A friend was telling me I should share this online and get ideas. I've been doing a total renovation of my backyard to make it a place I want to live in since nature if extremely important to me. Over the years, I've collected a lot of statues and things that are very gothic/cemetery feeling and I thought of doing a fake graveyard in one portion of the yard, but then as I started working on issues--like this ugly wall, I came up with an idea.
A gothic garden.
Different areas for different spiritual belief systems. I have this one I just installed for the Buddhist belief system. I was cutting down a dying tree and used the limbs to make a giant 6' tall windchime. I took old windchimes around the yard that were rusted and used their bells to make this chime. Put some sand and river rock below, a Buddhist statue, and a bamboo shade to hide my garden tools. I'm very pleased with that area.
This weekend, I hope to finish my "darker side" of spirituality garden. It's a boulder lined island that will be filled with thorny rose bushes and a dark cherub.
I have a celtic area under work right now too. I hope to do a nod to Norse Mythology and Christianity and other systems of belief, hoping to capture them with plantings and statuary that suits them.
As I finish each area, I'd like to share them on my blog. If you have any ideas, please share them. I have a giant tree carcass I'm thinking of trying my hand at carving and I'd love suggestions on what it should become. I'll run a poll on that in my next article.
I'm intrigued by a garden where in a small area there will be many spiritualities portrayed. I grow a great deal of fruits/veggies/herbs, and I like the idea of life being an ongoing and blessed process by all the groups acting as one--something they never do in real life!
Now thats a fascinating idea-I would so love to do something unique with my outside patio area-it is very empty -my neighbors have a lot of greenery and it is cool because it attracts hummingbirds-I just do not have the bucks to maintain the garden they do-but maybe something like this would work-I used to just have a feeder kind of by its lonesome-the prob with this is that larger birds started drinking from it and they spilled most of the nectar out-great stuff as always-so enjoy your blog!!
ReplyDeleteI have the same problem with the regular birds trying to drink the hummingbird's liquid. Very tough! I think the only feeder that works is the kind with a single spout that hangs downward at a slight angle. As far as something for outside, reuse things! I'm an enormous eco-weenie recycler type and I'm Scottish so I'm frugal. I love to take things I have and make them into something else. Windchimes could be made with all kinds of things around the house, mismatched flatware, pieces of bamboo planting stakes...just clink things together and see if they make sound. Twigs from a tree make a great anchor. I used fishing wire to hang my stuff. A spool of it's just about a buck. You could also use twine if you like the look of it or ribbons or anything else. I look at what I have laying around and find some weird way to use it. Right now, I took apart a planter because bermuda grass grew into my veggies. I painted the planks and am screwing them together for a bench in the yard. My neighbor loves to get me to grow new things, so she gives me clippings of her succulents and cacti and if she's ripping up a plant, she gives me first dibs. Let your neighbor know you love their garden and would love to start doing the same thing. If they have bamboo or cactus, they're fantastic to just stick in the ground and they take over. Oh, and sometimes just fishing wire hung inside your window with bits of sea glass is beautiful. You can tie the string around the piece of seaglass and then further down the strand tie another one. Usually stores like Micheals and Joann have bags of seaglass super cheap. You can staple the strings to a strip of wood and fasten it to the inside of the window or just use tacks to hang them up. They catch the light nicely. I could go on and on. Better stop. :-)
ReplyDeleteYour garden sounds like it's coming along. I'm always looking for ideas for my very plain garden. I like the idea of taking different objects, putting them together to make something very different and useful. Trash to Treasure was one of my favorite HGTV shows but is no longer on. I'm looking forward to seeing more pictures of your garden and the many homemade objects you grace it with.
ReplyDeleteJulie