While celebrating a group chorus party at the home of our choral director, I noticed the beautiful view from the lanai (outdoor covered room) to this beautiful tropical paradise with rolling lava rocks used as a nice foil to the colorful plants dotting the landscape.
Abundant gingers, heliconias, tis, palms and ferns seem to flourish and grow effortlessly here with no help. This natural garden looks so well placed, and let me say that it takes a lot of effort to pull this look together. Its not an easy task, let me just explain that most gardens here tend to be filled with solid lava rock that is very difficult to penetrate, with almost no soil or little soil to grow with and weeds galore that seem to find all the right cracks to grow so well.
So to get this effortless look, one has to create beds or berms or the alternate choice – use a jack hammer and drill for large holes which is almost impossible. One can also look for cracks, holes or shallow depressions to fill with soil and create beds which is a very common way to garden and create beds in this hospitable growing condition.
Water features like this are also difficult to create without the water just oozing through the lava rock, and with all the evaporation from hot, humid days, these types of ponds disappear quickly without constant care and attention.
But as you can see, the garden and ponds are a nice visual focal point from the lanai. This area is an ideal view garden filled with colors, textures and shapes and is very pleasing to the eye and one that can be viewed daily without getting tired of the imagery.
This is my contribution for fertilizer friday, to see more beautiful gardens today go and visit tootsie at http://www.tootsietime.com
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13 comments:
Wow! Noel, I will never again complain about digging up the smallish rocks here in my gardens. So much effort to garden in your world. The garden you show us is truly wonderful. Thank you for explaining what creating it involved. Great to know that you sing! ;>)
Truly fabulous view ... and I can appreciate fully the effort involved in creating a garden like this. My property is situated atop bedrock, so to create a garden, soil had to brought in and then beds built up ... and with our usual very dry conditions there had to be a careful choice of drought-tolerant plants. I take my hat off to this gardener ... what a terrific job!
Fabulous! This is what most gardens in Kerala look like.
Yes Noel, i agree with you that lanai view is beautiful and very refreshing. How i wish i have a lanai fronting that scene. However, it is difficult if you are living in a climate with long dry season and water is not abundant.
I found this really interesting as in my head Hawii is lush and fertile and you just plant things and they grow - obviously not the case!
What a beautiful view and garden. I love rocks of all kinds, but can't imagine the challenge of making a garden in these conditions. Every time I see your posts, I know I'm in for a treat!
This is a gorgeous, lush garden! I love it!!
What a gorgeous view, so restful, I love the contrating foliage shapes and the really quite subtle speckling of colour.
That is lovely, Noel. And I had no idea how difficult it is to garden in your part of the world. I, like another commenter, had assumed it was super easy, with all the lush tropical beauty I see here so often. You've got me reconsidering the virtues of heavy red clay soil. ;)
Amazing view! Nice natural landscaping.
This view could use contrasts of shape, variety,
height, texture and color.
For hints free, check my inventory, in a zone similar to yours...
This is a stunning garden - especially given how difficult the terrain is (not that I'd given any thought to that as I kind of assumed that stuff just, well, 'grew' in Hawaii !
Nice to catch up on your older posts too :)
Amazing view!It must be so great to be able to see it up close.
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