Design by Snickers
We are pleased to provide you with this opportunity to spend a little time in Snicker’s garden. Enjoy!
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I have found, through years of practice, that people garden in order to make
something grow; to interact with nature; to share, to find sanctuary, to heal,
to honor the earth, to leave a mark. Through gardening, we feel whole
as we make our personal work of art upon our land.
– Julie Moir Messervy, The Inward Garden 
When gardeners garden, it is not just plants that grow,
but the gardeners themselves.
– Ken Druse
My garden is my favorite teacher. ~Betsy Cañas Garmon
“With a few flowers in my garden, half a dozen pictures and some books, I live without envy.” ~ Lope de Vega
You can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt. ~Author Unknown
There is no gardening without humility. Nature is constantly sending even its oldest scholars to the bottom of the class for some egregious blunder. ~Alfred Austin
I cultivate my garden, and my garden cultivates me. ~Robert Brault,
Our thanks to Snickers for sharing her work of art with us. We hope you enjoyed!
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Rhonda’s Raised Bed
Thank you Rhonda for sharing!
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Snickers sent some updated pictures along with a picture of some of the destruction they experienced from a tornado awhile back. Click on the pictures for enlargement.
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Wow, is that a potting shed or a guest cottage? LOL, how adorable ! LOVE the rain barrel. My grandmother always had one and I remember helping her water plants from it. Anyway, what a beautiful garden snickers! I can tell you love it ! I know a tornado hit your area a short while ago, the earths rebounding beauty is so reassuring!
Love the quotes above! What relieves stress more than early summer mornings in the garden or flower beds?
Thanks for sharing snickers !
I meant to mention that we would love to post other garden pictures if anyone wants to send them in.
BlogHawg,
It is a potting shed although many have asked if they could stay the weekend in it. LOL. I love to garden, grow our own veg’s and work in a flower bed. I call it my therapy garden.
6 weeks ago our area looked terrible, but Mother nature always turns around and blesses us with renewed life. Picked my first green onions out of the garden already and looking forward to the harvest of the rest of it. 🙂
Oh how beautiful! And very inspiring. I gave up growing veggies for easy-care perrennials years ago, when I got sick, but I am toying with the idea of growing some tomatoes again. Food is so expensive right now.
Snickers, I appreciate all the work it takes to get this picture-perfect garden. Does anyone else keep a garden here?
My dad recently built a kit greenhouse adjacent to a pond on his property and he & my girls are working like beavers every day planting, growing, and transplanting. While working he is teaching them all about plant life. Oh how well I remember those lessons he taught me when I was their age. I am into beautifying our yard with flowering bushes and plants. I love Portulaca (rose moss)and hydrangeas and the roses bushes that bloom from May to Dec in our area called Knock-outs.
Thanks Snickers, I enjoyed seeing how your garden grows. Love the potting shed. Is there a do it yourself kit for that?
Oh how I have tried and tried to grow a small garden on my deck. Turns out you have to water it to make it grow. LOL. If by chance I do get a tomato or pepper to grow, the grandbabies pick them before they even have a chance. I have a tomato in the window trying to rippen because the grandbaby picked it off, took a tiny bite out of it, threw it back in the dirt and said “nasty mato”. I do however have great sucess with herbs. Seems they can survive without much care and are great in pots right outside my back door.
PS Snickers, love the shed and area around it. Very nice.
Lindsey,
There are many companies for potting sheds that you can order as a kit on-line. We purchased this kit for originalsheds.com. It’s called the santa rosa version. It all comes broken down on a pallet and the walls hold all the parts that you need to put it together. The pieces are color coded and took a couple of days to put it together. There is many pieces of trim to put on when the shed is together. We also poured a cement slab to anchor the building down and used the floor to make a loft inside for storage. You also need to put a couple of coats of good sealer on the first year to keep the cedar look. This spring I put a new coat of sealer on as wood dries out here fast.
I also waited to order after Mar 1st last year and got free shipping and handling as these are made in Canada and shipped to California. I also got 10% off my total order. That is a huge savings as this came on a freight truck and you need to plan for a way to remove the kit from the truck. Hope this helps you. If you need more info, just post your questions here. 🙂
Snickers, thanks for sharing. How lovely. It must be so nice to let your eyes soak that in everyday. Your garden is perfect.
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Roozerdo, LOL, that’s funny about your grandchildren.
I just wanted to mention that you can click on all of these pictures and they will enlarge so you can get even a better look.
What a beautiful job you’ve done snickers! I hope you will share more pictures as it progresses. I can’t wait to see harvest time!
Both DH and I come from big families whose mother’s planted nearly acre sized gardens. We laugh about the fact that our moms never used to ask for a lot of help in the garden, even though help seemed to be required just about everywhere else when growing up in the country. I’m wondering now if it wasn’t because of what your post alluded to -the garden being a sanctuary vs them worrying about kids stepping on rows or accidentarlly pulling plants out instead of weeds.
Snickers,
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Do I see the solar flowers in front of your potting shed ( that shed is nicer than some people’s homes…just sayin’)?.
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We have two sunflowers and one butterfly in our back yard and I love them. My husband and sons thing they are kind of spooky at night because they change colors but I think they are serene. 😉
Yes, we have solar flowers just like yours Pam. Our little guy thought we needed them. LOL!!I’m not into fake flowers, but we give these a pass. At night they are neat to see!!
Very pretty pictures. What a beautiful yard and garden. We are gardening for the first time in 20 years – I have a 4 x 4 raised bed with 4 tomatoes, 3 peppers, 2 eggplants and 2 squash.
I have always wanted to try a raised bed Rhonda. Was it hard to put together? I’ve heard they’re great for keeping the crawly things away.
A funny story -A few years ago our youngest kept telling DH and I that he had a plant growing outside. We didn’t think much of it since at that age the kids were always planting peach pits and apple seeds after snacking on the fruit (and we live in town so gardening space is limited) -cute, but of course nothing ever grew from them. So….after smiling politely and telling him good job one too many times he insisted we come look at his plant. Sure enough behind the utility shed where we don’t mow much there was a thriving pumpkin plant starting. We ended up with half a dozen pumpkins that year. I’m sure we were the only people on the block with a pumpkin patch! LOL
Rhonda,
Could you snap a pictureof your raised bed and share it with us? I thought of putting in a raised bed for strawberries as the bending over in a bed would not be much fun. Also they say it is easier to net the bed to keep the birds out.
Dryice,
Those seeds do grow. LOL 🙂
We bought a kit from Home Depot for about $34.00. The assembly itself was easy. However my husband and I do not work well together, lol. We had to make a trip back to Home Depot for a new drill (ours would not charge because the charger broke when my son borrowed it) and it rained cats and dogs in the middle of the process. It took about 8 bags of soil and some peat moss to fill. So far we are happy with it.
Snickers, what a beautiful garden! Love your potting shed/guest cottage lol! Working the soil is very therapeutic. I do not have a good, sunny location to grow vegetables, but love to work in my flower beds. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Oh I am so jealous of people’s beautiful gardens. I just don’t have a green thumb and I’m pretty sure I don’t have the attention span it needs or the patience\love for creepy crawlers.
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The pictures are gorgeous!!
I took a picture – how do I post it here? It is nothing like Snickers yard but it’s ours and it is growing!
You can email it to me Rhonda at pam@imperfectwomen.com
Thanks everyone for your nice comments today. I can tell you one thing, when I plant and watch something grow no matter what the results look like, it always puts me in a happy place. Planting in a pot or in the ground brings nature to it’s finest. I will send more pictures of my garden as it grows if the IW ladies want them. 🙂
Rhonda,
Would love to see you raised bed. 🙂
Yes, Please update us on the progress of your garden, Snickers. Rhonda, not sure if you sent the picture but I have not received anything via email.
I added a picture of Rhonda’s raised bed in the post above. Thanks to Rhonda for sending that in.
Rhonda,
I like the look, your plants look very healthy. 🙂 Nice size for a strawberry bed. Too late for this year, but I will look into it next spring. Thanks for sharing the picture!!
It’ just lovely Snickers! I’ve decided this will be the summer I keep my annual pots alive! I always start out the season well..but by Julyish they get lower on the priority list & die from neglect. I’ve also been working all spring to get control of my perennial gardens. Keep posting pics please so I’ll be inspired to keep it up 😉
Momsby, I agree, these pics are inspiring! Snickers, so lovely. Just looking at what you have done with the space makes me want to get out of the city and get outside and do some planting. Rhonda, looking good! Your veggies and mine look about the same, so that is good. I can’t wait for another few weeks when they really take off. Send another pic, ok? (And I will send one too – promise!)
Pics of my veggies and garden. Take note this garden is bigger then a house. http://www.flickr.com/photos/63963705@N03/?saved=1
Lynn,
Now that is almost farming!! 🙂 I see you have a drip irrrigation. That is a lot of work. Beautiful!!
Yes it a drip irrigation. Newly put in this year. Need to take better close ups but it too dark now. I grew it all from seed. Its 2400 square foot.
I don’t water my garden. I plant and turn it over to God for rain. I do catch rain water so that my flowers will have a drink, but I multch my garden with cuttings from my yard and it holds the moisture in. Very few weeds to pull. My tomotoes are blooming, so it won’t be long before we will see small tomotoes on the vines. 🙂 I grow a few things from seed, but our temps in early spring here is not warm enough to have things outside and my potting shed has no heat. The seeds in he garden that I planted this year, carrots, lettuce, broom corn, etc. all came up fine. Our growing season is long enough to enjoy things for several months. Glad you shared your photo’s.:)
Ill try this again. I have to water because I live in a desert. But I think we got it right this yeat.
I see your fences are so high, are you keeping deer out?? I hope you have great results after all your hard work. Pease keep me updated on your progress. I don’t want to bore any posters here, but I LOVE to garden. LOL. We may have a 2 sided conversation. 🙂
Lynn,
Wow, that is huge. Thanks for sharing that. I hope you keep us updated along with Snickers and Rhonda. I am surrounded with cement so I am unable to have a garden.
Lynn, Around here that would be called a farm. It is bigger than my back yard. Before we moved to our current house, we were part of a community garden. We started with one plot and inherited another. It was alot of fun. My kids were little and I think it gave them an appreciation for vegetables and the hard work that goes into a garden. We actually won 2nd prize in our local newspaper’s gardening contest. We moved to our current house and were unable to grow anything. We have a small yard and several large trees bordering the yard with the accompanying roots and shadiness. My poor husband has been trying to grow grass back there for 20 years! The only spot in the yard that got sun was where our shed was, but last year it got crushed by a tree. So this year we decided to try. I will be happy if we get a few squash and a tomatoe! The upside to the trees is that we have a nesting family of hawks gracing our yard this year. It has been fun watching them build the nest and care for the babies.
The fence is snow fence only 4 foot tall. Hoping to block the wind and hail. But as of yet we only have 2 sides up. Snickers I love to garden too. Ill bore everyone else with you.
Whst kind of squash rhonda?
Lynn,
We plant the vine crops in the country around here. The pumpkins, gourds, and squash just over take a garden in town. They do well out by fields, they get some shade and enough sun to make a healthy crop.
We also have a complete fence, the rabbits would have it nibbled down to nothing if we didn’t.
Rhonda,
How exciting, they are beautiful birds. We have been watching the eagles on the internet that have a camera installed next to the nest this year. Amazing.
I know it takes a lot of work to keep it looking that beautiful. It has a bucolic serenity look to it.
I updated a few photos if you want to look. I forgot to tell you snickers I LOVE LOVE that potting shed, I might need to get one of them myself.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/63963705@N03/?saved=1
Lynn,
Thanks for the updated photo’s. I’ll get some pics and show everyone my plants. You have peppers on that are already big. I have one or two on, but nothing like yours yet. We plant our corn in the country, next to the field corn. I do have some decorative corn planted along with broom corn which is beautiful in the fall. Now with all the heat that has been coming, we pray for no hail!!
We planted one zucchini and one summer squash (yellow) Our tomatoes are not as big as I had hoped at this point but there is plenty of summer left. We finally saw the baby hawk last night – a big giant ball of fluff. I think only one survived. We found two eggs on the ground with dead babies in them a few weeks ago. Everyone agrees that they are probably first time parents. Funny my husband and I drive all over to watch birds and here they were in our yard this summer.
Lynn,
Your garden is coming along so beautifully. Things look like they are growing. Loved the other pics also.
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Rhonda,
Do you take a lot of pictures of the birds?
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Snickers,
Do you do a lot of fall decorations with your broom corn?
Snickers,
Trust me I am praying for no hail as well. Last year I had to plant my garden 3 times. I had spares last year but dont have any this year because I lost alot of the plants while I was in Utah. And the few spares I had left I had to replant because of the wind. Half of my peppers look like sticks with flowers and peppers on them. LOL.
Rhonda,
Dont feel bad half of my garden seems stunted. Its just sitting there flowering looking happy and growing veggies but the plants themselves look sorry. But its starting to come back. So I imagine your tomatoes will do good in a few weeks.
Pam,
That was my trip to Utah. I posted them for my sister to see. What a beautiful state that is.
Pam,
I use the broom corn for decorating in the fall. I will take a pic when it gets ready to harvest. It gets very tall, and comes in three different colors, it’s nice as the leaves dry very nice and stay on the corn. I have kept it over a year and it will not fall off in the house. The extra I take to a green house for them to use in fall decorating in arrangements. You can cut the stalk to your liking, tall or short. It looks like regular corn, but gets a big head of seeds on it. It’s just interesting.
Wow! What beautiful gardens. Rhonda, your raised bed is absolutely charming! This is so inspiring. i think vegetable gardens are just so lovely. Fruits and veggies are so expensive in the stores this summer because of all the weird weather his spring.
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Is it too late for me to plant any vegetables? I am so far behind because my stupid RA keeps flaring whenever I work in my garden.
All I have are perennials right now. I don’t spend any money on the garden, so I’ve had to stick with plants that reseed, come back, or can be easily split and shared with other gardeners. I’ll finish weeding and take a picture of my flowers, too!
What are solar flowers? I Googled it and all I’m coming up with are these funky plastic things.
Ann, If you look at the front of Snicker’s potting shed you will see one…it might be the butterfly. They are small and a few of them spaced around your other flowers or displayed around another object can be kind of nice. They glow at night…hence the whole solar things. For me they bring back the feeling of “lightning bugs” from the midwest. Something we don’t have in California and something I am very fond of. They also change colors and intensity.
Ann,
If you can still buy plants, it’s not too late. If working in your garden is too hard because of RA, you can plant in pots. Make sure they have good drainage. Herbs can be planted together on a patio.
Yes, funky plastic flowers. LOL! I have two flowers and a dragon fly courtesy of our little guy around here. They change colors, red, blue, green and white. They are very nice and glow at night. You need to do nothing, turn on the button, place in the sun for 8 hours and off they go. They go off in the daytime.
I added some pictures to this thread that snickers sent me at the bottom of the post. Enjoy!
I want to get some solar flowers. I guess what I googled is what I want!
Pam, I love lightening bugs (fireflies) too. I thought they were everywhere. We had a group going nuts outsideour bedroom window about 2 weeks ago. They were flashing like crazy. It was so bright! i thought it was real lightening (because my glasses were off- very blurry.)
Tornado damage? Wow. What a horror!