Happy Monday, everyone! Let’s start the week with something wonderful. Remember back in March when Anne Engelking Wellman sent in that fun video of her garden accompanied by her grandchildren’s soundtrack? Refresh your memory HERE. Today she’s back with a 2014 video, and it’s so, so nice. —SEE THE NEW VIDEO HERE—.
Anne says, “This is my second video of our backyard cottage garden in Newark, Delaware. Each year starts with My Definite Plan: “be more conservative, grow fewer things” and “keep the work manageable” since I do all the gardening except mowing. But that plan quickly falls by the wayside when the seed catalogues arrive showing plants that cry to be experienced. I try to limit myself to “a few experimentals.” This year those included: Love in a Mist, Sweet Williams, Carnations, ‘Carbon’ Tomatoes; ‘Magesty Red’ Lettuce, Commelina and some others. Everything survived since it was a perfect growing season this year in our state–no drought, no extreme heat.
Each year I’ve also “borrowed” more of my husband’s lawn for flowers. Next year’s side yard I hope to turn into a wildflower garden, but this year I’m making do with a mini-wildflower garden by the larger pond in the backyard.
The video includes two pictures of our 200′ X 50′ backyard prior to the ponds’ construction when it was open space with trees and yews along the back and sides. For some reason, the yard, now divided into areas, seems larger to the eye than it did before it was heavily planted. The ponds have added fascinating wildlife not seen before by us, (though I never caught on film the great blue heron who has us on his route and catches some of our goldfish and frogs.)
In this year’s video are some of the Delaware wildlife and a few “wild” garden activities just for fun. (The dress-up costumes are from a trunk of clothes I’ve saved since my childhood some 50-60 years ago.) The musical background is all by the grandchildren, the videos were taken with my old Canon S95, and I strained my aging neurons putting the video together with iMovie.”
Anne, we need one of these every single year. Your garden is gorgeous, your grandchildren amazing. I think every time I’m stressed out I’ll just revisit this post and play the video. It was that relaxing. Well done!! The strawberry tasted wonderful…..and it’s a good thing you put that fence up! Wow! Again, —SEE THE NEW VIDEO HERE—
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Comments
Forgive me, Anne, but this amazing and thoroughly entertaining video has inspired me to plagiarize myself from my last year's comments...."Ripping open the envelope with excitement...and the award for most delightful visual garden presentation goes to (drum roll, please) Anne Engelkng!!" Congratulations...you are a two time winner! Your garden seems endless and filled with so many picture perfect plants and wonderful creatures.
What is your secret nurturing ingredient (besides love) that makes all your clematis bloom so heavily? I mean, for heavens sake, your autumn clematis is a positive tsunami of white flowers.
What wonderfully talented grandchildren you have. I so enjoyed the music and the singing and joyful smiles that were contagious. Sincerest thanks to all of you!
Ah, thank you so much for your comments everyone.
About our clematis: the ones with blue flowers are growing on an arbor positioned about 4 feet away from the downspout that carries rain from the house roof which means it stay nicely watered with no effort. It does get fertilizer and is pruned as required by each type of clematis. The white Autumn Clematis in part shade grows rankly. It only gets pruned back to about 2 1/2' every winter, never fertilized.
Thoroughly enchanted Anne! The garden only gets better and better as with your loving relationship with your grandkids. Thank you very much for spreading the love.
Thank you, Perennially Crazy. I'm glad you were enchanted!! That makes my day. : )
Very pleasant. Lost myself "in there" a bit. I was supposed to be off today and playing in my own garden, but work deadlines have dictated another course, so this was a wonderful early morning escape for me. Thank you for sharing.
I just enjoyed looking at your Yarden pictures, NC! You have a beautiful arboretum to play in!
Not sure which took more effort: tending that great garden or putting together that nice video! kudos.
Thank you, Tim. The garden is work, but not frustrating work. The video on the other hand was a lot of frustration. It was almost finished when it got corrupted somehow; the sound tracks would stop and the videoes would jump. I had to start over again from scratch. I'm glad you liked the finished product.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Anne, for a wonderful start to my day. I was swept away by the music, the wildlife, and every view of your gorgeous garden. And your grandchildren are precious! My to-do list for the day is a mile long but was so easy to ignore (at least for twelve minutes) thanks to your beautiful video and a glimpse into your love-filled life.
Lynn, I like starting the day with music and nature. So glad to hear from one of similar mind.
So beautiful, so colorful. Loved all the sounds of nature especially the frog. Great soundtrack.
Well, HellofromMaryland, I guess your garden has the same sounds since we share much of the same geography. We are fortunate to be on some birds' migration path which gives us a fairly great variety.
It felt like a stroll through Heaven's garden!!
Oh please tell me, Azulverde, that there won't be weeds in Heaven because there surely are in my garden.
But GrannieAnnie, weeds are God's creations too!
You're right. And I guess man decided which would be labeled weeds.
Anne, the beauty, the love, the fun, your family's talents, nature's flora and fauna, your hard work and warmth, all combined in one wonderful package, your videos are treasures to enjoy and share! Thank you so much!
Thank you, GrannyMay. The variety of nature and its colors never cease to amaze me!
I literally watched this several times - my mind and soul was at peace ! So so very beautiful and the music - couldn't have gotten any better ! I cannot put into words - just how much I enjoyed seeing this video ! And trust me - I have seen a lot of videos and this topped them all ! Thank you for sharing !
Thank you Tammy Tucker for the kind comments. Early on I was thinking it might seem out of place to include the grandkids doing things in a garden video for a serious garden magazine. But later after seeing Alli's garden pictures in Iran I thought it was clearly more interesting and informative because his family was in it.
Not quite sure what to say but WOW!! Your garden is gorgeous. It is my kind of garden full to the brim with colour. You have very talented grandchildren too. What a great way to start my day. Feeling a bit blue as it is the first day of Autumn which can be beautiful but also means winter is not far away. Thanks for the boost.
Yes, already many flowers have dwindled down to brown which is always sad to see. Then the question is: do I tidy up and get rid of the brown stuff or leave the seedheads standing for the birds? The latter usually wins.
Bravo! I watched the entire thing with a huge smile and admit, at points, wonder where I go wrong being the fanatical native wildlife planter that I am! What an Oasis ... that Barred Owl was a treat and you certainly have a gang of Blue Jays. For some strange reason I feel like dressing up and parading through my garden ...
Oh please do parade around, Kathy, and send us a video! : )
Oh my I just had time to read my emails and this could be the 1st time in my life I am speechless. The music the birds chirping the flowers wow Michelle was completely right this is so lovely to watch. Thank you Anne for sharing your private gardens and your sweet family with me on the first day if Autumn. So beautiful
OH MY! I had no idea that GPOD existed until this summer and I find myself looking forward each day to a new picture. Annie, your videos just blew me away. The love you have for nature and her beauties is so apparent in your garden, your grandchildren and Mr. Frog croaking at such appropriate times. Thank you, thank you for this splendid garden visit.
I'm glad you liked it EJRebman. Funny thing about frogs: if a pond is dug they just show up and move in. We aren't near a creeks but they found us. The bull frogs can get very noisy croaking all night long and in the spring the toads wind up as well.
What meander1 said !!!! OHMYGOODNESS....Weeping from seeing & hearing such beauty.....
Thank you, Cenepk10. We do seem to have many types of birds here, and they like singing in the early morning before the traffic noises begin.
Girl ! You know I meant the talented grandkids !!!!
the Creator got a loving helping hand from GrannieAnnie and her team !... absolutely gorgeous , your garden and video! many thanks from Brussels !
Well hello Christiane and Brussels! I'm always excited to see people from other countries on this site and pictures of their unusual gardens with new ideas. Maybe yours?
Thank you so so much! Very creative and fun. I so enjoyed the music and singing and especially how they were clapping and made an entrance to spring! And you gave God the glory! Beautiful! Next year I think I will grow those blue corn flowers and Iam going to look for some of that "slug free lettuce seed"! Ha ha. Thanks so much!
Greengenes, I didn't realize that corn flowers came in different colors until I bought the seed packet. There were even some bi-colors, but the blue remain my favorite since it is so hard to find true-blue flowers. Oh, and the lettuce was truly slug-free since they were too lazy to climb that distance and across gravel.
Utterly charming....the gardens, the children, the wildlife, the video! It's a work of such LOVE...Thank you for sharing it with us!
Thank you, Jane. I'm hoping the grandchildren will look at it one day when they're grown and say, "Oh, I remember that! Maybe I'll plant some flowers."
What a treat. Your garden is beautiful. Thank you for showing it to us in a video. Really brings it all to life. You did a wonderful job including the children, wildlife, and the family pet. Loved the music, the kids singing, and their entrances through the arbor. A garden is a living thing and a place to be enjoyed.....looks like yours is full of life and enjoyed by all. I love the last line....our Creator has blessed you with a green thumb and you have blessed all of us by sharing it with us. Look forward to seeing more
Thank you, Linda Newber, for mentioning that a garden is a living thing to be enjoyed. We didn't give much forethought to the design except that the pond had to be visible from the diningroom to enjoy it any hour. My husband put some spot lights there which we can use at night, too. The pond placement has worked out well since we enjoy first thing every morning looking out to see what is happening around the water. Sometimes hawks will park themselves in the nearby Japanese maple. I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Absolutely love your garden! Where did you find those fantastic strawberry sorbet nasturtiums?
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