Pieter Captured our Estate + Progress for me to View While in Limburg

 After doing the usual watering in the morning for keeping plants and shrubs alive, using the electric pump and water from our pond, Pieter made another round for me to SEE how our Estate looked like.

June 7, our Magnolia Grandiflora 'Namnetensis 'Namnetensis Flore Pleno',

A near perfect bud

Looking inside

Our Fiberglass Window Boxes alongside veranda and bay window area of kitchen on June 8.

These are our double greenish white flowering petunias; Blanket® Double Chardonnay Petunia Plants ←click link

Our Moonflower, a night blooming Ipomoea

Near our Vinyl Picket Fence Hibiscus syriacus 'Diana' - Rose-of-Sharon 'Diana' 

Our double blooming Hibiscus syriacus Jeanne D'Arc

Fiberglass Window Boxes on retainer wall near driveway on June 9 with Golden Lantana that trail down.

Detail and you see an empty can of wood preservative for Pieter's Wood Trail Mega Task...

He spent quite a lot on that trail, going back and forth to Home Depot.

These photos are all from June 9, around 8:40 after breakfast time.

Looking all so lush!

Our Palm trees.

Palm Trees with the tall Italian Cypress.

And all Pot Plants around...

Happy and well cared for Pot Plants and Palm Trees!

Our Home seen from the back, taken from the gazebo area.

We both love the sight of the house without that humongous live oak there.

The bare spot still needs to fill in with grass but in a couple of years, that too will be done!

The progress of the Wood Trail on June 11

Detail with the axe to the right for attacking roots that were in the way...

Pieter's shadow is visible with his iPadPro.

Another short 1:55 minute update on Pieter's progress, captured on June 11.Oh, I KNEW that he was aiming for having it all DONE when I would come home!

Photo taken on June 14, around 8:15 after breakfast.

Showing all the cut up 22 inch boards, that Pieter got at Home Depot.

By having several rotten boards he was short of several in the end.

We used to buy those 22 x 22 inch squares with boards from Lowes in 1993 through 1996 but they are no longer available. Only 3 seconds, video taken by me on June 21 and to the right you see the blue tarp that went over those 

cut up 22 inch boards from Home Depot, to protect them from heavy rain.

The FINAL part seems always to be hard. 

Photo from June 21 shows clearly the elevated way of this newly laid wood trail.

The rotten boards and beams that were buried in the ground still needed to be gathered up along the trail.

We also need to get rid of the black bottomless trash can, left on our property by some workers...

Related links:

Our Agapanthus and Wood Trail | showing our first Wood Trail laid out

Pieter's NEW Love—While I was in Limburg | previous post by mePieter Capturing his Progress on the Wood Trail while I was in Limburg | previous post by me{Our Hibiscus syriacus 'Diana' - Rose-of-Sharon 'Diana'} | previous post by me{Our Hibiscus syriacus Jeanne D'Arc & Our Life in Italy} | previous post by me

We Almost Grew BANANAS

 Well, living in the tropics and also having friends from India, Thailand and Vietnam, makes one appreciate exotic things.

So from our Thai friend we got a young banana tree...

Both of us were thrilled to see it BLOOM!

Quite a sight on July 25 of 1993!

We just had completed adding the balcony with storage room below.

What do you think about our banana tree?

Of course we never got to harvest the mature fruits.

They grew but then before maturity we had frost and a banana tree can absolutely NOT handle any frost.

Yep, less than a month after the little greenhouse got completed, we had SNOW!

That banana tree was way too big for transplanting into the greenhouse...

So it wilted away and in the spring it started again from the roots up.

Our Home in the Snow... only in the morning for a couple of hours as it melts away FAST.

Related links:

Pieter Built our Greenhouse | previous post by me

{Our Garden White & Icy Today as Snowstorm Slams South} | previous post by me

{RARE Icicles in Our Garden} | previous post by me

Our Agapanthus and Wood Trail

 Both of us loved the green intersections in México City, often with Agapanthus.

On our way to work we passed by numerous parks.

Link below post leads to a video of them at 2:07

On May 24, 1993 Pieter is standing next to one of our blue Agapanthus.

This was one year before we started consulting work in Mexico.

Everything grew in our garden when we had access to the spent mushroom compost... Such a great end product from mushroom cultivation!

Saponaria officinalis in the front or soapwort. We also had Saponaria ocymoides or rock soapwort.

Tall blue Agapanthus and Saponaria in the front.

On March 9, 1993 the same year! Pieter dug ditches for getting rid of the excess water, letting our lot drain.

He also built the first Wood Trail.

Lowes at that time sold ready built squares in treated wood.

And then, in 2004 ALL ditches got filled in with the 60 metric tons of dirt, which Pieter shoveled out from under the house, where he built the Rose Suite!

On April 18, 1993 Pieter with the wheelbarrow full of spent mushroom compost, adding to all plants and shrubs that we planted.

To the left you see already one blue Agapanthus blooming here.

Several of those trees we had cut down, way too many and they compete for food with plants and shrubs more than anything else!

Thursday, April 29, 1993 on Pieter's 64th Birthday...

Even in–between the cross tires that we both placed here (they were put somewhere but NOT in the right spot while we worked in Indonesia), with the help of spent mushroom compost perennials thrived.

This is alongside the driveway and retainer wall.

Our Wood Trail on April 29... what a huge difference with March 9 in photo above; lots of hard work planting and tending for plants and shrubs.

A happy Birthday guy and gardener!

Pieter with our Azalea Helena Curtis

Pieter with  the Saponaria officinalis.

Our young Mock Orange

On the cordless phone in the garden...

Wood trail, ditches and to the left in the back you see our veggie garden.

All grew so well on the spent mushroom compost!

Wood trail and to the right you see the gazebo steps and the pond in the center.

Wood trail end and again, our veggie garden.

We sure enjoyed our Paradise, always together with Squirrels and Chipmunks as they were rather tame.

Remember, we did NOT have kitties at the time...

Related link:

Our Mushroom Friends took us Sightseeing in Guadalajara and Tlaquepaque in Jalisco, México | previous post with link below for video with Agapanthus flowers in México City.

{Our Wood Trail in 1994} | previous post by me

{Walk Our Wood Trail With Me + Helen Curtis Azalea} | previous post by me

Our Garden at the Time we had Access to Spent Mushroom Compost | previous post by me

The FIGHT of Growing Grass in Subtropical Georgia/USA | previous post by me about the cross tires being in wrong place

Pieter Acrobat High on Ladder

We did have the tree cutters, but this odd branch also needed to be cut off as it was hindering another oak tree.

So, Pieter put up his aluminum ladder and on the 22nd rung he started sawing off the branch.

Even sawing left-handed...I certainly held my breath, as I stood far away, against a big tree.

Yard Pro Tiller and Proud Gardener Pieter

 After several years of toiling the soil, adding tons of spent mushroom compost, we developed a very fertile vegetable and fruit garden! Yes, we were getting to see the FRUITS of our labor, after tackling a Mega Task...

Pieter with his Yard Pro Tiller, after a morning of HARD work.A purebred market gardener!Pieter showing the good quality soil, after two turns with the tiller.Still so many roots to be removed and more surprises in the soil, tires that had been dumped there previously by irresponsible people...There are clickable points when viewed on YouTube, showing our grapes, paprikas (bell peppers), egg plants, squash, raspberries, rhubarb and tomatoes...Another treasure found due to archiving our home videos.
Related posts:Our Garden at the Time we had Access to Spent Mushroom Compost | previous post by me

Sudden Whirlwind without rain and big tree gets lifted up out of the ground

In Georgia the weather can be unpredictable at times.

Like this SUDDEN WHIRLWIND without rain on Friday, June 19 of 1998.Quickly I grabbed our video camera and exited through the veranda door to capture our trees bending in the wind.A very dramatic sky came suddenly...Next I walked to the wood garden, across the creek where Pieter was working and he showed me a tree that got lifted out of the ground by this strong wind.Pieter shows that he can place his fingers into the opening created .If you click on YouTube watching you can see at clickable 2:23 how it is lifted up a few centimeters.Good thing is that both of us are not scared... 😜

Big Trees Down and others Trimmed Continued

 Next morning we had this as our view from the bay window breakfast area...

The 🌳BUCKEYE PREFERRED SERVICES LLC truck was right in front of us...

Our very LAST morning of seeing the huge Oak Tree standing!

This Google image is from 2014 and the oak tree is shown on the left.

The Black Gum tree got cut in 2015, seen to the right...

These 11 seconds give you a clear sight of how the pulley got fastened on a limb, for letting the branches land safely.

Limbs that were above our home, are off already...

That huge oak tree split into a V-shape.

All the branches are already off, of one half of the V-shape...

Took this video of 1 minute and 22 seconds, for showing the GREAT EXPERTISE and PRECISION for getting those tall limbs moved above our side of the vinyl picket fence, and then lowering them.You once more can see clearly the pulley being used.The left side of the tall oak's V is completely off here.All is being done while saving the Holly tree to the right!You can hear me talk when dew drops fell down onto me, from the shaking of the branches...

Pieter was studying the KUBOTA as it proved so perfect for removing all the limbs and branches and dumping them into the truck alongside the road.

Here you clearly see that our Southern Magnolia did get trimmed up quite a bit!

More and more of the limbs are being lowered down via pulley...

Once down, they were being cut by one of the three team members.

Photo taken from the road, you clearly can see the limited space we had for letting this tree fall.

This short 56 second video showed the precision skill with a long handled saw!

And yes, those two men were in constant communication via their headsets.

The one below operating the rope for the pulley and the one in the cherry picker.

Here is the other half wearing the headset and the rope is being tightened around our big Holly tree.

This 41 second video shows you exactly their great team work and skilled precision!

The backside of our home looks so much better without the huge Live Oak Tree!

A bird house is standing on the table outside on the little patio at the Rose Suite entrance.

Next day, they did use the stump grinder for taking all this out.

We're now ready for the pressure washing of the home and gazebo and then the exterior painting.

Exactly: Cowboys throw a lasso but 🌳BUCKEYE PREFFERRED SERVICES LLC throws a pulley rope with precision!One has to admire their skills.

Now they went up with two men, inside the bucket from the cherry picker.

Meanwhile the Southern Magnolia is being trimmed.

And branches being hauled off to be loaded onto their truck...

The very top of the 2nd V-section is skillfully being taken down by 2 men inside the bucket. Now the lead man by himself tackles huge sections, till he reaches the beginning of the V-section.

Here the beginning of the V-section has been reached...

A rope gets fastened for helping pull the tree down after having cut out a wedge below...

Too bad I missed this final part as I had to meet with someone and Pieter was taking his nap.

But down it came!

Here you view the top of that V-section till where they'd cut it down segment by segment.

Wonder what the Japanese Magnolia is thinking now his huge neighbor is down?

And now, our Holly tree has full freedom and it will probably take a couple of years till it has restored itself.

Still some mistletoe left in this tree as well.

A large poplar tree with a broken branch hanging down.

The one to the right is on our neighbor's property and right above our greenhouse!

BUT he did not give us permission to cut it... 

Pieter just was going to dump some fruit and veggie peels in our compost bin when he stopped near the downed Poplar tree. Another huge one, with a broken top hanging down on its bark...

And way too close to our green house!

Pieter let them stack this wood near the creek in the back, for woodpeckers to enjoy and chipmunks to roam around in.

We both were so pleased that finally those big trees had come down!

From April on, the weather was not cooperating, too wet for such heavy equipment to come into a soggy garden...

Now it is DONE!

Previous post:

Big Trees Down and others Trimmed