Old Photos (2001)
While looking for old photos for before and after shots, I was fairly amazed by how neat, tidy, and floriferous the garden was before I became an arthritic cripple. I wonder if I can really get back to that again.
Of course in this photo, I am also struck by how filthy the roof is from the constant shower of pine needles, and how badly the house needs painting. From the amazingly healthy state of the neglected lawn, it is also clear that 2001 was what we would consider a very wet year from our present drought-ridden perspective.
Here’s another view of the same border at the same time.
I think I still have some of that purple verbena somewhere, but the shasta daisy is long gone. I’ve tried them several times, but they just can’t take zone 9. It’s a pity. I would love to find a hardy, easy, compact white daisy of some sort.
I have just realized that that yellow daisy (Rudbeckia?) is the one I brought back from Bud’s garden in Idaho. It didn’t really like zone 9 either, although it lasted for quite a few years.
It’s interesting to see the evolution of the bird bath. The one shown here lasted (in various manifestations) until 2005 when we built the patio and went all modern.
The main thing that evolved was methods for keeping the saucer on its pedestal. Here, Scylla is drinking out of the little pond garden, but the raccoons have a tendency to drink out of the bird bath, with destabilizing effect.
