Island Gardening Woes--contined from 2007!!!!

[seazr]

OK--at long last, have found the pictures I needed for this post. But first, for those of you that go way back with me, here is my original post on my lake house gardening crisis!
Landscaping at our lakehouse has been an issue because we are not always there to maintain a regular yard; but for looks and to keep as much dirt as possible off of Dakota (and subsequently, off of the carpets in the house), I was attempting to do "natural" landscaping, which amounts to "rocks and weeds" -- I planned to maintain only the most attractive "weeds"!! My dear friend lives up there year round and has a nice green grass yard and lovely garden. He called me up a couple of months ago and proudly announced that he went over to my house and put Roundup on all of my weeds !! The problem is not only is bare dirt even more unattractive that "pretty weeds", Dakota now manages to drag all of the dirt in the house. Soooo, I will be carting some 30 plus plants (hopefully "suitable" plants for the area and the deer) up to the lake house later this week. In my search for acceptable plants I ran across a site that I would like to share with you. It is called freetreesandplants.com. They give you the plants at no cost other that a service and shipping fee of $7.95--a portion of which goes to the disabled. Anyway, I won't try to explain it here, if you might be interested, log-on! Happy planting!! (The plants are small, but they have several that I was unable to find locally.)
Diane and Dakota

Well, my problems all began right there with my dear friend Arnold (the farmer--not the Governor). I was happily growing a weed gargn when Arnold decided to kill my weeds with pesticides . . . I then set out on a major mission to plant native plants and anything else that the deer, rabbits, ground squirrels, etc would not bother. I busted my behind planting literally about 100 plants and thousands of seeds. Well, the seeds were immediantly eaten by thousands--or so it seemed--of grateful birds!!
This is how my "island" looked after . . . Not too bad, right??



I was so happy with the new weedless island that I added a flagstone pathway. Course that meant finding enough smooth rock and spending about 3 days in a summer heat wave placing it . . .


My next trick was to break my ankle and get laid up all summer (a year ago). Well no one was volunteering to keep the island weede for me. So, this was the end of summer look last year. Even my flagstone walk was obscured by weeds! Even my farmer friend, Arnold, saw that I was fighting a battle I couldn't win until we spent a whole lot more timeup there . . .



So this year, I think I have finally solved my problem--lava rock. Five tons to be precise. And guess who got to shovel all that rock??? My husband's shoulders are shot from too many years of consruction work, so he operated the tractor--poor guy It took the better part of a week to fetch and place the rock . . . But I'm very happy now, cause this solution is going to last!! Watcha think??



Gotta have fun right?? The little lizard to the right is actually part of my drip system--every morning fresh water sqirts out of the lizard's "mouth" and fills up the birdbath rock!!



Course, nobody told Dakota's gal pal, Mustang Sally, that it is a bird bath!!!



And here: for no reason other than I can't complete a post without including a pic of Dakota!!

[Jac]

Diane! What a great series! I remember the first post...and watching as you battled with weeds (and Arnold) and now look at it! Wow! Gorgeous!! Plus, I love the last picture...Dakota in action!

[Raleighsmom]

You done good Diane!!!! It looks wonderful....love Mustang Sally in her own private swimming pool 'bird watching'.. and of course I always love seeing handsome Dakota!!! Your views are absolutely awesome!!!

[MaxandMe]

DIANE........I LOVE IT!!!! the lava rock does the trick

BTW how is arnold doing? i got such a kick out of last years post