Monty's Garden.

Just wanted to show some folks what my yard looked like on July 18, 2001.

A number of folks have been asking what all I have been up to lately so I thought I'd make a simple webpage showing what my yard currently looks like. Um, kinda weedy ;-) Well, actually I think of this as the natural look. Wildlife flowers and no weeding. I actually had plans to make something here, but ground cloth down and just have flowers growing, but I ended up working on a rather large project planting around the new Wolf Park giftshop so this area will have to wait another year. Actually, I kinda like the natural look so it may remain like this for quite some time ;-)

I did some container gardening this year as always. This is just some purple stuff with more of that weedy background.

Turning 180 degrees, it's a bit different, slightly more cultivated. This is what it looks like along the front of the house. More flowers and stuff.

OK, so what is this unusual thing? Last winter I got a bird feeder. I have not set up a bird feeder before and we do have a lot of hungry birds out here in the winter. So, I set up the feeder in the garden hanging from a tree limb. Only later did I realize that I was not only feeding birds, but planting bird seed below the feeder in the garden. Um, I decided it might be better to hang it over the lawn. So, with help of friends, three land scaping timbers were set and this was hung underneath. I thought the addition of some plants was necessary to finish off the effect...

Some time ago, actually back in November, make that November 1999, I realized that the door of my house was becoming a bit useless. It was warping and not a happy door. Turns out it is styrafoam (what does one expect with a terrier) so I went to Lowe's and found this nice glass door and of course had to have it custom cut, but it looked great. Now, it only took me until July, 2001 to get it installed, but one of my roommates wanted a 60GB hard drive I had sitting around so I made a nice trade, labor for a drive ;-) Now I have a nice door rather than a falling apart plastic one.

Another project I got done was something I have been wanting for years. A good compost bin. I finally got around to cementing some cement blocks together this spring and now have quite a suitable place to store all my yard waste.

More plantings - just my old planter boxes full of stuff.

As seen from the other side, these are doing quite well. Actually, seen from any side they are doing quite well, thanks to Miracle Grow anyway ;-) From this angle, those who know my yard may think this is somewhat different looking. Well, it is....

In fact, it's very different looking back here now. In the spring, Lara moved out leaving two very large empty dog pens in my front yard. These were originally Jill's pens and were technically supposed to be temporary for puppies, but as things go, they ended up permeated features. Well, no longer needed, I took my little Ford Escort and using the tow hook, managed to pull all the fencing out, with help from Alicia, Brooke and Amy of courses. Anyway, it is all lawn back there now, the only way you can tell where the fence was is some gravel and the rows of trees which Jill had planted between fences for dog shade. Now I need to decide what to do with all this space!

Playing with the digital camera and Photoshop, I made this 360 degree panoramic view from the area of where Lara's dog pen used to be. As one can see, the farmer has planted corn again. You can also see the old beat up front door still laying against the house. I have not decided what to do with it yet ;~}

Now for the back yard... I like having stuff out the back door too. Last year I put up some cement walls and planted them. That turned out so successfully, that I replanted them this year. I also have a large pot of Basil, four kinds of Basil, for cooking enhancements. In the cement blocks are flowers, but also herbs.

One nice thing about planting in walls, is the hanging effect you can get.

Detail of the hanging gardens ;-)

More flowers out the back walls.

And yet more flowers out the back walls. Well, that's all for now. Perhaps I will update this page further into the growing season, or perhaps I won't ;-)