Thursday, April 4, 2013

Garden de Meadows....

"One who plants a garden, plants happiness."

My friend Karen and her husband
 live a few miles from me,
right across from the bay.
Here is Karen talking to her neighbors donkey.
Karen incorporates all kinds of creativity
into their homeplace.
For instance, one of the things she did was to
put sea urchins on some of her spikey plants.
 
We are living in the Wild Horse Desert
of south Texas,
and are close to the waters of Baffin Bay.
So, we get hot temperatures,
windy days, dust, and drought,
just to name a few of the extremes
we have to deal with.
We actually live on a moving sanddune,
according to the Botanical Gardens
or Corpus Christi.

To help with these extremes
Karen saves water by using the 'grey' water
that drains out
from their showers and kitchen sink.
They do things like have their version
of a 'key hole' garden.
Here's info on key hole gardens....
The kitchen scraps etc. compost in the middle
of this 'raised' garden bed they
made from a horse water trough.
 My friends recently put in a patio,
made from pavers of different kinds, stones,
lava rock and bricks.
The mixture makes it interesting
and it seems like it's been there for awhile.
I love that 'grown over time' look.
The patio is located under 2 mesquite trees,
in a location where there is a nice breeze,
yet near the house.
There is a picnic table, chairs,
a chiminea for an outdoor fire in winter,
potted plants, and lots of whimsy.
A few bromeliads add to the look.

Against the dark lava rock and pavers
are some light colored stones,
like river rocks.
On top of that she has placed
some big chunks of colored glass.
I will bet they glow in the morning sun.
She used tree stumps for tables
beside her chairs,
and added whimsical dragonfly lights in the trees.

She grows pineapples,
blueberries, herbs,
vegetables
and many visually interesting plants.

There is much much more to their garden,
but this will hopefully inspire you
to have fun with your garden.

It's a wonderful, peaceful place to be.


"The garden is a mirror of the heart."

Savor the Day!
Yvonne




4 comments:

Mary Helen-Art Saves Lives said...

What a beautiful garden and so different from an Ohio landscape. I think the sea urchins on the spikey plant is intriguing. We have rain barrels to collect extra rain to water the plants during the dry season in July and August. I wish you peace and a cool breeze. Peace, Mary Helen Fernandez Stewart

Barbara said...

It is inspiring, but hard to effect here in NJ just yet. Love her ideas and will remember them in May-June!

Halle said...

Ah what a wonderful place to visit! Lovely outdoor areas and the keyhole garden has me very interested. It's currently snowing here. Boo-hoo. I'm tired of Winter!!!








Lorraine said...

love those urchins on the spiky plant..I grow blueberries but would love to grow pineapples it sure must be hot there. Thank you for the suggestion re printing out my paintings I am going to get cards professionally printed to start off