it looks gorgeous, what a wonderful area to enjoy all year round !!

Thanks, Mitch!

Here is a photo of the path we built and the bench that I bought. The large stones in the path weigh about 150 pounds each, and so it was difficult for Kevin and me to get them into place. However, we only had to cut two of them, and the other large pieces fitted together fairly well. Kevin also cut the almond shaped stone to fit. I have another bromeliad on the near end of the bench and there are now tillandsias hanging from the apple tree, which is still dropping leaves that I have to sweep off the path. Also, the stones are bad about showing dirt and need to be washed already. The bench was rather expensive, and we thought it was sort of a shame that it only gets to be used as a plant stand, but it will look better once I get new pots. I bought Bernard a potters' wheel in exchange for some of the gardening he did for us last year, and I expect him to make us some interesting pots for the bench. I've told him what sizes I want!

In a couple of years, the orchid cactus plants should have flowers, and that will make a pretty spectacular display, if only for a few weeks.

We already have a few more ideas for what to do with the rest of the back yard and might start on those projects in October.

Lars

Everything is beautiful, which is to be expected from a designer.

If I had weather like yours here in NY, I would grow lots of edible succulents and bromeliads.

You need more humming bird feeders. Every time I go to LA, I see many humming birds.

dcarch

This post was edited by dcarch on Tue, Jan 21, 14 at 21:51

Great work, Lars! You two are so going to enjoy your new outdoor space. Looks wonderful!

It is very beautiful. You guys have done so much in the relatively short time you have been in the house. The path looks wonderful, the small part that we can see.

The bench is really gorgeous, very substantial. great lines. You and Kevin both have artistic vision, of course. And it shows.

It is not nice of you to show off your warm outdoor spaces to your frozen buddies. We are hurting from all the shivering and you show us pretty flowers and green things and outdoor tables and stones and landscaping, etc. It sucks here in the frozen midwest tundra.

Oh, it all looks so lovely! The table and chairs, the bench, the stones for the new path, and of course, the beautiful bromeliads and other plants!

I once had a beautiful pink and purple bromeliad--it lasted many years and I was sad when it "expired"--but I've never heard of Tillandsia. (I looked at your link and realized it is an "air plant," and I've seen it, after all, in the Baltimore Aquarium's tropical rainforest, among other places.)

Do you have a watering system for watering all those plants? I suppose you'd have to, without much rainfall. (I can just picture you with a little watering can, spending hours every day, watering them by hand! NOT!)

Anyway, with our snowy and bitter cold conditions here in the East, summer is just a distant memory, so it's good to see a place where summer still exists. Thanks for letting us experience it vicariously!

Sue

Just beautiful! You're so lucky to live in such a fab place - what a climate!

Sue, I actually do water plants by hand with a watering can at least once a week, to feed them, and it is very time consuming. But we also do have a watering system, and the orchid cactus all get watered that way. Nothing in the pergola get watered automatically, and I have to water all the plants hanging in the apple tree by watering can or hose, not to mention the numerous plants I have in wine barrels and pots. Even during the winter, in this drought that we are having, I have to water three times a week to keep the herbs and tomatoes growing, not to mention the citrus trees, orchids, and other bromeliads. We might put in a drip system to take some of my work away, which would be nice.

Here's a picture of the back yard, showing my bedroom window with some cilantro and habanero chilies growing beneath it. This is only one of about four pots of cilantro I have now, and I have been drying some of it, to see how that works out. I left some of it outside in a box last weekend to dry and before that, some of it dried just from being left on my kitchen counter. That's how dry it's been here lately.

Even though my back yard is very labor intensive, I enjoy spending time there, even though I do not grow very much food. My pineapple is getting close to being ripe, but I have decided that it is much more practical just to buy pineapples at the market. They do make attractive plants, however.

Dcarch, I do have more hummingbird feeders, but I have only kept one other one up. One male hummingbird drives most of the others off and positions himself so that he can reign over our apple tree. For some reason, he likes to sit on orchid plants. There are many more hummingbirds across the street, however, especially now that the aloes are in full bloom. They also like the bottle brush tree across the street.

Lars

This post was edited by publickman on Wed, Jan 22, 14 at 2:02

Lars, I think you and Kevin have done a masterful job revamping your garden! The new table is lovely and I really like the striped cushions. The orchids and bromeliads are thriving in your area, I'm envious!

My SIL has that same table for her dining table :-)
Lovely patio. I always envy those who have nice gardens, because I have a black thumb :-)

Amazing how you have used the space to it's fullest! Very diverse and so many points of interest.

Compumom, I'm sure you could grow the same plants in your neighborhood, but they are a bit labor intense to maintain, especially when we do not have rain. I'm glad you like what we've done to the yard, especially since you actually been in my pergola!

Here's a picture of a piece of grape wood that we bought and glued tillandsias on. If you are growing grapes, this is something you can do with leftover grape vines. Dcarch, you can see the other hummingbird feeder in this photo. I hesitated to post this photo because I did hear about the East Coast weather this morning and had not realized that it was that cold there.

Colleen, the teak furniture that we bought at The Teak Warehouse was made in Thailand or Indonesia, and so I'm not surprised that you SIL has the same table in Australia.

Cathy, I have had to maximize use of the yard because it is fairly small, I think. We still have enough yard to make it seem spacious, however, and we would like to do more entertaining. I spend a lot of time in the pergola, mostly just relaxing, and so began to focus on what I liked and didn't like, and I also noticed that the grapevine was taking up valuable shade space, which would be better used by bromeliads and orchid cactus. Most of the yard is too sunny for those plants. When we first moved in, there were quite a few sore spots that I had to addres right away, just to make it tolerable - the first being the white concrete patio. Once we stained that, the space was really transformed and much more inviting. There used to be a stepping stone path from the patio to the pergola on the other side, but it has been covered with grass. We're considering whether to excavate that. Improving the yard makes me want to cook outside more, and Kevin always helps me with that.

Lars

I find it very annoying you would post these photos of your beautiful space when it is less then 10 degrees fahrenheit here and there is snow on my deck. ; )

At least you could do is invite all of us from the Northeast over for dinner on your lovely patio.

Enjoy your wonderful space!

Debra, you certainly are invited to have dinner on my patio! I was reluctant to post these photos once I heard the weather report this morning - I normally do not watch much news. I have extra tables I can set up in the yard, if I ever have a crowd, but it has been difficult to get people to show up for a party. The L.A. group did come over about two years ago.

I won't post any more pictures, but I really did want to post the last one because the new plants that I have intrigue me. Because I spend so much time outside, the kitchen suffers and is not photogenic at the moment, and neither is my indoor dining room.

We need snow here for our ski resorts.

Lars

Lars, Please post as many photos as you like. I was just teasing ; ) We are all getting a little cranky up here with this extra cold winter.

I can't believe you would have a hard time getting people to attend your parties. While I've never tasted your cooking it sounds wonderful the way you describe it and looks good when you post photos.

Thanks, Debra - I thought you might be teasing - I'm a pretty easy mark when it comes to teasing!! I can imagine getting cranky during extra cold weather, and I hope these photos will help raise your spirits.

To tempt fate, I will post another photo that I just took of a Living Stone plant that just bloomed for me for the first time. I have a lot of these plants, but all the rest make yellow flowers, and so I got excited when I saw this flower of a strikingly different color. It's a small plant and a small flower, but I get excited by small flowers, for some reason. My favorite hibiscus is making smaller flowers right now, and I am less happy about that.

I think I will make soup tonight - I have a bit of an upset stomach and left work early - which allowed me to take this photo.

Lars

Lars, my dear, please post more pictures, those of us in the cold climates can look forward to spring and summer that way. Some of us can look forward to a warm vacation instead!

Here it's 9F, and it'll get down to about zero. Tomorrow it's supposed to be a high of 11 and a low of 3 below zero. That will continue for at least another week and I think it's snowed every day for the past 37 days or something like that. Record setting cold and record setting snow, all in a single winter, go figure. It's still better than those 90F days we were having last summer, now THAT was horrible, ugh.

I love your backyard and all those plants and you and Kevin did a great job on that stone pathway. I also like the substantial bench and the patio table, you have a lovely extension of your home in that backyard. Enjoy it!

Annie

Because so many of our CF friends are dealing with extreme temps and all the implications of those temps, I have been hesitant to post pictures.

Still, your yard is warming to one's heart.

Hope you feel better, soup is always great when you are feeling bad. Beautiful flower!

A guest to my soup swap party on Saturday just called and said there might be another blizzard coming. UHHH I've been too busy to be checking the forecast. I sent out a notice of a snow date in case it needs to be postponed.

Those in warmer climates please send some good weather wishes to those in the north!

Lovely space, Lars- looks so inviting. quiet & relaxing it must be after a hectic day--

Hoping you have some moisture coming your way---

Diane

Lovely photos. I love seeing green this time of year. I should send you my poor orchid cactus mother plant and baby cuttings that are languishing in the frozen north. What lovely flowers they have though rare for me. Your bench and table are beautiful.

Winter is in full swing here. No snow today but it was -8 when I got up. Around 4 I went over to the shop to get a fire started in hopes that we will work out there tomorrow. It was 8 degrees inside the shop. By the time the fire was really going I had a chill.

I definitely have spring fever. Looking at seed catalogues, sprouting seed, microgreens. Starting seed soon.