Nice Chris ,,, do you ever get a " torrent " down that gulch ?

ron

Yes. More so in the last two years. In a hard rain I have had surface water make it all the way to the firepit before going back underground. Two road culverts drain through. The garden is very much on top of a geologic kind of 'former' stream bed. It is some what cut off from above in more recent time by human activity. The garden has absorbed and handled that water amazingly well.

Very nice. I've always liked terrain like yours that's a bit on the rugged side. A creek or a stream would be an added bonus imo. Thanks for posting. :-)

There is a small stream on the other side of the house, running high this morning after a ton of rain yesterday. In the second pic you can see my driveway sits on the ridge top. Behind the satellite dish the land drops 30' into a deeper valley where the stream is.

It's always interesting to get people's diverse reactions.

--->>

well.. you asked for it .. lol ..

with a garden like that.. who is going to sit on the porch and worry about the cham eh???

my favorite storms.. in my ground freeze MI is the warm rain lightening storms... the warm rain to warm the soil deeper.. and the lightening for the nitro release to green the grass ...

sooo.. are you christopher or clyde.. lol ...

does your property end at the wood fence before the incline ...???

what are the stone circles out there ... to my eye .. fwiw ... they look to contrived for the otherwise completely natural setting ...

thats quite a pier system holding up the house.. whats that all about??? .. is the house new.. moved into that location????

is that the road or your driveway to the right of the house???

hows that for random observations ...

ken

I sit on the front porch Ken. Sometimes I need to rest and sit a spell and since I did not want 20' high Gold Mops blocking the view, I went Niwaki on them. I wanted the color and am enjoying piddling with this art form.

Lots of lightning yesterday. The ground is looking much greener today. The ground has thawed and is fully draining which is nice.

Christopher C. a good ways outside Clyde, NC as the crow flies.

No wooden fence so not sure what you are seeing. My property in these views ends in the middle of the fire pit. I kind of went over the line with the leucothoe hedge separating the garden from the wild where I planted a lot of red and yellow twig dogwood which the deer truly enjoy.

Yes those stone circles are very contrived, kind of like finding the Nazca Lines of Peru or lost temples in the jungle.

The pier system is how to build a house on a slope with out a crawl space or basement type foundation. Based on pole houses quite common in Hawaii and other tropical mountainous places. My floor there for has R-38 insulation like the roof. Ten years old this very spring, certificate of occupancy anyway. The self building process took 3 and 1/2 years.

That is my driveway. The scenic byway is uphill and to the left of the contrived stone circles. Now there are houses in these parts that are barely 10' off the scenic byway. That has got to be annoying when one of the rolling thunder motorcycle caravans roars by.

Christopher--did youever buy hosta from Rux Nursery? We always stopped there in the spring and fall on our way to Boone. Miss buying from them but stil go to the bakery and apple market across the road.

Yes I did a little shopping at Rux nursery. My preferred plant dealer was and is Grass Roots. My mother had to go to Rux every year for a hosta fix.

Okay, you’ve got to tell us about the path to the left of the uncontrived rock, which looks to me like it has a sense of purpose. What keeps it worn?

I keep it worn and mowed in the growing season along with the deer and other varmints. Make a path and all the critters will use it. That is the path over the river and through the woods to Bulbarella's house next door,

Just watched a YouTube video on Niwaki Cloud pruning, very interesting, he used a string to tie the branches to the trunk to bend the branches into a downward position on a Yew. Beautiful setting you have there, love your big rock especially. Are those wine bottles I see buried as a dividing line?

Yes I have buried upside down wine bottles for edging the beds along the driveway and main entry into the garden.

Ken I do have a large uncontrived rock

==>>> yes.. and its good you planted the trees on each side.. so it doesnt slide further down hill ... lol ...

I have been pondering the word contrived as it relates to the garden off an on of late. A most interesting exercise. Thank you Ken. It's not just my rocks, my entire garden is highly contrived. Are all gardens contrived?

And to think this happened organically, listening to the 'aina and the wisdom of an old maintenance gardener. There was no plan. It's just what came out.

WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY .