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Thursday, May 29, 2008

The Long View

In the gardening world, we tend to look at things close up. In fact, the closer the better, oh how I wish I could use my old nikkor macro lens right now.

Over the winter I remember looking for landscape shots of my garden and found very few. This morning as I walked around with wet feet (lots of dew on the lawn), I decided to take a look at the long view and shoot the whole garden, not individual blooms.

We'll start with the entrance to our property, shot from across the street. You can see how far back we are set from the road. This might be quite common in your part of the world but not very common here on Long Island.

Taken from the opposite point of view, I hung my head out of my second floor bedroom window for this photo. Now you are looking up towards the street where I was standing for the first shot.

Our bedroom goes from the front of the house to the back so naturally I took a photo while hanging out the back window too. Showcased here is our enormous, incredibly awkward swimming pool which is not yet open for the season.

Lesson number one for the "do it yourself landscaper". Do not put your pool smack dab in the middle of your yard unless you live in a tropical zone and like to look at swimming pools. Where we live the pool is closed for at least 8 months of the year and it's an ugly sight for way too long a time period.

Standing on the back of the pool patio, this is the furthest section of our yard. In my estimate, this area alone is about 1/3 of an acre. You can see how nicely the shrub material is filling in to hide my neighbors less than lovely white plastic fence.

Looking from side to side there is a small bed on the side of the pool where the previous "do it yourself" owner did a poor job of grading the soil. This is what we did to make the best of a bad situation.

Standing at the back (well, maybe 20 feet from the back as I didn't step into the shade beds) this is looking forward to the house. I love standing here and looking through the breezeway. When a car drives down the road it gives an amazing feeling to realize how much land we are blessed with.

You will see these photos again soon. One reason that I prefer photos taken on cloudy days is that you don't have the stark detail of sunlight and shadow. A good photographer can use those conditions to their advantage but in the case of my landscape shots, I would have preferred not to have their distraction. You'll just have to wait though until we have the right conditions and then I'll show you what I mean.

Now it's your turn. Take some long view shots for us and list your site here in the comment section. I'd love to step back and see your whole property too.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This will be fun!! Dh says just as long as I don't include the address;) Oh--and it won't be till Saturday. We are planting a bunch of Crepe Myrtles Sat. morning. This a great post and I always thought your yard looked big for Long Island.

I pictured a map of Long Island and then seeing your land from--let's say the moon!-and it shows up!! It takes up half of the island. It is beautiful and I love ths landscaping. You've done a wondeful job.

Unknown said...

Lovely yard! I like being able to put things into context. I made a post. Come take a stroll around my yard with me, won't you?

http://cbmvwag.blogspot.com/2008/05/take-walk-with-me.html

Esther Montgomery said...

A plastic fence?

How awful! I didn't even know such things existed.

Esther

Debbie said...

Hi Melanie!
I've posted my "love view" pictures on my blog! It isn't nearly as impressive as yours, but we work a little bit on it each year and it brings us a lot of enjoyment.

We also struggle with what to do with our pool. We have to have a fence because of the kids, but I sure would like to make it more attractive.

I always enjoy your posts and all the wonderful photos of your plants.

Anonymous said...

Hey---Here is mine!!! It's not as great as what you've done--but maybe some day!!
http://flowergardengirl.typepad.com/container_arrangements_an/

I'm not sure that link worked right--but if you go to my site--you'll see the post on the house;)

Anonymous said...

I need to buy some hostas . How do I get to your beautiful garden