Looks fine to me. I use Photobucket, and I've never had a problem.

Perfect in every way!! Love the walk...the plants, the gate....etc.
Linda C

Westy

Picture size looks fine and your new walk looks geat and your plants and garden look FANTASTIC!

WOW, gorgeous!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everything is so beautiful and neat and lush! Just beautiful!

Looks great !!!! how did you do the flagstone?

Pic Size looks right.
Everything in your pic looks great, your new walkway really invites one to go exploring the rest of your garden ..... please post more pics so we can see!!

Photobucket seems to be the choice for downloading pics here, if there's something better/quicker I'd like to know too.

June

OMG, I can't believe it worked! I LOVE you guys! I think I must've done something wrong in the Container Forum. I should post the containers here just cuz they're so beautiful. Belong to a neurosurgeon's home in Cincinnati that my future DIL maintains (she's a horticulturist and this is a client of hers). I've decided to rip mine out and start over! It's here:

{{gwi:40695}}

My husband and son did the walk. They did one two years ago and I hated it --- laid down landscape fabric after tamping, great. Lined each side with brick. Not so great. Filled it all with crushed rock. AWFUL. I couldn't walk on it barefoot (I'm a hick) nor with any shoes other than workboots! So I cried, begged, pleaded and used MANY other tactics and they ripped it out and started over three weeks ago. Took out the landscape fabric, retamped to a depth of 6" (I think it should've been 8 but I know that would have been pushing it), laid sand and then the flagstone. Last step was sweeping with very fine crushed limestone....which I saw on a path in a subdivision and noticed it never washed away or moved at all. I love it. And so do they even though they didn't like me much for awhile. They think they're pretty smart right now and they love it.

Westy

They look good to me also :-)

First Photo
Width: 800px
Height: 600px
Size Of File: 306.25 KB (313602 bytes)

Second Photo
Width: 640px
Height: 480px
Size Of File: 114.75 KB (117499 bytes)

June - I need to take more pics. Have a lot of single Hostas that need to be ID'd and will save for another post (or invite my new expert friends to visit!) The path is on the other side of the house, too - that one is even longer - see why they weren't happy with me? I'll take pics of that side when I'm done planting around it.

Thank you for the nice comments - makes the backache worth it. I posted five more below and hope they show up the same way! (size wise)

Westy

Facing East, Outside Back Patio Gate, After Rain at Dusk:

Facing West, North Side of Back Patio ('06):

Sunpower (I think), Under Sambuca Sutherland's Gold:

Inniswood, Age 10, Three Feet Width:

Topmost Leaf of Frances Williams in Sambuca Jungle:

Westy,

OMG, your beds are gorgeous!!!! My favorite photo is Facing West, North Side of Back Patio ('06): where we are lead around a curve between two lush hosta beds that seem to go on forever! More, I want more! I want to see what's beyond!

Char

Carole - your yard looks fabulous! How about swinging by my place. I changed plans mid-stream and I need all the suggestions I can get!

Teresa

Well there's only one glaring problem I see with your photos Westy...there aren't enough of them...lol. What fabulous looking gardens you have. As soon as you're finished with Teresa's place, would you mind flying out to NJ and giving me some pointers?

To sum it up, WOW!, I hope you'll post a bunch more.

Donna

WOW, Carole! I am loving your pics :-) And now I must have Inniswood. Can't believe how gorgeous that looks.
~Angie

Carole, and you were going on and on about MY yard? Hello? INCREDIBLE. You are far too modest! It's gorgeous!

Your photos are gorgeous!!!

About Photobucket....something that makes pics load quicker for anyone still using dial-up is to turn your pics into clickable links.

To do that
- Check the small box directly below any photo you want to share
- Scroll to the bottom of the photobucket page and click on
'generate HTML and IMG code'
- Highlight the text in the top box marked
'HTML clickable thumbnails for Ebay, Livejournal, MySpace, etc. - recommended'
- Paste into your post.

The two nice things about clickable links is one that I already said...quicker page-loading for dial-up users, but you also do not have to resize your pictures if you plan on sharing your pictures this way.

Hope this helps!
Kristy :)

Carole!!!!! Gulp . . . . your landscaping is splendiferous to say the least. Glad you're finally posting pics and we get to see what you're talking about, the berms, the walks, and the hosta.

Inniswood doesn't look right, all those gorgeous colors and patterns. Maybe an Aureonebulosa?

Great gardens,Westy! Mine will never look like that,because the only flat ground here,is where the house is! I'll have to be content with my woodland garden. Nothing wrong with the size of your posted pics,either! I still don't know what the big deal is with posting pics. My hp photo files automatically size the pics into Photobucket,and I never have to worry about them. Phil

Oh my goodness, Westy!!! How absolutly fabulous your place looks, and I am so glad you *hung in there*
and got the sidewalk you envisioned!! It's wonderful!

Tell your hubby and son, they did a MARVELOUS looking job to me! I know you are very proud of them!!
So, did they get a steak dinner afterwards??? :o)

Hey Kristy, thanks for those tips. I'll try that next time! I only have pics from '06 of a view going around the bend and need to take more when the weather is clear. I'll try Kristy's suggestions. You guys are so great. If I had known about this forum prior to late '05 I would have known what I was doing. For fifteen years I didn't know they needed water, water, water!!! So the garden is just getting going after the past couple of years.

Re Inniswood, Angie: I didn't know there was landscape fabric buried where I planted it ten years ago because there was about a foot of dirt and hardwood mulch on top --couldn't figure out why it stayed tiny - about a foot across - until I dug it up, tore out the fabric, and replanted. That was three years ago and now it's huge. I have spent the last few years tearing up landscape fabric that the contracted landscaper put around the ENTIRE yard after planting trees in 1989 when the house was built. I've learned to swear like a steamfitter!

Westy

I said you go it at too hard but the results are wonderful. You are a hard taskmaster.

If you ever ask me to do anything I'll be sure to do it right.

Be careful how you take this but what you have is grand. Should be in a magazine or on HGTV.

BIG BUTT you could lose that if you go to far.

EO - Do you mean my butt is big? And that I might lose it if I do more digging?

I just got in here again and read all these. You guys make me want to keep it up! Janice - I'm good to them SOME of the time. I think they would definitely call me what EO said -- 'a hard taskmaster'. DH has been around for almost 45 years, so I must be doing something right by him! (Although I'm sure not often enough ;) Son has no choice - plus he's a certified landscaper (in Ohio) who just moved back home until his fiance gets here. I love having his help, cuz DH is a golfer and doesn't know dirt from a hole in the ground.

Mary Ann: I guess I wrote you a separate email about Inniswood. After I wrote it I looked it up in the Library and can't find anything that is just 'aureonebulosa' so maybe there's a 'v' in front, like 'ventricosa' or something, but I tried that too. Can you give me more info? You hafta come over and straighten me out! Send me an email so I don't take up any more of everyone's time on this thread. And thanks.

Westy

Go to your first photo.

The large plants to the left just inside the gate then allow your eye to go further back to what looks like smaller plants. If this isnÂt true it illustrates a landscaping principle.

Plant large close and small further away which creates the illusion of distance. To my eye it is just perfect.

The color of the wooden fence blends in with the concrete pavers and the stone walk. The crushed limestone is lost to oneÂs eye where mortared would stick out like coloring between the lines when you were 4 yrs old.

Let me offer an idea, after the perennials go dormant and you know where they are add stonescaping for year round effect. Stones could be sized to not show in spring and summer or "planted" in the garden. Note; planted, stone must be planted not sat on top of the soil, now that IÂve said this start looking at stone that isnÂt planted.

Also considering scale consider only dwarf confers and only really hardy ones considering where you are. Morton would be a good place to look for confers that will perform well.

Hope nothing said takes away from the fact that your garden is simply special as is and doesnÂt need my help!

Carole, look for 'Tokudama Aureonebulosa'

Your gardens are spectacular! And so close to where I live (I think.) Wish I could go over and roam those gardens, I'd get lost in it, I'm sure. You really know what you're doing. Thanks for sharing it all with us.

Anitamo - where are you? I'd love to get together! Email me at cdwestg@comcast.net.

Westy

If I weed, water, and work for the next 15 years I could only hope my yard would look half as good as yours! Wow! Please post more pictures!

What an inspiration they are - I'm going to dig up more lawn tomorrow, and buy myself a Sum & Substance...

Okay, I looked up Tokudama Aureonebulosa (I do have one that I forgot about - it's a baby from Naylor Creek this year) and compared it with Inniswood on the H.L. Now I'm not sure WHAT it is. It looks like both of them. I need to get Mary Ann over here pronto or at least before I buy markers!

Donna (playinmud) If I remember right your garden posts are gorgeous and you need no help from anyone. But I'd love to stop in when I'm near - I visit my neice in CT at least a couple times a year - just a hop, skip and a knock away!

Westy

"I need to get Mary Ann over here pronto or at least before I buy markers!"
westy

Please turn and walk away from markers, do not look back I wonÂt say what you will turn into.

Take photos and identify your plants, color photo album with black and white on the apposing page with the names. Your garden is simply beautiful now, add markers (DonÂt care how much you pay for them) and it looks silly. How silly to go to Yellowstone and all the buffalo and elk had bison and Cervus canadensis painted on their sides.

Rant over!
Leave me alone, quit hollering at me the neighbors all think my name is "WHERE IN THE HELL HAVE BEEN".

Your yard is just beautiful, I'm sure it gives you much pleasure to see the beauty you created with your eye for landscaping, just wonderful!Brenda

I agree HGTV needs to get over there and do a show on Hostas and use your garden. It is absolutely lovely and so serene.
Debbie

lmao@yellowstone

westy...sending you an email tonight.

Your gardens are breath-takingly beautiful.

I'm so glad you didnt give up on learning to post a photo... a picture is worth a 1000 words.

keep 'em coming.

Wow, Wow & Wow again Westy!!! I'm so glad you posted more pics. Going through your patio gate to the rest of your "yard" is breathtaking. Your hostas are big and beautiful and the landscaping purrrfect!

Thanks so much for sharing ......please share more. :)

June

Carole what a beautiful yard and plantings you have!
I love the berm and the whole area there, looks like a park!
All your hard work has really paid off.

I'm glad you learned to post your photos, now keep 'em coming!

Janet

Thank you EVERYONE for all the unbelievable compliments! I still say the pics do much more justice than seeing it in person. It's not so serene - we are adjacent to a fairly busy road and we also have the corner lot. And I have the curse of living in an 'association' with by-laws that restrict planting to only 'inside' the fenced patios, which I obviously ignore. And DH is the president. I just steal grass when he's out of town -- much better to ask forgiveness than permission -- and what's he gonna do - dig them up? I really want to move to a quiet rural place and I'll have to move over 250 hostas cuz I'll never leave them. I can't believe how many people 'get it'. We are definitely a cult. I love us!

Thanks to everyone and all who helped me figure out how to post! I've saved everyone's instructions for over a year.

Westy

PS Did you know this is the best forum? NONE of the others have the calibre of peeps we have!

Carole,
It looks like a hosta retreat. Very relaxing and soothing.
A wonderful place to unwind. Love the first pic. Very nice job.
Just lovely and beautiful.

What part of Northern IL are you located?
Whats your favorite nursery there?

Don't you feel proud that you can do 'It', the pictures.

I can't believe you didn't share some of those glorious hostas with me. LOL

Connie

" And I have the curse of living in an 'association' with by-laws that restrict planting to only 'inside' the fenced patios, which I obviously ignore. And DH is the president. I just steal grass when he's out of town -- much better to ask forgiveness than permission -- and what's he gonna do - dig them up?"

Carole, you crack me up! Your DH probably loves living in that garden vista, don't you think? I live with my sister, who loves the lawn, but not hostas...I put in a new bed last year and she went ballistic...I said I was sorry (like you said, what's she going to do, dig them up?), well this season she admitted that the plantings looked great. Patience and perseverance will win her over eventually, LOL!

Donna

It's all been said in earlier posts. Beautiful garden design, lush plants, gorgeous gate and fence. Deserving of an article in Fine Gardening. You all do wonderful work!
BTW, love the chair.
Your photos highlight your achievements. Please keep them coming!
~Bunnycat

Hey Hostared - I'm in Crystal Lake. My fave's are in Woodstock and keep a low profile. One is 'Deep Cut'. 'Rich's Foxwillow Farms' is another one but he specializes in rare conifers - it's a veritable woodland haven for every kind of tree that is hardy here. I make the rounds to all of them, but wait for the perennial sales that are starting now. Where are YOU?

Westy

PS Thank you, Bunnycat. I love the chair too - but it's not exactly the most comfortable patio set you ever sat on. I can be pretty impractical when I want aesthetics!

Hi Carole....Check you e-mail.
Gloria