WiseAcre Gardens

It wasn’t so long ago that the gardens looked bare and the pond stood in stark contrast to the landscape.

A few weeks later and things are looking much better.

 What caught my attention today was some Sweet Woodruff growing out of the pond wall. Sweet Woodruff earns it’s reputation as an aggressive spreader. Not even a stone wallseems to stop it.

 Below the woodruff are Jewelweed seedlings and above is a creeping hydrangea which is proving to be no match against the invading groundcover.

 On the other side of the pond the Hostas and Ligularia are filling out nicely.

 Now to zoom in a bit closer to see the ‘bubble rock’

 Calling this stone special is an understatement. No one had ever seen anything like this before at the quarry and I’ve never seen anything like it anywhere else either. Ripples – yes. Bubbles – no. The stone has lost it’s colors as it’s darkened with age. I suppose a good powerwash would bring back the purple and orange.

 This was one set of slabs I wasn’t going to let go of. Unless of course you make me an offer I can’t refuse.

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A small pond designed to take advantage of a good spot, the irrigation system and a slight slope.

 Where better to place a water feature than where everyone will get a chance to see it?

The pond is only a few inches deep and not much more than a glorified birdbath that gets plenty of use. Only a few inches deep it became a favorite spot of the kids and for the feeder goldfish they saved from becoming a meal.

 The irrigation system is used to overflow and flush the pond helping to keep it clean and the water fresh. The overflow runs down the slate stream bed to an area kept wet for Ligularia, Japanese Iris and varigated Loosestrife.

 Simple – no pumps, filters or any real maintance except for pulling out the leaves that seem to migrate in mass to the pond in the fall.

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 I finally have the placement decided and the hole looks more than adequate. Right now I’m pretty pleased with myself for only taking a little more than an hour to get to this point. At the rate I’m going I’ll be done in less than 2. It usually takes me at least 2 hours to get this far.

 What took most of my time was picking up a little something that needed to be planted before the juniper.

  Overcoming it’s fear of gravity a rock learns to roll uphill.

 See that’s not so hard.

 I can’t believe how dumb rocks are, especially the flat ones. They fall for that ‘roll uphill’ bit every time. They’ll just sit there even after the tail gate closes behind them. I keep them chained just in case they decide to jump but none ever has. I think they’re in a state of shock that I outwitted them.

 A couple waves of my magic steel wand and I’m done. The juniper is now planted and it looks like the rock finally has a mate.

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 Due to a massive hatching of Black Flies I’m getting out of Dodge. I’ll be back by Saturday to see if it’s safe to breathe. Meanwhile don’t hold your breath waiting for a reply. By the time you read this I’ll have already left.