass that was usually soggy you had to walk across until you got to the concrete pool deck and on to the patio and back door.  So what do you do to make an easy access from the gate to the pool deck?

You beg, bribe or just steal a grandson and one of his pals and you make a courtyard with a walk connecting to the pool deck.  Harry and I found a nursery in Mandeville that had some pavers and I enlisted Christopher and a pal and we laid a courtyard and moved the fountain from the front yard to the center of the courtyard.  Then we created flower beds all around.  Harry built an arbor for the walk.
I don't have many before and during pics because they were on my computer that crashed and burned last year.  Here is what I do have.

The first is the backyard when we bought the property.

The second is another view of the backyard.  The courtyard starts between the end of the house (the garage) and the shop and occupies that area

This is the area between the shop and the house.

Now you enter the courtyard from the drive. The picture
at the beginning is what the bed on the right looked in
 2010 right after the courtyard was finished.

The original "Pot Tree".  It changes each season.  

This picture shows the same area as the photo above with two
of my grandsons.  Now the shop connects with the courtyard.

This is the walk between the courtyard and the pool deck.

This is the fountain that was in front of the large window
in the front yard now moved to the courtyard.

Pool deck now connects to courtyard and sidewalk
to covered patio.

I'll add some pics in the next post that shows the garden as it has progressed.

The Purple and Gold

Many of you know that I'm retired from LSU after 30 years service.  What you probably don't know is that the head of Human Resourses, my boss, Forrest Benedict made the final 5 lyears of my service an absolute hell.  He constantly undermined me and kept me from getting any raises during that time making my retirement much lower than it should have been.  I have never stepped foot on LSU ground since January, 1999 and any previous "friends" at LSU I have either had contact with them at their home or FB which has really helped me work through my negative feelings.  I loved LSU with everything in me until Leona Catalon entered my life at LSU Facility Services. As President of the Staff Senate I saw many wrongs done by our administration and had to keep my mouth shut since I was just one cog in the wheel.  Every many thanks letter I received from Chancellor Bud Davis brought bile to my throat.  Leona made me quit the Staff Senate after two years and there was nothing I could do about it.  It was the one thing that kept me happily connected to LSU and now it was gone.  Joan Thompson in the main personnel office offered me a chance to get away from Leona and return to the main office in Thomas Boyd Hall.  Everything was fine until she met her future husband, married and moved to Nevada.  Then Forrest and Marion (Caillet) became my bosses.  Forrest did not want to follow Civil Service guidelines and felt that I was constantly thwarting his recommendations when I was trying to keep LSU out of Civil Service appeals hearings.

That's a quick summary of a long story.  Why do you ask am I putting this in my "Garden Blog"?  The reason is I resented everything LSU when I retired and this festered and grew until I found it even to hard to see the purple and gold or support LSU whether it was the Universit or their teams.  That is not a good feeling and it was not good for me.  My garden has always been my escape and I found comfort working in the dirt and planting my "babies" and watching them grow.  Believe it or not I just realized something the other day...my garden has a lot of purple and gold and I think this is the beginning of my reconciliation of that part of my life.   Maybe this year I'll be able to join my family and friends wearing the purple and gold.  Hopefully, I'm ready to remove this hurt and negative feelings of LSU from my mind and learn to love LSU again as I once did.

Here are a few pics showing my purple and gold from my garden all the way down to my orchids.

Citrus Garden

The Citrus Garden is the newest garden in the yard.  Harry bought a Navel Orange and a Satsuma and put them down last May right before he left for Canada.  When Hurricane Isaac came through while we were in Canada he stripped the poor Satsuma of all her leaves and really threw it around.  When we returned in October Harry staked it back up and I started loving it and it's finally coming back around.  Last week when I got home from the camp I planted the orange daylilies that Harry had dug up from the Azalea Garden.  Since we stayed several days longer than expected the daylilies were in really bad shape between the heat and the bare roots.  They seem to be responding to a litlte fertilizer, a little water and some really good old dirt.

This is the beginning of the Citrus Garden.  More pics as it progresses.













The other gardens are progressing really well heading into summer.  They are taking a good bit of watering in the summer heat.  Here are some pics to bring you up to date.

This is a spider lily from down in Venice.  They will be moving
to the Marsh Garden this fall where they can get more consistant
moisture.

Above right is a newer pic of the Citrus Garden.  The containersplants are growing & the day lilies and African lilies are coming back from their shock of going a week from digging up to planting. 

Some of the other day lilies and the Butterfly irises in that area have already bloomed and below are pics of those.

More pics to come later in the summer as the bed fills in.  Next blog with be on teh LSU garden.

Weeds & Grass

Have you ever noticed how you clean the little weeds out of your garden, you plant your your cute little plants, you fertilize them, mulch them down, water them and those darn weeds grow faster that your plants.  I swear I think they come imbeded in the mulch.  When  you water they send those long, long roots down looking for your very fertile, cultivated soil and they plant themselves and create a weed system all tangled around your nice, cute little plants.  

Since I don't have much shade in my back garden I do my major gardening in the late afternoon when the sun is on it's way down.  I planted 3 new daylilies this evening, divided and replanted some ajuga and spent the rest of my time (an hour and a half) fighting with the weeds and grass.  

Well thanks for listening to that little rant.  It's just part of the garden but is entirely exasperating.  For the positive I got three of the daylilies down and the ajuga divided and down and I've got all my equipment set up and ready to start in the morning.  

Here's a couple of pics of my "Marsh Garden".  We had a wet, soggy area where the drains all seemed to lead.  Instead of building the entire area up I left the center to back area low so it would stay marshy. We have a camp down in Boothville (right before Venice, LA) and since it's a the tip of the boot of Louisiana there are a lot of marshes.  Harry dug up some marsh lilies, another white lily that I've yet to find a name for and some elephants ear and I planated them in this area.  I had a pirogue that a friend had built for me many years ago so I turned it upside down in the Marsh Garden and added a small concrete alligator and there is my marsh garden.  The front side which is higher is where the daylilies and ajuga are located along with a Sylvestri Date Palm, white irises and some new plantings of yellow Canna Lilies and Lily of the Nile.  I'll take more pics when things are in bloom.   Tomorrow I'll post pics of the East Citrus Garden.  

The Marsh Garden in April 2013.  The plant tower is for a Clematis that's makding a slow comeback from the winter.  

Newly planted Lily of the Nile and Canna Lilies.

May 2013 Newly planted daylilies on either side of plant  tower.

The area to the left of the plant tower was full of weeds..now clean and daylilies planted.

Good pic of the pirogue & alligator

Back side of the Marsh Garden with plants from the camp.

Been making a photo garden journal so when I get ready to transplant and divide daylilies, lily of the nile, etc.  I'll know which colors are located where.  I'm also trying to find out what daylilies I have and which ones passes away last summer while I was in Canada and the Southwest.

So here's my garden and how it's growing Spring, 2013.

Here are some April & May comparisons.  The Tickseed (Coreopsis), Vanilla Marigold, Melampodium are all coming up and blooming.  The varigated leaves of the Red King Humpert Canna Lilies are up and growing much better than they did in their previous area.  They normally don't bloom until July-August so we'll have to wait awhile for them.  Some caladium from two years ago are popping their heads up inbetween the Marigolds.  I had never seen this Vanilla variety before but them are spreading and blooming nicely.  The transplanted Drake Elm in the center seems to be over its  shock of transplant and adding new leaves.  Now if it will just thicken up a bit.  So that's it for garden at the entrance to the equipment area.  I'll take more pics this afternoon as I'm working in the Swamp Garden and the East Pool Garden.  Let me know your thoughts on my garden and I'll let you know when I have plants to share.

Lovies,
Ruth

May 2013 left side of entrance to equipment area

May 2013 right side of entrance to equipment area

May 2013 Entrance to equipment area

April 2013 Right side entrance to equipment area

April 2013 Left side entrance to equiupment area