wow .... nothing like some power tools you can ride... to move earth ...

and the fog.. super pix ....

due east of you in MI ... horrible late fall ... my yard is littered with projects that didnt get done ... single digit wind chills two months early .. ground frozen a month early ... snow that stuck in november ... yikes ...

regardless.. super work .. please promise more pix.. when you get back to building ...

thx

ken

Dirt is what one fella told me a vacuum cleaner picks up :-)

Great job Darren.

Dax

All I can say is.....WOW Darren. Absolutely fantastic!
Wish my hubby was interested in the yard and conifers; the things we could do...

Did you really haul that trailer with your Jetta???

You may want to post the picture of your Tetragona Aurea here too, as this thread will be seeing more action.

Please keep the pictures coming,

Barbara

Fantastic. What potential something like this has. I am held back by lack of $$$$, lack of power tools and lack of access. Even if I had a big cat-earth mover, I couldn't get it to the backyard without running over conifer dwarves.

Nice stuff, I am also looking forward to seeing the progress down the line.

Wow...well bitten by the bug!Take advantage of the frost and let it break up big lumps of soil...not bad for back-filling your planting holes.Good luck! T.

Darren
What a beautiful garden design emerging; couldn't wait to see more.

What's that nootka on the far left in photo 2 Darren? I have to say taking a second look at the amount of rocks..... that I am now, very impressed.

I need a cat scoop or bobcat or an old tractor. Man could I do the same here. Much more impressive of a garden. Then again, that's six acres of a continuous project and I know I could never stop. Who knows though. I guess there are some things that I'd like to do but really can't.

Thanks on that i.d. though. Hope winter doesn't get too excrutiating. So far, cold as hell here too but a nice meltdown today. I've been sledding this week. I got a heck of a run here. It's awesome.

Later on,

Dax

Hi all,

I'll work backwards. Thanks for the compliments Dax and everyone. Nobody says you have to do it in one shot (your garden). Just start slowly. Tell your mom that for Christmas you want a Gift certificate to a rental company with tractors,and/or bobcats. If you start berming things up you soon have a wind break and a pond too! Think of Rich and Susan's garden with the waterfall and pond. Sounds completely crazy but if I find a rock by some farmers field while on my way some where, I stop and heave it into the trunk. I brought home countless rocks that way. (I shouldn't admit that) But today and tomorrow it is going to start warming up also, with lots of rain coming later this morning. Hopefully, I'll be back at it soon.

The conifer on the far left is Cham. noot. Pendula. It is about 12' (360cmish). The skinny Nootka dead centre, same photo is Cham.noot.Van den Akker. It is 8'tall x 6" wide (200cm x 15cm). As I said earlier I'm disappointed how soon winter came because I have so much more rock to haul in, trees to plant etc. I just don't have the time in the summer because of the business. In my area there are substantial glacial deposits. In general there isn't a shortage of stone. Some of the local farmers helped me out. I built a 27' foot granite stone bridge this summer. I'll post a picture later. We traded trees for stones so it hasn't really cost me that much.

Firefighter this is my very passionate hobby for now. I do run a nursery and garden centre. This is why the "boys have their toys". At any given time there are over 30 000 plants here. I must say though it is extremely handy for doing these side projects!
Barb, the tetragona photos are on another computer. This one has serious USB port problems and it is difficult to transfer the photos over. Unfortunately, I don't have any CD-R's at the moment to burn a copy and send them over. I hope by the weekend I can do that for you and Garcan.

Ken, I feel for you. Let's hope that the winter like Dax says isn't too excruciating. I've gotta run for now. But I will post some photos later. You keep posting too Ken. I love looking at peoples gardens. I bet you live less than 3 hours from me.

Darren

"for Christmas you want a Gift certificate to a rental company with tractors,and/or bobcats.color>"

Great suggestion Darren.

Except that some of us would need a little more than a tractor or bobcat to get stuff into our little fenced-off backyards....

{{gwi:857175}}

I see...you lift the house,wheel in the plants and the rocks,and then you put it back...not a bad idea, not bad at all... T.

Ya see Jaro, there is always a way!

One of my best friends has a completely closed in backyard and they just put a 20'(6m) greenhouse in there. That is not such a big deal until the equipment came in to dig trenches for the concrete foundation and then the Union gas fellas to put a gas line in. They borrowed my chainsaw to cut a hole in their garage to get this equipment through. Their 20 000.00 greenhouse now had an extra 3000 dollars in renovations to the garage after they were done installing the greenhouse.

Extreme gardening....

It can be done... but I guess you can say to what end...
:-)

Here's the bridge project.
before

3 weeks later

That's some frigg'n art work...WOW! Excellent job.

Hi Darren, I was impressed before you showed that last picture, but now I'm really blown away. Your bridge looks absolutely fantastic. It looks like the pieces are coming together for an amazing garden. Congrats on your progress and thanks for sharing the photos. Can't wait to see the finished product (if there is such a thing). It looks like its going to be stunning.

Thanks, Dan

LOL unreal... I couldn't do that in twenty years... Beautiful

Absolutely amazing Darren - way to dig in (pun intended)! Berming and rocks add so much dimension to the display. Can't wait to see pictures of the finished garden.

Can't imagine what that 6' slab of granite weighs, or how you moved it. Surely not with a bobcat or tractor. We move a lot of large rocks around, but they're limestone -- much lighter I would think than your granite.

What is the "Dwarf Blue Mountain Pine" (latin equivalent)? It's beautiful.

Great job. Hope you get a break in the weather soon.

Kim

Imagine standing on the bridge, a cup of coffee in hand, look around you; yeah, what better way to enjoy and appreciate the beauty of the collection of conifers in a garden perspective......spring through to winter.....(just looking ahead)

That bridge is impressive! Made out of field rock, rather than quarry rock. Good job!

Thanks everybody for the kind words. I love plants and rocks- gardening in general. The bridge was inspired by my travels through England. Although my wife thinks I'm nuts when I say I'm going start a new "project". Now it's just accepted. "You go on honey and do what you have to do" kinda thing. That translates into a green light for me.

Kim the pine is Pinus pumila Dwarf Blue. It is 3 feet round (1m) and 12" tall (30cm). I forget how old it is - somewhere around 8 or 9 years. The size of the plant gives you some perspective as to the size of the rock. I moved it with a friend. We dug a hole to fit the size of the rock and with a friend and a couple of big pry bars. Slowly but surely it slid into position. I packed the ground down and watered it a bit to help ease up on the friction. By far the biggest and toughest one to move. Most of the other lunkers were used mostly by pushing them into place with the bucket after I dug a hole for them.

Gotta run. Have to collect a ton of Pyramidal arb wood and stick it today before the weather turns ugly again.

Will post the conifer garden on Friday or Saturday.

Darren

you dont allow email from your members page.. so i drug up an old topic hoping the rely goes to your in box ...

are you suggesting that my per golden is NOT per golden ..

if so.. whats your next best guess..

and why didnt you raise the issue in that post????

and what is the name of your place again.. whispering something or another.. i bet i could have found an email there.. if that brain cell was disposable ....

thanks

ken

whistling gardens... Darren said he was taking care of like 30,000 plants and hand watering them pretty much himself all day every day in a somewhat recent email.

Hollar at him to "do more!;-)" post some picts of this project.

Dax

Very funny, Dax. The main farm is on drip irrigation - a matter of turning a switch on. Not that bad. The liner houses are more work still done with irrigation but it's the weeding.

I promise to post more pix later this summer. The big "rush" is over now so I will be able to get at those projects again.

You can help me Dax.... buy a couple thousand liners.... less for my guy from Mexico and me to take care of and more time for rock gardens and such... :-)

Waiting by the phone....

Darren

Hey Mister!! You told me you were doing a lot of watering. Nice bridge & stream, I commend you for that piece of artwork.

Dax