I love succulents so much they are at my front door!  They are so carefree!  They can go many days without water or sun (an important feature in the Pacific Northwest).  The right succulents are perennials.  Just check when you are buying them.

As you can see from these photos, I select a range of colors, textures and styles.  Mix in some rocks, figurines, an evergreen, almost anything that is appealing to you.  I really like the spiky grass as a contrast and its light and water needs match the succulents.

To provide unity, I used two ceramic pots of the same color even though they are different styles and shapes.

All gardeners have failures, you just have to turn them in to successes!  That tall slender evergreen in the pot?  It started out as one of several miniature evergreen trees in the same pot.  After a couple of years, the other trees either died or became too gangly.  This evergreen put down a tap root through the hole in the bottom of the pot.  I really did not want it to get larger so I cut off the tap root and put the pot on the black top.  That has stopped it’s growth, at least for this year!

We had 5 evergreen trees growing on the property line between our house and the one next door. They had been planted by the builder when the houses where constructed about 12 years ago. They had grown to be 60 feet tall and where still growing. This type of tree grows to be 120 feet tall when fully grown. They where becoming a hazard in high winds and they where blocking much of the sun from Linda’s Serenity Garden. They had to be removed.

Once the trees where removed we now had great sun down the south side of the house for the first time since we lived here, but the yard was now open to the one next door which did not set the flower garden that is our back yard off very good. Linda wanted a fence built to draw the eye back to here Serenity Garden.

I first built a short 10 foot fence from the house wall to the walkway that would hide the propane tanks that where now in view since we had the shrubs removed along the side of the house when the trees where being removed.  Lining up the 6ft ceder fence boards here was easy. I put a 2″ X 4″ board on the ground, got it level and just put the fence fence boards on top of it. For the time being until I can build arbor I put a wrought iron arbor we purchased in the entry way.

Down the side of the property line where the trees had been removed we added garden composted soil to the ground which made the ground a bit higher. I wanted to keep the fence about 9″ above the ground so none of the soil would touch it and rot it’s boards. The ground also has a slope to the rear of the property so just laying a board on the ground was not an option.

Fence Jig

To line up my fence boards from the top I built a jig. I took a 2″ x 4″ board and screwed a 1″ X 8″ board on top of this. I was then able to sit this on top of the 2″X4″ treated board, put two nails in place to hold it and line up my fence boards from the top of the fence instead of the bottom. To give the fence some character I made a patten with the boards where I spaced the boards on both sides of the fence. The 1″ X8″ allowed me to work on both sides of the fence.

The fence was a two weekend project. The first weekend was a Sunday

Under construction with jig in place

afternoon putting the posts into the ground about 18″ deep and setting them with concrete. Since this is the Pacific Northwest and as soon as I got the fence posts in place and the concrete poured it just had to start to rain. We took 30 quart trash bags and used them to covered up the newly poured cement, throwing shovels of dirt on top of  them to hold them in place to let the concrete set up.  The following Saturday was spent actually constructing the fence.

Linda purchased red runner pole bean seeds this spring.  Linda selected Red Runner Beans for three reasons:  their height would provide shade for the house, the red blossoms attract humming birds, and the beans are edible.The package said they grow to be 9 to 10 feet tall. She started to germinate them in her greenhouse between two damp towels until  sprouted.

I needed to have a bean trellis built for her before she could  plant the seeds in the ground. The area where she wanted to grow them was on the southeast corner of the house, in an area where we had just removed five evergreen trees that were way too large and too close together.  We also removed three mugo pine that were badly over grown.  This opened up the whole yard to sunlight.

As I  was wondering how in the world I was going to build a trellis 10 feet high, the idea came to me to just use the side of the house as a support. Once this idea came to me it was easy. The netting that Linda purchased at the nursery was 7 feet wide. I had an area 9 feet wide where she wanted to plant her pole beans. I dug three holes the first two 7 feet apart and the third one 2 feet from the second about 18 inches deep. I purchased three 16 foot treated 2″x4″ at the lumber hard.  I put them into the holes, nailed them onto the eves of the roof, back filled the three holes and tamped the dirt.  Next I ran 1″x2″ furring strips up the posts on 24 inch centers. I started the first cross strip 6 inches above the soil.

Plant Netting Material

The netting material was 20 feet long. Linda and I rolled it out on the ground and cut it into two 10 foot pieces. I next stapled the netting onto the frame I had built starting from the top. I put the 7′ x 10′ piece up first. Once it was securely stapled in place I took the other 7′x10′ piece of netting and stapled it onto the remaining 2 foot wide area of the frame. Once the netting was securely stapled in place I  used a pair of scissors and trimmed it to size.

Now that the pole beans are in the ground and the trellis is built I am waiting to watch these beans grow and find out if they really can grow to be 9 feet tall.

For many families working in the garden together can help to make that connection with the natural world.  Today’s youth seem more at home sitting in front of a computer or playing a video game and often spend the vast majority of their time there.  How often do you hear kids telling stories of building a fort, or going down to the creek to play in the water or to fish?

I think the youth are not getting involved with nature, not because they do not want to, but because today’s technical lifestyle just does not give them many opportunities to do so. Youth have a curiosity about nature and it is part of their learning experiences. As parents and adults, how often do we help them to explore nature? Sometimes, in today’s world, we hesitate from fear about their safety.

Gardening is a way to encourage children to learn about nature and how things grow. Just having the kids pull weeds is not the way to encourage them to learn. Start at the beginning of the growing process by having them help you prepare the beds, plant the seeds and potted plants.  I have found that using potted plants works the best with the kids. They get to plant them and see the results of their work and not have to wait for the seed to grow.  The kids then enjoy watching the plants that they planted into the ground themselves grow. If you have the room, you could even give them a small area to plant as their own garden.

Take them out with you as you check on the progress of what you and your children have planted. This helps them to feel they are a part of the growing process and to take ownership with you for the garden. As you work together in the garden, you will be listening to them tell you their stories.  And it is a time for you to pass on your own stories and knowledge to them.

Time spent working in the garden together will be remembered for a lifetime, unlike the highest score gotten on a video game. Have fun together and love each other.

Click here to watch a video about kids and gardening.

We recently made a trip to St George, Utah where we had a family member hospitalized for nearly two months. The difference between the lush green we are used to here in the Puget Sound of Washington State and the desert of the Southwest at first just over whelms our senses. At the Intermountain Dixie Regional Medical Center, River Road Campus has some very interesting landscaping that took very little water to maintain. They also had some art designs made with colored stones that where very attractive. The photos on this post where take at the medical campus and might be of interest to for some landscaping ideas.