Internet Down

So I come home, plant ferns, take pics and cannot upload them! I will as soon as I figure out the situation with hughesnet or find an iPhone app for blogger with pics!!

Today is fern day

My home is a white square sitting in a mud hole. My husband jokingly claims that our driveway shows up on maps as a dry riverbed. If it wasn't so close to the truth, it might be funny. I have quite the challenge before me with the clay and slate "soil" and the erosion example we call a front yard.

I am planting some ostrich ferns directly in front of the "skirting" to mask the fact that the house is not sitting on a foundation. These are being gathered from a friend's overgrown garden, although they grow *everywhere* around here, they are protected, so I must not gather them in the wild.
This, I am hoping will help unite the house with the land. If the ferns establish themselves satisfactorily, I will add hosta which a former resident planted in full sun, as companion to the ferns.

In the meantime, I must remove the collections of junk my husband collected.

Gardening in the clouds

I am landscaping a mountaintop home, with three things in mind.
1. I need to get plants that are free or cheap, and which readily spread, because my budget is non-existent right now.
2. To use as many local, natural plants as possible for the cost efficiency, as well as my personal beliefs.
3.To make the 15 year old double wide that is our home look like it belongs, and is part of the mountain landscape.

The challenges are:
1. The home is a relatively modern thing, and sticks out on the land in sore thumb fashion. Making it part of the land will be difficult.
2.Finding the right wild plants for the right landscape areas and not killing them all in the process.
3. Getting it all done, physically.

Plus we need to maintain our vegetable garden and get the most from that this season.

I will bring photos into the blog as they are taken.