May Garden Tour…With A Unique Twist

Today we pull out old photos and share the progress of our time over the past eight eight years in this garden. Followed with a lap throughout the property with plans of the near future.

Email: moxiegardens20@gmail.com

Hey friends, welcome to Moxy Gardens. I’m Mike Tumi and today we’re going to give you a unique spin on a garden tour core. Um, I printed out some photos. We’ve done this in the past, last two years. I think we shared our garden um kind of uniquely. We we uh printed off a lot of these photos from our our um photo album, our cameras, and just kind of went through the garden. And we’ll share with you the progression. We’ll probably do this again one more time closer to August. se No, maybe October. Um, that’s when our fall colors start to really hit right here in uh zone 6A, Gartner, Kansas. But we’re going to use this bobby pin. Clothes pin. Close pin. Close pin. I called this bobby pin every time. I don’t know why I don’t even use bobby pins. Okay, we’re going to use this closed pin blooper and these photos to kind of just give you a glimpse of how much this garden has changed and we’ve owned it for 10 years, but we didn’t start kind of gardening until our second year here. So, about eight years roughly, this is uh this is the progression of our season. That being said, let’s get started and then towards the end, I might just give you a quick little rundown and that’ll be your garden early May garden tour. Uh for the day. Yeah. Okay. That was kind of the conclusion of the last 10 years. Obviously, it’s been a work in progress. Remember, we purchased the home in 10 years in the last 10 years, but we’ve only been kind of landscaping this for about 8 years. So, one thing led to another, but it was a water issue that turned into a happy little accident. That being said, we’re just going to make a quick little lap. I basically showed you everything, but we’ll just talk about a few things. Especially if you’re a new viewer, uh you’ll have to get caught up, but we have a couple empty spots. Most of our planters, you can chase over there, Jesse. Uh most of our planters are empty. That one’s the only one that doesn’t have soil. Uh I could blame it on Go back this way. I could simply blame this all on us being on vacation, but really it’s the prices. Everything is so expensive. We talked about that in the past. But that being said, we’ll come back here. That being said, we will get some of these um planters in. We’ve got two, four, five. So, we’ve got five, six, seven, eight, n. We’ve got 11 planters just up here. A lot of money needs to be spent just to get these kind of in there. But even six packs. Oh, I can’t find six-packs. Anybody been able to find six-packs? Now they’re four packs in this area, but u box stores are a lot more expensive than the nurseries. I have been able to tell. Okay, come on back. As we go through, if you if you’re claustrophobic or you don’t like the feel of things touching you, you definitely don’t want to come to this garden because we have such a tight space and I’m just collecting and planting everything in. Uh, a lot of things brush up against your shoulder, your head. The only time that really is an issue for my wife and I is mainly my wife. I kind of figured it out, but um once it starts to get hot and those spiders start coming up, spiderw webs, she’s Yeah. So, she’s a ninja whenever it becomes time to water in the ear in the uh well, probably about summer once spiders start nest um laying out their lake as soon as spiders begin putting out their spiderw webs. Okay, this pocket right here, we still have to figure out what we’re doing here. There’s So, what do we count? We’re going to count these. See if I can remember. I said we had 11 planters, I think. So, the 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. Yeah, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. So, 16 more planters. This one is hollow. This was gifted to us from a friend. I just simply put a rock in the bottom of that. Put this right over it. And then I’ll set a whole planter right on top. That way I don’t risk the patina and I don’t risk it um kind of deteriorating anymore. It’s about to rust out. But um yeah, good good stuff I suppose. And then do you like the color of the gate? You can stay right there for a second. Yeah. So we kind of did some purple. I probably need to go back with some more black on there. Some stroke that with some more black paint just to kind of um give it It’s got a really good texture to the backside. That’s what I was looking for and I got a little aggressive in the front. So, what are we at now? 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Because there’s three more behind you. You feel free to share that with them, Jesse. And so that little area right there that is um kind of naked, that’s a continuation from the front side. This right here is the east side of our home right here. So that kind of give you. So we’re already in shade. Gets very minimal shade through here. But you can see these aelas are just just doing awesome. So that’s why I think I’m going to do aelas. Maybe um zelas. I don’t know. We’re going to we’ll get back to you. Prices are so high though. I’m just a little bit behind on it. Um we’ve got another Japanese blood good. I pop in. So you’ll see a lots of green. Lots of lots of green. Lots of different foliage uh textures. But then we pop in a lot of purples, a lot of burgundies just to kind of calm it all down. Uh we didn’t go with uh these planters, we didn’t go with super bright stuff, so it wasn’t a pop in the eye soon as you open that. So it’s a nice gradual. It’s got some nice patina to it. See the orange bleeding through a little bit. That terracotta look. So we’ve got more planters there that we need to plant up. You can see the another three that we need to plant up here. Our creek is new this season. And we just planted up some pocky sandra back there in the background. I planted up this rodend earlier. And then along this side, we got these junipers. And then right below it, we have the auga that we’ve just added in in this last um couple videos. And then in this little patch right here of soil, we got some nice little colas. Those should get uh what did I say? 16 to 24 in. I don’t know how high they will actually get because this is in a lot of shade, a lot of dappled shade right there. Hydranger Hill is not looking good. We’ve got this project still. So, we got a lot of bare spots. I call it Hydranger Hill because in here we have some hydrangeas. But, uh, if you remember, I planted that Hobbit home right here and it was up about this tall. Well, those were on the back side and I think that the cold got it because it was so elevated up off the um flat land of the the plane of the earth. So, willa probably butchering that compared to what you probably call it, but that is that. We’ve got another nice little pocket right here with soil. Um we’ll probably go in with colus. We’ve done that in the past. Before we used to have birdhouses right there, it’s kind of outgrown what we’re doing here. So, we’ve changed it out. So, this will always be a pocket. Now, if the prices continue to grow, rise, raise, and I decide that I’m just going to start doing seedlings and I’m going to further my knowledge in this garden system, then I will start doing something my own self with bringing um plants and different things from the basement or from maybe I’ll put in a greenhouse, something. But I’m not I I I just can’t with this size garden. I either have to figure out, do I want to continue to do annuals or do I just do annuals and planters and then um start filling in these spots that I’m pointing out on the ground uh with shrubs and stuff that and perennials that will come up every year. So, we’re thinking still. We’re thinking uh let’s see this Annabel hydrangeanger is really really in fact I can see that we’re starting to put on some heads there. Another opportunity for me not to worry about uh the cost continuing. I I’m gonna start doing a lot of ground covers and I’m not sure what, but once I do it, we’re going to be pretty consistent throughout the garden just so we can continue that flow. Sun’s right on you, isn’t it? That’s okay. We just had to take the opportunity. The neighborhood’s quiet on a Sunday. Quiet. That’s unheard of. Um, if you’ve seen in my last couple videos, uh, my my brother and I made these, uh, well, my brother made them. I drew them up. uh made out of um steel, but some little folk art here. It’s fun. Got some faces and stuff. We’ll get something to kind of hang over to give it some hair. Make it look like it appears to have hair. That’ll be fun. You right now are walking underneath a You know what it is, Jesse? Honeysuckle. Honeysuckle. That’s right. Honeysuckle. And then of course over here, if you caught any glimpse of that during our video, that’s all that’s my graveyard. We got that’s where I’ve put been putting everything until I find a new home for it. We’ve mixed and pulled stuff out and we’ve added stuff. So, we’ll continue on. Got the Chimina, the shed. It’s still coming around. We’ve built this last fall. Still coming around. We’re I’ve got a lot of things brewing up. So, I still need to get this planted up. So, you can add that to another planter almost. Um we’ll fill that up something nice. I need to get some type of stepping stone to step in there and then we’re going to go around it with some ground cover. Um, those of you who have been following us, we just got back from vacation, came back and bunnies were all over in the yard. We have a barrier around the yard, but if one female gets in here, she had or maybe multiple females got in here, but we had bunnies everywhere. Well, they ate all the hookra down. So, now I am spraying it and it seems to work. So, that’s a that’s a win. Uh, most recently, we put in this Japanese maple, this blood good. That’s a fun addition that kind of breaks up the yellow, especially when you’re looking at it from the other angle. Uh, yeah, we’re we’re cooking. I’ve got another planter. Actually, what it’s consider I’m going to I’m going to put um succulents. I’m going to put some succulents in here. Drill some holes. This is an old uh bird bath that a friend gave us. It doesn’t hold any water. It just drains out pretty fast, but there’s no holes. It’s just it’s it’s passed its its time. So, I’m going to drill some holes. We’ll just put some succulents in there. That’ll be a fun addition right here in between all the barberry. We did add this this spring. This is a cedar fence. Um a gentleman was selling it on uh marketplace Facebook and went out and got them. We’ve got these beautiful aliums. The good part about aliums is the beauty, right? The bad part is is all the ugly that’s below it. So, as soon as that goes away, this will look more cohesive and I can really start to get in there and add the ground covers and then next year they can figure each other out. We’ve got all of our iris right here under our quickfire hydrangeanger. We did um these two have been with us for a while. This bed we created last year that used to just sit basically on the ground. We’ve moved those forward, filled it up with soil, took these stones, put this here, and now we have a nice little bed there. You probably can see a little bit of lamb’s ear. I put it in here in spots. Lamb’s ear will continue to uh take over and then it can play nicely with the iris and whoever wins wins. That’s just the way it is. I I like I like the texture. I don’t necessarily need the blooms. I know that sounds weird, but I’ll take the blooms because then I can see it’s about a foot higher than elevated than the next layer down. So, if I can see from over there, I can see aliums and then the color of the iris. That’s the view I’m looking for right through that moongate. So, if that works out, perfect. But I’m not I’m not going to lose sleep over it. Uh let’s see some more barberry. It flanks both sides of that bed. Our cedar fence just continues to go right around here. I think I spent $100 for this and my son went and got it from another community. Um, someone’s going to ask. These are tailored junipers, these tall ones right here. Nice addition. It kind of just gives it some texture from the other side. We’ve got chickens on the way. July 1st, we will be chicken parents. Um, our permits only allow us to have five. So, we’ve got five coming. If I remember, I’ll put this up there. what we’ve got. Oh, do you remember what they are, Jess? You silver laced wine dot. Silver lace wine dot. So, of course, she would remember that. Uh, then we’ve got pansies right here in our window boxes. And then on the back side, we This is a chicken coupe, just in case you didn’t know. That’s a chicken coop with a hobbit door, little short windows. And yes, we have burlap in there. We’re able to do that because if you go on the back side, we have um chicken wire up against it so the birds doesn’t once they get in there, they won’t uh they won’t be in the way. Neither one of them won’t be in the way. Burlap won’t be in the way of the birds. The birds won’t be in the way of the burlap. All righty. The sun feels so good, but it’s nice and shady right now. Our little bridge either leads you into the grassy area, or if you’re standing on that end, it brings you right over here to our little um hobbit door and our chicken coop. Again, we went with the same colors in our window boxes, both sides, because I didn’t want it to be too busy. So, these were what we chose. I think they actually turned out really well. We’ve got the same ones in the other um the other shed, but they’re not doing so well. We might have forgot to water those while we were on vacation. That’s okay. Someone’s going to ask where we got these um glass balls. Just got at a local nursery. And that reminds me, a lot of folks ask me where I get my sons that are hanging up. My wife gifted those to me over our last what 30 years together. And so she was um picking them up basically at what was that place? Goodman’s. Gourdman’s. So it was Gourmans, but I don’t know if Gourdman’s even around anymore. They’re not. They’re not. And so, um, and then local nurseries. Basically, I’ve never gone into a nursery that didn’t have one. So, there’s that. Um, of course, I’ve got bikes sprinkled out through all throughout all throughout the garden. We’ve got another Japanese maple right over here. Um, and then then, of course, I need to get our water feature up and running and leveled back out. That’ll be fun. We’ve got our first blooms of iris this season. We’ve got another group of iris over here on the right, but uh they’re a little bit further behind. And then of course, we’ve got our hobbert creation, our little whatever. You get to use your imagination. You can start to see our hooker making a comeback. This will soon be lined and flush clear out here. In fact, um previous seasons you wouldn’t even see the gray stone. Feel free to go look at Moxy Gardens, Moxy Gardens, my Instagram. That is in there quite often in our reels. That’ll give you a good perspective of how this looks. And then last a video or two ago, uh we created this this little area right here. Um, I didn’t I didn’t uh mention in there we are going to take more iris and kind of or iris hostas and we’ll bleed out that way. So, right now it’s just a bright strip right between the rocks or flanking the rocks, but we’re going to add more to make it blend in a little bit better. Again, the prices are high, so we just kind of halted it right there. And then the reason why I went in between uh these rocks and all this area right here with this particular plant is because I’m going to get ground cover. I just don’t know what ground cover yet. And so we’re thinking um mondo grass maybe through here. Some of you suggested in this video right here. Feel free to go check that out and um give any suggestions you would like or you can do it here on this channel on on this um video. But we’ve picked out we’re we’re continuing to pick out and take ideas from you what kind of ground cover we want to do. Again, whatever ground cover, I want to try to continue throughout the garden. If it’s a shade or if it’s super sun, we’ll figure that out at that point. But right now, we’re we’re still we’re still waking up the season. So, that that that’s that story. Of course, the pond is in progress. It did not work. Um, it it wasn’t that the plastic the liner is fine. It’s when I put the spray foam in there, I missed some cracks. And if you miss any cracks, the water will go down in those little crevices between the rocks and won’t fill up to spill over. So, the liner’s fine. It’s the It’s the operator operator error. When I put the foam in there, not a good deal. I didn’t I wasn’t successful. This is a good window. You can look through there. You can see the irises. They’re a little bit behind. Maybe in the next 48 hours, some of them will open up. And then this is a tiger’s eye sumac. I love looking through that. We’ve limmed it up so well that it it’s and as it continues to grow, I really think it’ll be a good view right through there. I like that multi- trunk look. Always fascinated by that. Jesse could probably tell you what this is. You’re getting so good at this stuff. What is that? Do you know? Remember? Ivory Halo dogwood. Boom. Nailed it. She’s so good. Then we have a juga in front of grandma’s bench. Here we have grandma’s bench. And then on the back side, we have boxwood. It’s just fun to just kind of sit here. Especially early morning if you’re trying to warm up. We get that eastern sun. In the evening, we sit right here and you can hear the sound of water. If you can listen, you hear the sounds. soon as we get the waterfalls one running. That’ll be three multiple water um water sources noise sounds going through there. Butchered that. But um we do have the bubblers so we don’t have mosquitoes there. We don’t need fish in order to keep the mosquitoes. That’s a misinformation we’ve learned along the way. Um as long as you have water movement. If you get any stale water, that’s where the mosquitoes will come in. So, if you have a bubbler or some way to make the water continue to move, um that’s the the best way to keep out uh those little mosquitoes. Hand up there. She’s not happy not to be down here. Hey. Hey. Can you say hi? Can you say hi? She’s So, we have we have three spots of water. We have the pond, a creek, and then another creek. And so that’s where the sounds of water are coming from. We are in I’ve got this here cuz I wanted another pop of burgundy, some of that that color to go against all the greens. And so we are still shaping this. I’ve limed it up several times. You remember the name of this? Sand cherry sand. So good. Yeah. Um so we’ll we’ll continue to um force this up. We did have some rain and when it rains they tend to lean over. So, if you see it’s bumping my head, again, that’s one of those things I was telling you if you if you don’t like things touching you, this would not be a garden. We are we are such a narrow lot. It’s a little bit deep, but it’s such a narrow lot that uh we squeeze a lot of things in. So, but this will be a nice punch of color, especially looking from the porch area this way. And then I think that’s it. I think that’s that’s just basically May. That’s the progress we’ve made. Some of the things we put in in February. Did we start in February? Yeah, we started putting in some of the hardcape in uh February, a lot in March. We did some more in April. Um and here we are the first part of May and I think we’re we’re right on we’re right on pace. The only thing I lack is some color for our planters. Wish me luck on those. But uh that being said, I think I think we’re right on our way. So, we will continue the the reels, the videos coming to you as much as possible. But, uh, in the meantime, um, happy gardening, friends, and we will see you guys on the flip side. Bye-bye now.