Looking good Blue !

Nice. I also like the raised bed design.

There's always work to do in the garden isn't it Stephen?
Old stuff out, new stuff in.
All lookes very nice!
I red in the BCS journal you have an open weekend in September and I gues everything must be ready then?

I don't see my Chamaecyparis lawsoniana. 'Filip's Golden Tears' at any picture, do you hide it for us or isn't it alive anymore?

hey blue

what happened to the stuff that was edited.. donated.. or sent to conifer heaven ..

how do you decide what goes ...

the raised bed.... are those posts into the ground .... how deep ... or cabled together to withhold the stress of the soil???

finally .. a garden with just the right proportion of grass ... enough for paths to view the garden ....

super .. thanks for the posting

ken

That is quite a revision. From what I remember there were some fairly large plants in that bed.

Very nice.
Bill

I like the raised bed as well. Being able to see the minies up close without crawling on the ground is great. Also, the different heights add interest. Really well done. I am so jealous-in a good way. Gary

Hello Stephen

Looking very good,nice photo's

Do you have a new gardenlist?

Henk.

Stephen...great job on the raised bed. An attention getter for sure.

I once built a simular bed like that a few years back. I used creosoted fence posts cut off to length.

What are you using for edging to separate your grass from the mulch?

Dave

Edwin - yes the bed will be ready for September, and very little interest in our open weekend so far.
Don't worry, I still have 'Filip's Golden Tears', but not sure it's in the right place yet.

Chamaecyparis lawsoniana 'Filip's Golden Tears'

Ken - there wasn't an abundance of conifers in that bed, the best ones are still there, a couple have been moved out, and a few have gone to conifer heaven. With regard to the raised bed, the posts are supposed to be treated timber, and are cemented into the ground, although they are beginning to rot at the bases already after about four years.

Bill - here are a couple of what you might remember from last summer.

Gary - the raised bed is really only there to get above the mass of roots in the ground from the old Copper Beech, and help give the plants something a bit decent to grow into.

Henk - I should have an updated list by the end of June.

Dave - An edging iron, and on my hands and knees with a hand fork ;0)

Wow your gardens look amazing!

Steve,

Thank you for the photos, that's the place I remember. Trying to figure out how to get back there again. There are places I would like to visit again and places I would like to see. Suz said she doesn't want to go again so soon and told me to make the trip if I would like. Maybe next year.

Should be able to post some photos of this place in the next week or so. Looks a lot different than when you were here last.

Bill

Bill - look forward to you coming over again in the near future - as long as we don't have to go back to Gordon Haddow at Kenwith, don't think I could stand the boredom :0)
Will be great to see some pics of your place, will make up a bit for not being there this year. I hope you are getting ready for the Anglo Dutch invasion ?

Yep Bill,
Get ready for this invasion, I'll be there also! :O)

Hey Guys,

I am almost ready for the visit/invasion. Not a problem. I think I will end up planting at least 300 new plants in the collection. What bothers me more is the fact that I have that many sitting around to plant and more.

If I make it over we can skip the Kenwith visit. I think I am pretty much set for life on that destination.

Bill

Bill - is Kenwith not on your highly rated places to visit then :0)

Aaaa.... no.

Sorry Bill - I should have said re visit.
How about some of your nice Kenwith photos to show the viewers, only I couldn't find anything worth pointing my camera at.

I will dig up some photos from there and post them. They were not the best specimens I have ever seen but there were a few gems.

The one plant I was hoping to find in the US is Taxus baccata 'Ivory Tower'. I swear it does not exist over here. There are some similar but not that cultivar. That is a great plant. I thought I had a photo but it seems to be gone with so many others after I lost my drive.

Bill

Don't make it too much of a favorable advertising feature though :0)

does that mean the heaths and heathers have moved on???

if so.. what happened to them

ken

Heather heaven Ken.

jeez steve.. this is like pulling teeth ..

WHY???

was there any problem with them ... disease .. or just a new direction???

they added such color ... i cant believe you just got tired of them????

ken

Ken - As I've always said the conifers have to take priority, and as the collection grows something has to give, and as much as I'd like to, I just don't have the room to accommodate everything.

wow...

i am adding... daylily ... iris .. sedums.. all kinds of companion plants to the large conifer beds.. in hopes of creating the variations in texture and color ..

that dream being created by your pix of the heathers.. and bloom's book similar usages ...

and now you tell me its all gone ...

just wow ...

can i see a pic one more time.. just for the good times ... and then i will go weep lightly in the shadows of my mind ...

what carp.. lol ... but i would like to see the old beds once more.. in their prime ...

thanks

ken

ps: what i am using is based i what i can gratuitously beg from other garden folks.. rather than an unlimited budget on companion plants ... EVERYONE has an iris of some variation.. and the foliage is so different than the conifers ... heathers are extremely rare and very borderline in my neck of the woods ... read that part.. expensive

Ken,

I wanted to note that during our visit we noted that there are so many heathers and heaths that the have huge tracts of land called the Heathlands. Damned things grow like weeds over there. We just don't have the climate over here. I do agree to a point though that they make great companions but ultimately they are not conifers. Nuf said.

Bill

OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD.. I REPLIED TO THE WRONG POSTING .. I WILL COPY IT.. AND POST IT TO THE OTHER ...

bill.. i suspected as much.. on the other post.. the last few pix.. show them tending toward swallowing up the rest of the bed .... success does have its downsides.. lol ...

and if my little finger can hit the right button.. turn off the caps...

ken