Welcome to the forum!

Hello, Lynn, welcome to RMG. Glad to have you.

I also have a Tibbie who runs the joint and keeps the squirrels and raccoons from my maters. Greetings from Fenway to Chloe. :)

What a lovely place you have. Thank you for sharing the pics.

Nice to meet you, Lynn! What a lovely home you have. I have always wanted a big wrap around porch like that. DH just built a pergola for me last fall, and I'm hoping that the shade it provides will make the patio more usable for us in the summer.

I'm on the western side of Colorado now, but the terrain in your photos reminds me a bit of Castle Rock (south of Denver), where we used to live.

I love seeing pictures of other folks gardens, especially from this part of the country!

Welcome to RMG!

Bonnie

Thanks for your kind words!

Bonnie, we love Colorado. My brother and his family live in the Loveland/Ft.Collins area and we try to get up there as much as possible. We also ski in Durango, etc.

Jaliranchr, oh my gosh! You're the first person I've ever met on these boards who also has a Tibbie! Aren't they the greatest little dogs? We're crazy about our little girl. We got her locally from Royal D Kennels. The owner is a long-time friend.
Question: do you have to watch yours constantly when he's outside, for hawks, eagles, owls, coyotes, etc? The hawks think Chloe's a short-eared, nicely plump rabbit and we can never let her out without us (very) close by. We're considering putting a chicken wire cover on our dog run where they "do their business", just so that we don't have to go out with her every time.
Lynn

I asked this in the other forum:

Lynne in NM:

Are those strawbale walls covered in stucco in the bottom picture? If so, what kind of stucco? Do you have weep holes? Well done yard, BTW.

Dan

Dan: no, the walls are all made from real adobe bricks covered with the stucco that doesn't show watermarks. I can't remember the name of it, though, but the entire house was this stucco on it. As for weep holes, do you mean holes built into the walls of the planting beds so that water can drain out if they get too soggy and to aerate them a bit more? If so, yes, we have several in each bed. They're bigger than they look in the photos, but you can see one in the second to last pic, just at ground level under the santo garden statue there. There are small cup-like basins around each.

BTW, the ground was dirt but we're in the process of laying flagstone with 3 types of thyme planted in between it out there now.

Are you interested in low walled planting beds? The reason I ask is that we're planning to have the backyard walled in come Spring (very similar to the walls around our small garden in the above pics) and I want to have several large (8-12ft long x 2-2 1/2ft tall freestanding planters built in there to hold patio trees and flowers. I've been anxious to talk with RM gardeners about this idea.
Lynn

Lynn, Glad someone knows what a Tibbie is, a friend calls him the "Buddhist Bird dog". :) I think the chicken wire would be a good idea. I'm in town, but that's not saying much in a town this size. I never let him out at night unless I watch him, because the yotes do come into town. I am also quite cautious when the turkey vultures are around in the spring. He has a big fenced backyard to run around in and he loves it.

Fenway, believe it or not, was a little stray that wandered into my yard with no tags. I took him to the pound, no one claimed him and he came home with me after a week. We have been inseparable ever since. He's just a great, fun-loving, happy, delightful buddy to have around.

He's precious . . . look at that sweet face! They are the most good-natured, calm little dogs, aren't they? Chloe's breeder is a personal friend and one of the most respected Tibbie breeders in the country. Did you knwo that Tibbies were never sold until the past 30 years or so? They were born and bred in Tibetan monasteries and only given as gifts, but very seldomly. Their jobs were walking the walls of the monastery to keep a look out for visitors; lap dogs and (I've heard) turning the prayer wheels.
Here's pic of my Tibbie, Chloe.
Lynn
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Lynn,

Thank you for the info. I built a strawbale bldg in Montana and low walls of strawbale, and they looked very similar to yours, which is why I asked. I might go back to WA this spring to help buddy build a wall around their garden, so was looking for ideas, as yours are close to what I had designed for them.

Two years ago we put in a ~350 sf raised bed out of Allan Block against the south side of the house, I put a spigot out there as well on a 4x4, with another spigot on the back side for the soaker hoses. We find the raised bed works wonderfully for the veggies, allows much more control of the water and amendments/nutrients (heavy clay here). The last remaining task is to put a hardscape path around the wall, but the better half has different ideas than me (mine is similar to yours).

I used to design landscapes in CA, and always put in raised planters, for various reasons. First, most important, is to dig down below the level of the planter and incorporate your fill with native to ensure drainage, as a perched water table will result & stress your trees (even with wall at 2ft high). Second most important is to have the design flow with the rest of the landscape. Third is to plumb the planters - don't count on hand-watering as one vacation during hot weather will result in stress and loss, as raised beds don't retain as much moisture as the ground does. I also tried to ensure my designs allowed sitting on the top of the wall for guests to enjoy the flowers and bees and scent (plus you get to subtly change the decor for parties with different styles of cushions, candles, moving the clay frog, etc.). I wouldn't make them any wider than 5-6 feet so you can prune/weed without stepping in the beds.

You'll also find your walls will make wonderful microclimates around the yard (and increase heat on south-facing walls) and you may want to take some time to learn these changes before you go nuts at the nursery; our south wall soil does not freeze and I have a coldframe out there now with veggies in it (just outside Denver and we have had a half-dozen nights below 0º F this winter, as many in single digits, many in teens). What we did to our stucco walls in Montana was to use broken glazed pottery as decoration, as well as glass marbles and one artist did a bas-relief of a man on a horse, all of this done while the last coat of stucco was still wet.

Sounds like an excellent project to dream about, Lynn.

Dan

Lynn, she's adorable! The expressive faces these little dogs have just astounds me. Give her a hug from us. :)

Yup, Fenway just LOVES the snow too. :)

Shelley

A quick comment about these long, raised, stucco-style patio beds of which you speak. I have some friends who are architects who have a beautiful adobe-style house, and they have one that actually has several row covers that they've installed along the top to grow greens and other applicable plants w/o bug sprays - These are maybe 3 foot high 4 foot with the covers. When they entertain, they set benches along them for the guests.

I thought that pretty clever - they maybe have guests every month or so, the priority on fresh salad.

David, that's a great idea I haven't heard of before! Thanks for mentioning it. I actually been thinking about how to plant some veggies back there! I'll mention this idea to my DH.

Dan, yes, we're thinking along the same lines, I believe! As I'd mentioned in my intro, our ground is full of very large rocks and the soil is poor. I have no wish to try and dig in trees, bushes and flowers . . . or irrigate that soil even if it were amended. I like your ideas and am taking note of them, especially digging down into the ground below each planter far enough.
My dream is to have a 6ft wall built around the perimeter of the yard with a kiva fireplace built into it. We want to have bancos built in along both sides of the fireplace for extra seating and a (flagstone?) patio in front of the fp. We want several 2- 2 1/2 ft high freestanding planters built, about 12 ft long, that will each hold a patio tree and flowers. The tops will be finished for extra seating. All will be filled with ammended soil, irrigated and mulched for good water conservation. I'm with you on keeping these narrow enough for ease with pruning, planting and weeding! We're going with a Spanish hacienda look, with winding paths, a 3-tiered fountain, a hot tub (OK, so THAT's not quite Spanish Hacienda ;^P). I'd also like a small pond, but we're concerned about snakes and packrats drowning themselves in it or raccoons helping themselves to the koi, all of which would not be good! I'll have to ask about everyone's experience with ponds in another thread sometime soon. I want the yard to have a number of shady areas, as I really dislike sitting in the sun out here.

When I explain what we want, most people try to tell me all that hardscape will make it too hot, but with the higher walls, a number of patio trees, lots of plants and flowers and a couple taller, native (?) trees planted outside the wall on the south and west sides, I think that it shouldn't be a problem. We can even do flagstone walkways with thyme planted between them.

There's much more, but that's enough for now. Gosh, it's so good to have people to talk to who have similar planting conditions, have experience gardening out here and know our plants!
Lynn

Welcome, Lynn. You're garden is gorgeous! We stayed with friends outside of Santa Fe and had a great time just enjoying the beauty of the land and how the homes fit right into the view. Rather than obstructions of the view they are a lovely part of it...or, at least, they look like it!

Thanks for overwhelming me with dog-cuteness!!!

Jennifer

Lynn,

the extra heat in spring and fall will more than offset the heat in the summer. You can also put unobtrusive netting to keep the coons away. Snakes won't drown and I doubt the packrats will be too much of an issue, esp if you have a rock sticking up for the turtles ;o)

I'd also recommend good path design, meaning wider where you want folk to stand, a surprise just around a curve for interest, and hiding the path with a planter to make people want to walk to it to see around the corner. Your N-S oriented planters will want the tallest plants to the N, etc.

Fun!

Dan