Packrat's parents yard

[december-fire]

Packrat!

Wow! That's incredible! Absolutely beautiful and, as Queenie said, its like a park - or botanical garden!

There's obviously been a lot of loving care put in over the years. The gorgeous views must change constantly over the seasons. And I just imagine the wonderful sounds of birds and bees, and the sight of delicate butterflies!

I love the carvings in the downed trees! What a creative thing to do!

Were the carvings done by someone in the area, or does your family have amazing woodcarving skills as well as gardening talent?

Thank you so much for giving us the tour.

More photos as the season progresses would be greatly appreciated!

 

[missy]

Beautiful. A lovely haven to escape from the stress of everyday and find peace.

 

[sarahb]

I love your gardening threads PR--it looks so peaceful & simply gorgeous. I would guess you are in the midwest--wondering what climate? Everything looks great, & I especially love the carving on the tree's. Thank you for sharing!

 

[packrat]

Thanks everyone! DF, there's a guy from a neighboring town who does the carvings. If we could afford it, we'd take the honeysuckles off the stump we have and have him do something cool but the cost is wicked. The guy comes to the fair here every year (tho i don't remember him last year..) and has an area set up where he does carvings and people can watch. The ones he does during that time get auctioned off the Saturday night before the demo derby and they go for crazy prices.

Yep, we're in the Midwest-NW Iowa. A place where if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes and it will change.

I used to get a lounge chair out and lay under the trees and relax..sometimes I'd read, sometimes I'd just close my eyes and listen. Very soothing and relaxing..until a wasp comes by and I'm screaming and hauling ass thru the yard waving my arms..but otherwise..

When JD and I got married I said absolutely NOT we are not having extensive landscaping, put a few barberries around the house and call it good-I'd had enough of spending 40 hours a week taking care of the gardens. Aaaand that lasted all of two minutes once we got started.

I come by it honestly I guess!

 

[Jambalaya]

Packrat, your parent's place looks amazing. I would love to live somewhere like that. It looks like a cool, green oasis. And I love the way that the buildings are cream colored. Goes so well with all the green, and I think the light color looks summery which in turn fits well with all the flowers. The whole place is a vision.

 

[azstonie]

AMAZING, so beautiful. I love it ALL but especially the 'surprise' of the downed tree carvings admist all that green and color and lushness. Its just a gorgeous place. I know if I was standing in it IRL it'd take me all of 10 seconds to chill and just be.

 

[packrat]

Thanks! It's funny how when I lived there, I appreciated it of course, but didn't understand the scope of peacefulness to be found there. Now when the weather is nice and we are out there (which doesn't happen often-usually mom and dad come to town) JD has to about drag me home b/c I just walk around and look at things. Or dad and I get into a free for all, throwing velcro weed at each other. It's serene here at hour place too, but even being in a small town and in a quiet neighborhood, there's still quite a bit of traffic and noise of other people-their dogs and their mowing etc.

 

[charleston1]

Beautiful yard! I cannot imagine the hours of work that takes as here I am on a 50 x 120 foot lot and I think I have alot of yard work.

I almost fell off my chair when you said "demo derby" and Iowa. My 90 year old mother was born and lived in Iowa on a farm until the 1950s when she married my dad who is Canadian and moved to Canada. In the 1960s we used to drive every summer to Iowa from Canada (no air conditioning in the car and no freeways) to visit my Grandparents on a farm.

I remember going to the demolition derby and as a kid thinking it was the craziest thing I ever saw. I have not thought about them for years and am so surprised they still have them. I wonder how much Iowa has changed. Maybe one day I will go back. Growing up I remember when I said I was going to Iowa everyone always thought I was going to Ohio grrrrr!

My mom also loved gardening and no longer has a garden but still loves them. I guess you can take the girl out of Iowa but not Iowa out of the girl.

Thank you for posting all the beautiful photos and the story.

 

[packrat]

Oh how fun, Charleston! Was it NW Iowa by chance?

 

[charleston1]

Hi Packrat. The farm was outside a very small town called Linden and the bigger town close by was (is) Panora which is almost in the middle of the state and a little to the west (I guess that would be mid west Iowa LOL).

Edited to add: Your expression "come by it honestly" is an expression my mother always says and I have never heard anyone else say it. People still ask where my mother in from as they detect a little bit of an accent but cannot place it (I don't hear it of course).

Do you live in Iowa still or only your parents?

 

[packrat]

I'm familiar w/Panora! South and a bit to the east of us. We're still in the same town we grew up in.

 

[tyty333]

Their yard is just gorgeous! I love flowers but unfortunately I live far enough south where bulb type plants dont/wont grow , and I
am sorely lacking in a green thumb on top of that. Just makes me really appreciate yards when people make the effort!

 

[charleston1]

I'm familiar w/Panora! South and a bit to the east of us. We're still in the same town we grew up in.

Awesome

 

[MissGotRocks]

Wow - very pretty and obviously years of thought and labor! We did one rather large bed today - trimmed eleven bushes (major trim work), raked and cleaned it all up and mulched with 40 bags of mulch. Done in the hot sun but what a lot of work! I can only imagine the work that goes into maintaining all of that! Sadly, we have the other side of the house to do next but that will have to wait until next weekend if the weather is decent. So much rain!

Thanks for sharing all of these pictures though - really spectacular!

 

[Polished]

A beautiful garden - I couldn't get over how lush the grass is everywhere. We try with our garden but we live in an environment without sufficient rain water which means ours (and everyone else's) lawns often resemble dust bowls.

 

[GliderPoss]

What a stunning garden! A patch of paradise! I was so fortunate to grow up with a similar style garden and only now do I appreciate how much effort my parents put into creating it from nothing.

 

[Gypsy]

It's fabulous. Truly. And clearly a labor of love.

However, I would like to suggest... a cat.

 

[december-fire]

Gypsy!

I want that cat and the lake, just like the photo, in my backyard!

Some people think there's no such thing as perfect. Foolish people. They obviously haven't seen that cat sleeping contently outside.

I love it!

 

[packrat]

Haha wouldn't that be something?
I can offer you a pic of the orange stray cat that showed up at our house and we brought out there.

 

[Calliecake]

Thank you posting these beautiful pictures Packrat. I know all the work that goes into having a yard this beautiful. Your parents and family have done an amazing job! Now I know where your love of gardening comes from. You certainly learned from the best!

 

[Bonfire]

Is this Heaven?
No...It's Iowa

 

[azstonie]

Yes to more pics!

I could just stretch out in the lovely shade and completely destress, its that serene and green.

 

[lambskin]

Stunning! I love the irisis and alliums=great combo in a bed. The hosta bed with the different varietals is so pretty. What is growing in the back yard fenced area? I am assuming veggies but there are some big plants already !

 

[packrat]

There's raspberries on the right side and then a few cucumbers, tomatoes, watermelons, and chives. A garlic chive too-they've never had those before so I'm interested to try it. Growing up we had asparagus, strawberries, blueberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, muskmelon, watermelon, grapes, raspberries, lettuce, carrots, boisenberries, green beans, potatoes, corn, popcorn and peas. And then plum, cherry and apple trees. The asparagus bed alone was almost as big as our living room now.

They quit growing some things as time went on-peas went first b/c we ate them all before we got to the house. Nothing like peas right out of the pod.

 

[Arcadian]

Beautiful! The house I'm in now had a very big yard, lots of gardens and I just couldn't do it all by myself. They didn't do so well these last couple of years after I got so busy. the next house will have a much smaller yard, so the garden will be manageable.

Of course I'll have to rethink everything because stuff that grows up here in Mass may not do so well in Florida.

 

[packrat]

I bet it's going to be eye opening how different the plants are in FL compared to Mass! When we were there over spring break, we walked around like all the time. Being who and how we are, I think we paid more attention to the plants and flowers and trees than to what "normal" people are looking at. Stunning flowering trees--ohhh my goodness the bright yellow blossoms on one kind just made me so happy..and they all fall off and come back over and over. Pretty much none (or very little) of it was like anything we have here.