Very Nice!

Roselee, I feel as though I had just had a personal tour of your beautiful garden and a pleasant afternoon visit as well. Thanks for sharing your creativity with us. What a change from the bare canvas of grass you started with!

Rosefolly

Thank you. I really do feel as I'm giving you all a personal tour.

Here is a link that might be useful: Still photos on Shirley's blog ...

Roselee, that was a delightful tour and also so impressive - I love what you've done, absolutely lush and beautiful, and all this from nothing but grass. That's what I started out with too, but you have so many more plants, and a really creative way of putting everything together. Just lovely!

Ingrid

What a joy it was to view that! You really do have a gorgeous garden , and I love all of the art tucked into the garden. Especially the bird cage! Thanks for posting this.

That was lovely and really invigorated me! your garden has so much to explore.. love all the vignettes. Thanks for sharing

Your garden is beautiful, roselee!

Thanks everyone who looked and also for commenting.

GWlolo, that's the way I feel when I look at the gardens and photos on here! :-) Invigorated ... and stress free. A friend made this sign for my yard.

Ragna, I so enjoyed the tour through your garden. Thank you so much for sharing that link. You are a true artist. And I loved watching your husband throughout - he still looks completely smitten with you, and his adoring face was marvelous to watch. And THANK YOU for the marvelous suggestion at the end about working in the heat - I'm going to try that this summer.

Thank you for inviting us to your wonderful garden.

Thank you, Roselee, you look great... so does the garden, I enjoy the show.

Absolutely charming garden! Enjoyed the visit. Will remember the ice chips tip!

Thank you for posting and sharing your garden. I love the use of cages and the pigeon coop :)

Marleah

Thank you, Ragna/Roselee, for inviting us in. I loved the video and getting to hear you and see your personality. One would not guess that such a genteel lady likes to work so hard in her garden - even at the cost of getting sweaty. It's a beautiful garden full of surprises. Love all your flea market finds and display ideas. I'm going to have to add some of those. So pretty!

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Oh, that was delightful! Your garden is so serene, I feel I could spend an afternoon with the two of you there! Thanks for showing us and your garden reflects your personality, both beautiful.

I would love for you all to spend an afternoon with us in the garden. The weather has been so beautiful here for months due to our mild winter. I've never known so many nice days/weeks in a row to play outside.

Sherry, it does surprise some people how us genteel ladys love nothing more than to spread manure compost, but among ourselves we understand it.

One thing that was left out of the interview is how I hauled in all those BIG rocks from the nearby dry creek and vacant land. Bob built a low to the ground wagon so I could kind of roll them on without lifting their total weight. It was fun finding and placing them, but a lot of calories were burned hauling them overland. Ah, I'd get to have more than one bowl of ice cream that night. ... LOL

I edited to add that I'm a faithful reader of your blog Sherry and of what others of you do on here so I know y'all do a lot of manure slinging too. :-)

This post was edited by roselee on Tue, Apr 16, 13 at 17:41

How lovely! Really enjoyed the video and the still photos. A true work of art.
May need to try the ice around the neck idea later this year.

I really enjoyed the video tour. I love seeing the garden views and putting a face and voice to the gardener. I would love it if more of you all posted video tours in the coming months of garden glory.

Michele

Oh, WoW!!! that is so beautiful!!! I love the angel bird bath that embraces the water, the wonderful roses, shrimp plant & native flowers. And the box turtle, poodle & the silver ponyfoot (how do you grow that? I've tried it in several locations with no luck).

I can't believe how so many folks in SA insist on carpet grass when it is just a water hog & has to be mowed, too.

Thanks for sharing & congratulations on creating such a lovely wonderful garden.

Roselee----what a wonderful treat to take a tour of your beautiful garden---and how nice to see your beautiful face in person----it is hard to believe that such an elegant lady loves to get all sweaty and play in the dirt--

I love all the pots and whimsey ----I put you on my favorites so I can take a tour whenever I want to.-

Thanks for sharing---
Florence

Roselee. What a wonderful tour! I loved it, thank-you.
I felt as though you were showing me around personally.
I really, really, miss seeing other gardens. I used to go to gardens open to the public a lot in England. There is no such thing here in Crete. So thank-you again.
Daisy

P. S. If you will forgive a personal comment, you are a beautiful lady. Wonderful cheekbones!

Lovely garden, lovely gardener. I, too, shall try the pillow case/ice chips.

Thank you all for your kind remarks. I"m glad if something about my garden gives you some ideas. I wanted to enourage gardeners to give themselves free reign in their yards, paint pots, use whatever type of whimsey they like and don't worry about what someone might think as I used to.

Florence I'm glad you saw this since you and I go way back to the Spike and Veldfire days when we both used to post a lot. I was going to email you if you didn't respond. How I'd love to tour your garden and meet Zephyrose in person, you and the rose, but I've enjoyed all your beautiful photos taken inside and outside so I feel like I know you. That goes for most of you who post now as I still read most of what is written here. Thank you.

Wow, I love your yard. And you come off as the perfect friendly neighbor with whom I'd love to sip a gin and tonic, play cards, and talk about plants.

:-)

~Christopher

I loved my grandma's garden too. She always had different items that were tucked here and there and we loved them all. I have a few in my garden now and I'm adding more all the time. I like to use rocks and stone too. They look great and last forever. I think the plants put their roots under them to stay cool. I like your little turtle. The girl's at Riley's Farm ( a living history farm and apple orchard in Yucaipa, CA ) use the same idea to stay cool that Colonial Virginians did- they wet their "tuckers" with cool well water and wrap it around and tuck it into their 1770's dresses. Even with stays on, it keeps them cool that way. I've tried it and it works. Your chemise gets damp at the top edge but that helps too. Stays were bone or reed stiffened so there was no worry about rusty metal like the Victorian days.

In a silk dress like this, you didn't dare wet that tucker. Some tuckers were extra fine cotton and would have dried out very fast. In those days, ladies had stays called jumps stiffened with cotton cording or very minimal bones when they were out doing farm work. I have gardened in jumps and it's no inconvenience at all.

Thanks again for the tour of your beautiful and very interesting garden.

Christopher, thanks. We could do that. If you come after the weather warms up bring your version of a "tucker".

Kitty, that little history of colonial dresses is SO interesting. I never knew about "tuckers", but you know those hard working ladies had to do something to help them keep cool! I loved hearing about one way they did it and seeing your photos. Thank you!.

You know, I can remember EVERY nook, plant, and cranny of my grandmother's yard and house -- better than I can remember houses that i've lived in as an adult.

I also remember the mischief I got into like chewing off one of her elephant ears to play with and how my tongue swelled up.. It's a wonder it didn't kill me ... lol.

Thank you Daisy and Bluegirl, and everybody, for your kind remarks. It's been fun getting to know you all better. I heard a simple quote once, but I guess it was the Knowledge in which it was said that still moves my heart. "We're all just people here." So simply and yet so sweet.

This post was edited by roselee on Thu, Apr 18, 13 at 21:19

I know all about elephant ears. My brother and I and two cousins found them growing in a little patch of woods when we were all under five. For some no longer remembered reason, we decided it would be a good idea to eat them. I thought we were gong to die. Looking back, the oddest thing about the whole episode was our mothers didn't take us to the emergency room. We just toughed it out.

Floridarose, same here! No one was particularly worried about me, just rather amused that my tongue was so swollen I couldn't close my mouth. I was about five too. In my case this was over 70 years ago and I don't think antihistamines were available then, or if many hospitals even had emergency rooms. Doctors still made housecalls. But I don't remember hurting, just being very uncomfortable.

It's kinda' fun to remember the "good ole' days".

Back to the subject of roses I clearly remember admiring a huge yellow rose and was told it's name; Peace. I think that's when I fell in love with roses. I was about 9.

Hello,
My name is Robyn and I am zeffyrose's daughter.
Mom encouraged me to take a look at Rosalee's posting of her garden.How beautiful!!!!! Reminds me of working in my garden. I loved taking the morning tour with my cup of coffee to see what happened to my little"babies"overnight.Sometimes it amazed me how much bigger they were. I have many fond memories of that and some pictures to look at also.
I am so happy that I was able to see such a lovely video.

Hi Robyn! Thanks for coming on and commenting. I'm happy to hear from Zephie's girl since your Mom and I have emailed privately through the years.

BTW, I've made a lot of changes in the garden in the months since the video was made. I wanted to give it more defininiton as well as make it more drought friendly and easier care while still young enough to enjoy doing it. I haven't done near enough in that regard, but another hot dry summer will probably inspire me to do more.

Here is a link that might be useful: Speaking of morning strolls this is one posted today to the Texas Gallery...

roselee, I truly enjoyed the video tour of your garden. So nice to "get to know the gardener" behind the magic place that you have created. I also loved seeing all the photos of your beautiful paradise. So very inspiring! Thank you very much for posting!
Christina

What a lovely video that is, Roselee! Thank you so much for sharing it with us here. It was a great way to start my Sunday morning as I am getting myself ready to go outdoors and begin work on my own "blank canvas." The thought that someday it may look anything like your yard will inspire me all day long - and even perhaps take me further than those 2 Ibuprofen I just took in advance, LOL!
I can't help but also think how special it will be for that mirror-counting granddaughter of yours to have this video of her Nana to look back on years from now. :-)

Thank you very much Christina! By the way, I have your blog "Organic Garden Dreams" book marked and check out your beautiful landscape often.

Annecelilla, thank you for enjoying my garden with me. Glad my little yard can be an inspiration. And incidentally I'm well aquainted with Ibuprophen also :-).

Here is a link that might be useful: Christina's Organic Garden Dreams ....

Roselee,

Thank you for the tour of your beautiful garden. Your imagination and creativity are apparent.