THE GARDENS

Here are some pictures of our yard and the gardens, with a few close-ups of some of the flowers. These pictures were taken over the past couple of years, in the summer or spring. We have named the gardens just to simplify things. To see a larger view of the photos, just click on them. The climate here in Quesnel is rated about a 3, but I've had some plants that are rated 4 or 5 and they have made it through but possibly won't make it to the specified size. It's nice to have a greenhouse, but we are fortunate to have some very good nurseries here. Check out our weather.

The Heart garden is indeed a heart shape, with a bridge leading to the pergola, under which is a set of glider chairs. Dianthus are planted around the entire heart. The Rose tree, in the Heart Garden, did not make the winter but it sure was beautiful for the summer. We have an assortment of very large trees surrounding the yard so we have put borders with sprinklers around most of the flower beds.

One half of the deck is open with a hot tub, umbrella table, lounges, and the pond. Because of the daycare and our own enjoyment we have kept the pond on the deck. This year we plan to expand the pond area. We have lost some Koi over winter, so this new pond will be deeper and better equipped to keep them over. The ones you see below came in last winter. It was great watching them in the tank, they are never still. Our grandson kept some of the smaller pond comets in his tank for us. These ones needed all the space!

The Golden Elder has grown to just about cover the pond and being on the corner of the deck, close to the house, there is very little sunlight. This doesn't seem to upset the balance of the water, it stays quite clear. I do clip off the flowers from the elder so they don't drop into the pond. We have a small filter and pump, but it is usually shut off at night. If you enlarge the photo of the pond at night, you can see the fountain and there's a waterfall at the back.

The Wayfaring garden, about nine feet across, has a Wayfaring tree in the center with a mixture of Irises and annuals around the outer edge. It has filled in quite a bit since these were taken. I will be moving the Irises out of that garden this year and in their place will be a row of colorful primroses around the edge. The garden on the North end of the yard has some large White Irises and some older Dark Burgundy Irises, so the Blue and and Purple ones will probably be going in there. Then guess what? That will probably be called the Iris Garden 8-)

New Pictures taken. The New Ponds were built in June, 2002.The old pond was taken apart and we put it with the new one and built a whole new feature. We are going to incorporate a larger waterfall in the back, right hand corner (for now we have a small waterfall). The Golden Elder had to be cut back, it seemed to be dying. We're going to leave it there a bit to see if it will come back.

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