Trees, they are my joy. I lost over a dozen trees this winter, due to all kinds of things, but it is so sad. My yard just looks so barren and awful in the spring..but my trees, the are so precious to me. I actually have dozens of new trees on order coming this year..I can't wait..well better we are getting snow today. The only trees in the yard in the photos that I didn't plant are the large ash tree and one large maple, the rest are all my babies. I have 5 acres and about 2 are perennials..I'll share a few more here..

Br. Arif, When I look at your gardens I am amazed and in awe. You truley have created a world of beauty around you. When I look at my small sun room with the dreary weather outside, and my plants in pots, they appear like birds in a cage when compared to your gardens. Thank you for the wonderful view into your world. I look forward to the Greening here to be able to share mine with you. Chaz

Wow! Great peppers and herbs. I don't know anything about vegetable gardening so I am of no help there. I tried vegetables for the first time this year so, of course, we had a drought and water restrictions. I had corn (with ears started, then it dried up), eggplant (killed by spider mites), cauliflower (never flowered), cherry tomatoes (grew five feet tall, low yield and fell prey to spider mites), hot peppers--explosive embers (they produced but I have to soap & neem them for white fly on a regular basis), and some bunching onions that stayed pretty small and won't stand up. We still can't water more than once a week, 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. Good luck with your cukes. You have a great veggie garden. Julie in WPB

bump for Dougald. Thank you for introducing me to this book, Dougald. There is no email address on your GWeb profile page, so I hope you see this add-on to the thread. I'm in process of reading the book. It is not one you read quickly, so I read a chapter and think about it. The addition of rocks and mountains is something I'll have to think about for a long time. It is the way they also incorporate water into the garden. Since things are always symbolic of other things, I trust it will be in line with the Chinese style to find a suitable work-around in my garden. It won't be classical, but it will be as close a substitute as my location (and budget and capabilities) allow. I'm at that chapter about Chinese landscape art--paintings or scrolls, not actually in the garden--and that is where I'm lingering for a while. It must look natural even though contrived. What for me to do! I get the ideas of "borrowing views" and creating long views, multiple changing vantage points with openings in the shrubs and trees, always framing a lovely prospect. Some architecture....provided by my Teahouse wall, the new latticed screen going in to break up the western sunlight and block the glare of two noxious street lights uninvited to the scene. Of course there are no large expanses of land here. Mine would be no imperial site since it forms a personal and private garden on a city lot. By Friday afternoon, the tall latticed 40 foot wide screen will be installed, and I can proceed to prettying up the last section of my walled garden. I am adding no gates....that is mentioned in this book too...but instead I am locating objects or features which will be framed in the two gateways and serve to invite one into the garden. Of the two views through the openings in the latticed screen, one is of a crape myrtle (now in bloom) beside a pole with a bluebird nestbox on it. I will be able to see the comings and goings of the bluebirds building their nests and feeding their young, from the low deck off our bedroom. The other opening serves to reveal the darker territory beneath a sasanqua (camellia) where I recently located a white (plastic) tiered fountain. This fountain will not have water but will have ferns and tall spraying liriope planted, with pots of small hosta nestled in their midst. A Limelight hydrangea will provide more greenish white flower balls in that vicinity as well. This ungated opening near the door to the Teahouse is also visible from the deck off the back of our house, be it from the spot off our bedroom, or the area behind my kitchen. The entire back of our house--when the remodel is done--will be a wall of glass. It gives me an uncompromised view of the garden through the latticed screen....and privacy from all outside eyes. Except maybe for the small aircraft which pass overhead. So thank you Dougald. I hope you see this. The book is delightful.