Good morning! Deacon (the naughty black lab in Tiger Way Gardens) says hello! He is standing on his now completed dog ramp, that could someday double as a wheelchair ramp. This ramp has been a lifesaver for Deacon's buddy AJ. AJ has hip problems and cannot climb steps all that well. The dog ramp also doubles as a runway for the dogs to come straight out of their room into their dog pen; which, true to form; has nothing in it for the dogs to destroy like they did in my other garden. It is a simple 50' x 50 dog pen. Although, the naughty lab has managed to pull his wool blanket out into the dog pen so he can tear it apart. Let me tell you, labs can be very destructive and I had no clue when I first got mine!
This is another view of the dog ramp looking toward the house. The dog ramp wound up being 30 feet long, 4 feet wide and the slope rises about 30". It is a pretty easy ramp to traverse and Mr. Fix-it and I built it well and to last. The ramp forms the northern boundary of our soon to be patio area. I have a lot of old bricks that I have salvaged. They will be laid down on the gravel area as soon as I am able to. To the left of the patio area is the new koi pond-now nearly complete. I just need to finish the landscaping and camouflaging the waterfall area.
Here is a big picture of the pond looking toward the dog pen. You can see Deacon and AJ sorrowfully looking at me because they no longer have free run of the yard. I was using the wireless collars to keep them contained around the house and I strongly recommend these collars. My labs were kept inbounds and even when I try to get Deacon to go out of bounds when we go for walks he refuses to budge from his imaginary boundary. Those collars work great! The bad thing about the dogs free roaming was they had access to the pond, the house, and patio furniture and all sorts of things they could get into. Deacon decided to shred one of my patio chair cushions one day when he felt he was not getting enough attention. I feel much better with the dogs in the pen now. They can safely bark at all the wildlife that surrounds our home. And those dogs can pick up scents really well! Of course, when the coyotes start howling just after dusk there is no scent needed. The dogs return the howls.
Along one side of the pond I planted a bunch of mondo grass as a groundcover under some azaleas and next to the pond. I am hoping the mondo grass will fill in and make a nice groundcover that is easy to care for. The mondo grass also compliments the pond. I had purchased three pots of mondo grass when I visited the McCorkles Giant Plant Sale with my friend Skeeter this past fall. The results above are from dividing just two pots. What a buy!
I hope to begin moving the koi from my other pond soon. I have read where dormancy is a pretty good time to move koi. In fact, I was able to catch one quite easily without even really trying. If I had a bucket it would've made the journey. The pond is 40" deep and there are three plant shelves in it. The plant shelves are fairly deep too. I am hoping that the depth of the pond and the fact the pond is quite close to the house will help to keep the koi safe from night time marauders. I also plan to use some fishing line to dissuade the blue herons from feasting here during the day. Hopefully it all works out.
I hope everyone's year is off to a great start! I am still moving gardens and household items and all sorts of things. I am sad I am running out of time and I have to make a choice between garden plants and household items because I can't do both. I still need to move some rather large doublefile viburnums, edgeworthia, hellebores, daffodils, and maybe a few other shrubs. This task is best done during the winter and as we all know spring will be here soon. Now back to patio building....
in the garden....
Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden
Hello there! We are now moved into our new home and adjusting to life in the country. I thought I'd update you all on a few things going on in the new Tiger Way Gardens. Looking out my front windows I see my beautiful front yard that consists mainly of dirt at the moment, but if you look further you will see the orchard; which has green grass; and you might even spot the chicken coop in the orchard.
We acquired three Rhode Island Red chickens a few months ago and they are really the best! Who says chickens are not smart? These gals are great and pretty smart too. They know exactly where there food is located and beg for it each time I visit the coop. I can't trick them by giving them anything less than the good stuff because they know the difference between cracked corn and mealworms just by sight. They follow me around looking for those handouts and they are just a delight. Not to mention my three eggs each day. I really have only one complaint about these gals and their intelligence. That one complaint is that if they ever feel like they are 'taken', they simply give up, squat down and let whatever will happen-happen. I think they should fight a bit but that's just my thoughts. To help keep the gals safe from predators we have their coop located in our fenced orchard area. The fence is quite a large and effective electric fence. The electric fence is six feet high and has seven strands which is all electrified with a a DC fence charger helped along by a solar trickle charger. It was always our intent to place the chickens inside of the orchard since we knew we had to fence the orchard in order to protect it from marauding deer. So, in a sense, we kill two birds with one stone by putting the chickens in this area.
Looking through to the chicken coop area we can see the strands of the wire and the cabinet that houses the electric fence equipment. Lately I have been feeling good about my gals and have decided I would try letting them free roam in the orchard area. I knew I could pretty much keep them safe from ground based marauders but was not too sure about hawks. So far so good as the chickens have all remained safe and intact-that's a really good thing. When my hens are out and about they really focus on only one thing-eating. Since they associate me with food they seem to love me by following me around-even when they are inside the electric fence and I am outside of the fence. Mr. Fix-it and I were wondering what would happen if one of the chickens happened to run into the electric fence and I recently found out. The electric fence puts out about 7000 volts so it is powerful enough to stop predators as well as deer. You would think it would stop chickens too but not so. When I recently ventured close to the fence and the girls one of them decided to come and visit me. As soon as she stepped on the bottom wire she zoomed through the fence to my side really fast. Lightening speed fast. Right when I was about to panic about her being outside of the 'safe' area she actually zoomed right back through the electric fence! I was relieved that she was not injured by the electricity, and doubly relieved she went back to her safe place. What a smart gal! Chicken brained not!
In other going ons at the farm we are working on a new dog ramp. One of our dogs has hip problems and while we don't have too many steps going into the house, any steps can be tough on a living being with hip problems. Hopefully I'll finish up this ramp soon. Right now the dogs are running around on their own with only a wireless fence collar keeping them close to the house.
To the right of the dog ramp and dog pen area is our new koi pond. You might remember the postings I did a few years ago on my koi pond in Tiger Gardens. I can hardly believe that pond is nearly two three years old now. It has been such a joy to me and the grandchildren love it so much I desired to have one in the new house. Our backhoe digger dug this pond while he was doing backhoe work (thanks Mike!) and he did an excellent job. The pond was dug exactly 40" from the high side of the backyard and has a few plant shelf ledges. This pond is about four times bigger than my previous pond and has really been a bear to get going. You might remember I hand dug my last pond and put it together slowly over a period of weeks. This pond has been dug for several months now and while it is getting closer to being completed, it is still not finished. There seems to be one setback after another. Here we are trying to level up the lower side of the pond so that we can begin the rock process. At this point in the process most of the rocks are in place with exception of the small waterfall, and the liner is pretty much set the way I'd like it. We had planned to finish everything by Thanksgiving weekend but I failed to order enough tubing to complete the plumbing. Once that tubing comes in I'll finish that up and rock the waterfall and turn her on! Wish me luck in getting it going soon.
Other going ons in Tiger Way Gardens include: starting the vegetable garden (outlined in block and backfilled but waiting on beds to be made), the completion of the iris beds along the outside edge of the vegetable garden, staining the concrete in the garage and on the front and back porches, moving and sorting things from the old house, and trying to get ready for the holidays. Here's hoping everything is going well for you all....
in the garden....
Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden
