Never enough

Note:  I will be visiting Chile, Argentina, and Easter Island until the end of the year, so the next post will be after my return.

     It seems I can never find enough places to build new moss gardens.  Here is one I built in June in the back southwest corner of the property, alongside the cobblestone pathway leading to the back gardens.

     I first built up mounds, using some of the sod I removed from the back lawn when I redid that in June.  Then I added some topsoil on top of that.  Finally, I placed moss sods amongst a few rocks to make a garden that I like rather much.  By August people were amazed it was done only two months earlier.

This is ridiculous!!

Note: Due to the brutal weather, I'm off to Burma (Myanmar, if you like), so I won't be having another post for three weeks or so.

     On Halloween, I got quite a trick--9 inches (about 23 cm.) of snow.  After melting, I got another 6 inches.  Then it got nice and cold--three above zero for two mornings (minus 15 Celsius, to make it sound worse).  So, for the first time in 50 years of gardening here, it looks as though I will not get to remove any leaves, perennial--or even my annuals--until next spring (if there will be one).
     So, what happened to global warming?  Maybe I'll find it in Burma.

I won't use it--but it looks nice.

     I have benches, tables, and seats all over my gardens.  But I can't seem to sit on any of them--at least for more than a minute.  Too much stuff to do and see, I guess.  Anyhow, I recently built another seat out of hundred-year-plus antique street pavers, topped with a "sandwiched" bench of three different layers of wood.  It is not fixed to the bricks, and it is heavy enough to remain in place.  It is also cantilevered, allowing it to hang over the low wall of fieldstones below the new bed of Vinca minor.  The bricks rest on a concrete foundation and concrete blocks to protect it from frost damage.
     I temporarily placed containers of Dragon Wing Begonias to see if I liked the effect.  I will likely do something similar next year, as I like how the bench is "nestled in" by the flowers, softening the whole structure.
     The first photo, taken from my patio at the bottom of the hill, shows how it fits in the whole back yard redevelopment.  It is at the center right of the photo. 
     To finish off the project, I added some mosses at the front base of the bricks.  Nice touch, I think.

My stumpery (My what???)

     OK, what is a stumpery?  It is a collection of stumps, logs, and other dead wood material that looks neat piled together--possibly having interesting live plants scattered amongst it.  I first saw one in an article in a gardening magazine three years ago.  Then I saw one in Invercargill, New Zealand last year (which I made a post about earlier).  So, I finally began mine this summer, but I expect it will take me years to finish, having fun collecting dead stuff along the way.
     The first photos are from the garden in New Zealand.  The live green plants in mine are earlier plantings of Japanese sedge.

A diversion...into a bog

     Note: I will be traveling for the next three weeks, so my next post will not appear until late in October.

     Just about 30 feet behind the new back lawn and gardens, I built a bog garden this summer.  It used to be a small reflecting pool, only about five feet by 12 feet and a foot deep.  I filled most of it with ground, leaving only a small pool for holding about four inches of water.  I have lots of Equisetum (Horsetail) and a lot of other water-loving plants.