From commentor Japa21:
Every Spring for the last 3 years Mrs. Japa and I try to plan out our garden set-up. And each year we have also decided it is time to downsize. Combining both thoughts we have minimized our actual investment each year and have pretty much limited ourselves to container gardening and minimal maintenance on everything else, much of which has been seen here in the past. On average, we would do 4 big planters, 4 medium and several smaller. This year we limited ourselves to 2 big pots and some smaller. I am only showing three of them.
You may be asking, if thinking about downsizing started 3 years ago, why are we still here? Actually, that question gets answered every time we sit on our patio for morning coffee or evening wine. Our back yard, particularly, has become a place of refuge. Although we are surrounded by other houses, there is minimal impingement on our consciousness. The back of the yard is full of viburnum and other large bushes as well as a host of hostas, which for the last couple years have been flourishing. We have a nice wall next to the patio with it’s own little garden highlighted by a tiger sumac.
But let’s face it, a garden or yard is more, both literally and figuratively, more than just some plants. It is, if we look at it the right way a form of spiritual lodestone. And depending on what direction the design takes, much, much more. Mrs. Japa and I are avid birders. Scattered around the yard are seven birds feeding stations, including a suet feeder and a hummingbird feeder. The bushes are allowed to do their own thing for the most part to provide shelter for the birds. Over the last couple years we have had almost 40 different species of birds visit our yard. We have seen the mating flight of a hummingbird, two male flickers do a dominance duel, watched birds go from nestling to fledgling to adult, and so much more. That’s why I am including some picture of the fauna as well as the flora, because they are also part of the garden, even the butterfly.
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Prospering By Knowing One’s LimitsPost + Comments (75)