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Christine's garden Gardening Home page features Perenniels

View from the bench

In my front garden I have a bench which sits in the “Gardenia Bed” and faces the front garden. I like to sit there on occasion to admire all the trees – the one big Shinus sp. which looks a bit like a willow tree and the trees that border my property outside the boundary wall. I sat here for a while today and contemplated the change of the season and how my front garden has developed in the last year. I thought I’d share the view from the bench and few shots of how this little area looked just 14 months ago.

This bed was planned to be a “fragrance garden” with Gardenias and Mock orange blossom (Murraya exotica). It hasn’t turned out that way. I’ve removed a few Gardenias that were taking strain in the heat and added a few less formal plants including the Mexican Petunias and Switch Grass which I love (Panicum virgatum), amongst others. I prefer the more relaxed wildness that’s going on in this bed now to the way it was originally planned.

The bench …

Bench view

Here is how it looked in December 2010

[one_half]To the left of the bench in December 2010To the left of the bench in December 2010[/one_half]

[one_half_last]and to the right in December 2010and to the right in December 2010[/one_half_last]

And how it looks today …

[one_half]The bench from the backThe bench from the back[/one_half]

[one_half_last]A lovely spot to sit and contemplateA lovely spot to sit and contemplate[/one_half_last]

And sitting on this bench you see this view. A few more shots of what I see from the bench …

[one_half]To the left: my little Rose BedTo the left: my little Rose Bed[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Still left, the Lavender and bower vinesStill left, the Lavender and bower vines[/one_half_last]

[one_half]The Camellias and Pepper TreeThe Camellias and Pepper Tree[/one_half]

[one_half_last]The gorgeous Gaura flowering nowThe gorgeous Gaura flowering now[/one_half_last]

PS: The Mexican Petunias are so dead easy to propagate. I broke off a piece, stuck in a bottle of water, two weeks later = 1 new plant! Awesome.

Have a fabulous weekend
xxx

 

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Christine's garden Gardening Home page features

Front garden Panoramas

See my list (photo below). 25 things on my gardening “to do” list. That is 25 things besides the usual cutting back, dead-heading, weeding, and other routine chores this gardener does has to do every week.

See my blog post. I show a few scenes from my back garden. Alan from It’s Not Work, It’s Gardening comments “I’d love to see some more panoramic shots of your garden though, as it’s tough for me to get perspective. (email me if you want instructions on how to do that)“. I remember that about five other garden bloggers have made the same comment. Really, I’ve been trying, but it’s not so easy to do.

An e-mail later and Alan very kindly sent me a list of recommendations of software to download to stitch my photos! (Thank you Alan!). I try the last one on his list which is AutoStitch for Windows. There is a “demo” app written for Windows which Alan says is very good and as simple to use as the iPhone version. http://www.photo-freeware.net/autostitch.php – Plus, it’s free.

Combine the above three and you have a gardener that abandons the gardening chores and “to do” list and produces umpteen panoramas of her front garden.

Oh my goodness, what fun I have had this afternoon! I can’t tell you how easy it was to download the software (a few seconds), read the readme file – easy peasy, start making panoramas! Nothing complicated, no big learning curve – just take photos and do! It was lots of fun to do and interesting for me to see the “bigger picture” of my garden. Amazingly, the “bigger picture” of my garden is so much more attractive than it was in my head. Alan, Thank you so much for introducing me to the software. I was attempting to do it all manually in Photoshop before and you are right, the results were always poor which is why I’ve never shown these wider views of my garden before.

Today I’m showing my front garden. Well, it is actually the back of the house with a yard and back door that opens to the side street (we are on a corner plot). But we use this entrance for pretty much everything (and rarely use the other entrance). So Front Garden it is called and when I refer to any of these, they are located in my front garden and shown here: Gardenia Bed, Rose Bed, Lavender, Camellia Bed and the rest is not often referenced.

[one_third]My list of Things to DoMy list of Things to Do[/one_third]

[one_third]The comment that started itThe comment that started it[/one_third]

[one_third_last]Hand drawn layout of areaHand drawn layout of area[/one_third_last]

First Panoramas – Taken of the Front Garden

(Click on the small images below to view the enlargements).

Panorama 1: Taken from the back entrance door to the property – the first thing you see
Front Garden

Panorama 2: From the house entrance doors, looking at the door (left) and pool
Front Garden

Panorama 3: Taken standing below the “willow” pepper tree looking towards entrance
Front Garden

Panorama 4: Detail of the Rose Bed and Lavender
Rose bed & Lavenders

Panorama 5: Detail of the Camellia bed and “Willow”
Camellia bed and 'willow'.

Panorama 6: Detail of Gardenia Bed, front entrance and Rose bed (the windows look into the garage)
Front entrance panorama

Did I manage to get anymore things off my list done after this? Just another 2. It will be quite a busy day tomorrow …

Happy Gardening
xxx