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Just amazing, Carol...it looks like my idea of "paradise"! I sure wish my yard looked as terrific as yours does...so lush and tropical. Thanks for sharing...I'll enjoy seeing the pictures over and over. You and Bob did a great job creating that "Eden".
Carol all I can say is "Wow"....My kind of garden, incorporated into the natural landscape. That's how I'm trying to do most of mine...with just a little bit of area being " manicured", but even that I'm trying to make it not look so "manicured"....
Just gorgeous, and I know how much hard work you have put into it.
Did you have to bring in topsoil for the one new garden bed ?
Just beautiful Carol. What a lot of work you two have done.
I am fascinated by those Mountain apple leaves or blossums that are on the ground. Do they make the tree that lovely color? What time of year is it that way? I also love the view from your lani where you have your computer. I can picture being able to sit there and look up while working to see all that. Nice! Well, actually I loved all the views. Congrats on a beautiful landscape and on the write up it got.
Name: Carol Noel Hawaii (near Hilo) It's all about choices.
Thanks to all!!!! It's been good for me to read all of the compliments...I get discouraged, at times, with what I see as "to-do lists" ... It would take no time at all for the 'bush' to take over!!!
Yes...we bring in 'dirt' for the beds (at about $700 for 36cubic yards) and mix it with compost, composted chips and cinders...luckily most tropicals are uused to growing in advanticious places...
Already the winter storms have set in with tons of rain so getting out to work is on a catch as catch can basis!!!!
It's really beautiful up there Carol. Where do you get most of your plants from?.......not the Hoyas, but the aroids and palms etc. Is there a good source on the island/s, or is most obtained from overseas?
Name: Carol Noel Hawaii (near Hilo) It's all about choices.
Most of my plants are from neighbours and friends....small sales of plants. Around here there is a saying that you only need nurseries if you have no friends!!! The palms and bamboos are all purchased locally. I've gotten seed from friends and grown them out (doesn't take long in the great scheme of things!!).
AlohaHoya wrote:Thanks to all!!!! It's been good for me to read all of the compliments...I get discouraged, at times, with what I see as "to-do lists" ... It would take no time at all for the 'bush' to take over!!!
Carol, I can empathize, sometimes with 11 acres, 3 acres or so of "yard" , barn/stable, riding arena, ( that we have to drag several times per week to keep the footing nice) Horse pasture, and 2 acres that we have left as a Wild Life preserve, I sometimes feel as if we are a slave to the property. OK...forget that we ARE a slave to the property. But I have been happiest here than any other place besides growing up in MD with property there I have been happiest. It 's hard work, and to be honest I wonder who will appreciate it after we are gone. It is the Joy of my life to live here, and sometimes I think life would be so much easier on a lot with a house and not some much land to care for...........but if pressed, I wouldn't budge. I guess that say's where the heart really is and you can tell your's is with your land..You have my highest regards for all your efforts and success.
mj
Name: Carol Noel Hawaii (near Hilo) It's all about choices.
Well...I'm glad we were young when we started the project (61) so 10 years later I don't know that I could do it again... Only if I had tons of money and a long stick to direct the hoards I would hire!!! I started out with a 13year old who worked with me on week-ends ... he's now 21 and taking a break from college and he still works with when when I need him. Bob is good for the BIG stuff (chainsaw this/dig that) and with mulch and a little herbecide I am trying to cultivate and tame the plants, not control them totally...even the weeds.!!! Lot's of weeds make great groundcovers!!!!! Except Mimosa pudica (sleeping grass). It's a weed here WITH horrible spines...
I share your feelings, mj....and every year, more deeply each year, I feel my soul is here. The land energizes me as well as soothes me - it makes me laugh, asks me questions, offers me growth. Is it because when we love where we are, each delight and surprise affects us like young children. Used to walk around with Bob (we 'go around' every morning) and make mental lists of what 'we' had to do and it really made him mad. Now we walk around and 'oooooooh' and 'aaaaaaah'like we were kids...
I had a good chuckle reading this Carol! Mimosa pudica is sold in the UK in tiny little pots in the 'houseplant' section of stores as 'The sensitive plant'. More of a curiosity than a beauty. Great for the kids to play with!
Can't believe its a weed where you are - or that it develops spines WOW!
I think we only ever see very cultivated seedlings!
It's lovely to hear the pleasure you gain from your garden, and all your efforts
We've battled Mimosa pudica also....after trying to pull it up, we finally resorted to Round-up....took two applications and we still find it it popping up. I have no idea how it found it's way here, just showed up.
Name: Carol Noel Hawaii (near Hilo) It's all about choices.
OH mj...that stuff is so nasty!!! It forms a mat in the grass and it hurts the dogs to walk on it!!! Purists find the roots and pull it out but I hit it with an herbicide that won't kill grass. The seeds fly everywhere!!!
Dee...I grow lots of gingers!!! I have them in trees as well (semi epiphytic ones). A good friend of mine is a collector/taxonomist of gingers and shares readily with me!!! Lots of them are invasive and grow like mad...luckily they are fragrant! Love gingers!
Carol, I knew you had to have a beautiful place just from the individual plants you talk about on occasion. As you know, we just came back from a week down in Pennsylvania and we took six individual day trips from where we stayed. One day we went to the 250 acre Dupont home and I have to tell you I think a walk thru your property would rival some areas we saw there. Dupont had the largest arboretum I've ever seen and we didn't have time to see all of it, but some of the trees and plants in the tropical area I also see on your property. They even had some hoyas growing up some of the trees like you do. What can I say about your place except color me green with envy!
Carol, I don't know how it ended up here...most likely in a load of top soil we brought in to level out the front yard so we could put a garden fence in, and keep my old horse from wandering right up to the front door. (he routinely raids the bird feeders...ever seen and 1200 lb "Bird" ..with 4 legs and a mane and tail !!Anyway, it's it those beds and it drives me nuts !! And the roots go deep, after darn near breaking out backs trying to pull it out I said the heck with it and we broke out the Roundup. And this spring, I'm going to do a "Pre-emptive" strike !!
