Plain Janes In Wisconsin's Gramma Garden Win Review

A Gramma Garden's Review Spotlights Plain Janes

What a splendid greeting this morning.  Thinking of God's great gifts of beauty I grabbed my camera and started shooting pictures.  I chose this one with the tree accenting the mornings dawn as I started my blog.

The dark outline of the tree accents the view, making it more prominent of the other snapshots I took.

     Later in the day I again took my camera out in my morning walk and noticed so many plain Janes in the flowerbeds reminding me of how they also were accenting the center peace.

 This view on my walk, I gazed down at the lower gardens.  The flowers mazed together to accent the birdhouses and tall green trees in background.  It dawned on me how I as a plain Jane accent many things in my life.  I am but an instrument in the orchestrating designs of my gardens.  Inspiration sets the ideas into place.

     I met a little old lady many years ago who lived out in the country.  Her husband was dying and a nun who I worked part time after high school classes,  sent me and another girl out to bring them supper.  We drove up to her plain country home and parked next to this magnificent bluer of color, all shapes and sizes.  It was a garden I will never forget and have fashioned my own gardens likewise.

As a Master Gardner for 26 years I tried really hard to form gardens according to the laws of a perfect perennial garden but for some reason they always turned out to copy the little old lady's garden from so long ago.  One year a reporter for our local paper came out to interview me and take pictures and I was trying to apologize for the messy look and she exclaimed, "  I love this garden, I never saw a garden like this"  Her heading for her article stated, "Kathy will drive you near wild."  and so I found a name for my kind of garden and quit apologizing for the messy look.  :)  

Up closer the blur takes on shapes and sized but the birdhouses

still promenade the setting and take the attention from this distance. 

Here the Monarda start to take my attention, the lilies stand out, birdhouse starting to fade into background.  

Pink yarrow accent the pink lilies that accent the dark red clematis.  One
giving up its prominence to let the other out show itself.  Chickens in
background are hardly noticed at all.

   Here the lilies steal the show!  The white yarrow accents and softens the view.  We need to have a background to have the center peace stand out.  The greens blend the whole picture background.  

     In life I often am just the background, others have the lime lite.  Pride won't step back to let this happen, causing havoc in a once serene setting.  I have learnt humility lets the world progress ahead.  Joining the group to emphasise a needed spotlight. not necessarily mine but ours is better.

Phlox steal the show from the Monardas that were the main point on above
picture showing the Monardas by the trellis.

Sometimes my camera just takes pictures of the Stars of the show.  Lilies both the daylilies and Ornamental Lilies just have to have the limelight!  Their beauty just is outstanding.  Often Daylilies only last one day and the flower fades, loosing all its beauty.  

See in this picture the faded bloom in background.  Needs to be picked off.
Its showtime is past, short lived.

In Life it seems our limelight is short lived and then we are back to the basics.  Building on a foundation that will last.  Our strong point often being just part of the group.  Adding to the picture or accenting another life we share.

Here a group is made of Daises and purple Gayfeather.  They 

share the setting with a trellis and have lots of green as background.

All equal, all doing their job of making this little spot heavenly.  :)

Had to just say that!  But isn't it just like heaven's peace

when we work together, making this beautiful world livable.

                                         There will be times when we are in the spotlight and then

                                   there times we are just holding up our end to make a lovely setting.

Perhaps it is not our time to be in the limelight, just part of the group, adding to the picture

filling a spot that gives strength to the sight as these hostas blessing each other in the 

large rock garden.

God's time is not always our time.
He often holds us back on the
sidelines until it is our time
to
Shine

The stage is set, we have our part
in this beautiful world.
Trust Him who loves you.



Kate

Wisconsin's Residence Fill Many Spaces in Nature

Always Another Home To Go To

A tiny wren spent all of yesterday carting numerous twigs, soft fuzzy
fluff, he found out and about my many gardens.,  Getting ready to
bring his little lady wren to inspect his handy work, to see if she wanted to lay
her precious eggs in the new dwelling.

Male wrens work awfully hard building several nests in different locations so when his lady wren comes to inspect his engineering projects, she will choose his as the best and perfect spot to lay her precious eggs.

I was able to sit and watch this little fellow go back and forth a million and one times just outside my computer room window.  I finely grabbed my camera and took several shots as he darted in and out and was lucky to get the one above and also the one on Nature Within cover picture.  The twigs were twice his size sometimes and it took quit the maneuvering around to get it to go in the little hole.

We have a huge collection of birdhouses on our 27 acres of land and I was thrilled to have this little visitor choosing one so close to my window.  Needless to say I did not get a thing done on the computer for the day.

Thinking about all the other options he had, decided to blog about the occupancies he could of inhabited

.

Maybe and old English home for the country.

Or a high rise.  This home was not good enough and who knows what made the hole in the post that held it.

It could have been a speciality home in the expensive section of town all decorated with available water and coverage of Hosta landscaping.

Maybe an apartment complex that would bless him with many neighbors 

to share his life with.  I can already imagine the high volume of music playing!

Western is nice located by the horses pasture. 

Miraculous our little painted mini horse.

Early American provide antique surroundings and lots of Blessings with the Bless arbor nearby.

Nuthatch raised its fledglings in the church birdhouse with the grand view.

This cat birdhouse is already occupied by a tree frog 

School house birdhouse is old but still livable set into the shady area of third upper garden.

Another shady area by the woods almost hides this

birdhouse completely.

Log cabin was made by an elderly gentleman who was a carpenter retired but still busy making unique homes for the birds.  I have many of his charming creations.

For some reason the sun birdhouse was always occupied until a batch of wasps decided to move in.

This stands in the fairy garden on a fence holding clematis plant in bloom.

New homes sit empty this summer maybe too much traffic along the path to the barn. 

This round birdhouse is usually occupied every year.

Some birdhouses have been here for 28 years, others look old but bought at rummage sales.  We often find neat birdhouses at craft sales or little shops on some of our one day trips exploring Wisconsin outer regions.

More birdhouses hang in the crab apple trees along the path to the horse barn.

Not wanting to bore you with another hundred pictures I will just leave you all with these words:

John 14:2

"There are many rooms in my Father's house, I would not tell you this

if it were not true.  I am going there to prepare a place for you."

My mind cannot fanthem what the hereafter will provide.  Only hope that 

I will remain faithful to His call and Will for me that my eternity will be with Him.

Blessings and Love to you all

Let me hear from you about your birdhouses. 

I would love to see them all!

Kate