My outdoor space [Archive]

OBIO

May 5th, 2009, 18:27

Today I took the digital camera outside and took some pics of our little flower garden, the "yard", the pond. We live in a very quiet, country setting...love this place. The garden is looking good right now...just layed down a 2 inch layer of wood-chip mulch, put in a new "white picket fence" edging. Been working on the garden for the better part of three days now....if the rain holds off for a while tomorrow, will be doing more work outside...setting about about a dozen pots that will be planted with annuals, have to set some new perenial bulbs I bought this evening.

I think I am going to start using my wife's laptop out side....load up Photoshop 5.0, slip some texture files onto one of my 4 gig thumb drives, carry a nice tall glass of ice tea out to the patio, and do some skinning out side.

Here is a link to my Photobucket account and the pics I took today. 41 one em.

http://s225.photobucket.com/albums/dd251/OBIOandSharkbait/Our%20Outdoor%20Space/

OBIO

lifejogger

May 5th, 2009, 18:33

Nice pictures OBIO, you sure have a nice looking place,

Cloud9Gal

May 5th, 2009, 18:40

Seems so peaceful and relaxing! Nice job! Thanks for sharing! :wavey:

Snuffy

May 5th, 2009, 18:56

Oh excellent by far!! :applause: :applause:

I loved the bridge!! I haven't been near a covered bridge in so long ...
Some other interesting stuff you have there too ...

Was that chipper used to create the mulch? :)

I love it ... what I wouldn't give for a place like that. Where I'm at now if I spit out the window I hit the neighbors house on either side of mine.

Cramped quarters to say the least for a boy who was raised on almost 100 acres of pristine mountain top in southerntier NY State.

PeteHam

May 5th, 2009, 19:29

What a lovely tranquil setting.

Thanks for sharing your place with us OBIO.

Pete.

OBIO

May 5th, 2009, 19:29

Yep, that wood chipper was used to create the mulch. The landlord bought that chipper a few years ago from a fella just down the road. It gets used several times a year, chipping up branches from storm damage, tree trimming. There is a dead pine tree next to the house that the landlord will be taking down soon, and much of that tree will be added to the chip pile. Makes great mulch and composte...especially when the fall leaves are run through the chipper, and believe me, there a tons of leaves to go through the chipper.

There is a total of 20 acres here...and about half of it needs mowed weekly...sure glad the landlord does that.

When Deb and I moved here 4 years ago, the flower garden consisted of the three shrubs, a yellow lily of some sort and two tiny, scraggly red flowers. The rest of the plants we have added...and not paid for a single one of them. The entire garden, from plants, to decoration thingies has set us back a total of $50...well, that was true up through this evening...went out and bought some more perrenial bulbs ($9 for 22 bulbs), some annual seeds.

Being a country boy myself, I hated our last place...in an apartment complex on the edge of town. Tons of kids screaming, drunks fighting, people scratching our cars simply because they were nicer than their beaters. When we came to look at this place, as soon as we turned down the driveway and I saw all the space, the pond, the trees...I told Deb that I did not care if the house was a rat nest, we were moving here. Luckily, the house is nice, well maintained, energy efficient, one car garage (which is also heated and air conditioned like the rest of the house), a huge storage shed. $490 a month plus utilities...can't beat that.

Next spring, I have to separate and divide some of the plants and expand the garden to about twice it current size. Some of the hostas really need divided, and there are some really neat orange Tiger Lilies on the back side of the pond and I am going to bring some of them over for the garden...they get about 3 feet tall and have huge orange spotted flowers on them for most of the summer.

OBIO

Willy

May 5th, 2009, 20:08

Nice place Obio. Here's how I mowed and fertilized the grass this afternoon.

Snuffy

May 6th, 2009, 03:13

Nice place Obio. Here's how I mowed and fertilized the grass this afternoon.

That explains A LOT!! :bump:

Cloud9Gal

May 6th, 2009, 04:13

Nice place Obio. Here's how I mowed and fertilized the grass this afternoon.

LOL!!! Both animals are as cute as a button! :applause:

Now I get the "mowed" part, but what I'm wondering is how the whole "fertilized" got taken care of? :bump:

GT182

May 6th, 2009, 17:27

Panther_99FS

May 6th, 2009, 17:47

Definitely nice livin'! :)

mike_cyul

May 6th, 2009, 19:56

What a lovely tranquil setting.

Pete.

I think that says it well! Where do I pitch my tent? :d

Mike

OBIO

May 6th, 2009, 23:17

OBIO, I've got just what you need..... or your landlord does.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v64/GT182/KoiPond.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v64/GT182/KoiPond2.jpg

These are pictures from last year..... and the Koi are bigger too this year. 3 Koi that are close to 24"s long. Plus Koi and Goldfish in varying sizes down to 2 inches long.

The pond, or as my wife and I like to call it "Golden Pond" or "Windsor Lake", is well stocked with various types of sunfish and blue gills, largemouth bass, and a fair number of big (4 to 5 foot) algae eating fish...White Amori...something like that. Deb and I like to walk down by the shore on sunny days and watch the sunfish/bluegills swill in the shallows, along with some Bass. Everyonce in a while, we get to see a nice large bass...have seen some that are in the 5 to 6 pound range. On sunny days, we watch the White Whatevers slowly swimming just below the surface...their fins and upper tail areas sticking out of the water and shining like polished silver. In the evenings, the White Whatevers tend to be jumpers...it's quite stunning watching a 5 foot fish jumping totally up out of the water and seeing the sunset blazing across its shiny scales.

My wife might be interested in some goldies...she has two in a 55 gallon tank in the living room...they came from the "feeder fish" tank at Petsmart and those 26 cent fish have turned into very beautiful 6 inchers.

OBIO

GT182

May 7th, 2009, 10:49

Sounds nice OBIO. That's some I'd love to see. Get a few photos if you can and post em. Especially of the big ones jumping out of the water.

I've got a mix of Koi and Goldfish, solid and tri colored. My biggest Koi was solid white when we moved into the house just after Holloween of 2007. In the spring I couldn't find her..... but after a few days and the water cleared up we found she had turned orange. And she's still orange this year. Doesn't look like she'll go back to white.