The softer side

of the Davis Graveyard.  Here are pictures of the flower garden in our back yard. The fence has been replaced and the arbor has been rebuilt.

 A bright and colorful contrast to the black and gray graveyard decor.  See, the frog queen likes color too.

I wish you all lived closer, I would love to have you over for tea in the garden!

For more pictures of the yard and the property - check out the post husband did on the Davis House blog.

Is that there all the time?

Yes, yes it is.

I am constantly surrounded by lovely people that love this Halloween stuff we do.  We likely all have different reasons....but we are very like minded that way....and our extended friends and family know that we are really into Halloween so I never feel strange or feel the need to defend my home and yard decor......until outside (non-Halloween) people enter the property.

Enter the property and notice that there is a skeleton in my garden......and then they notice the skulls, and the skeleton door mat...and the....

I always answer their questions the same..."yes, yes I do leave that stuff up all year."

I just started white pumpkins around the skeleton.....I don't grow them for use in the display, more of just a photo opp during the month of October.  

Now I gotta put the scary scarecrow back up.....but I am going to wait until after the wedding this weekend.

I love my magnolia tree

but I hate that it drops leaves everyday.....every single day of it's existence.  And they are big waxy leaves and there are a lot of them.  Raking them out of the yard became difficult so a few years ago I removed the grass from under that tree and put in a gravel garden to make cleaning up the leaves much easier.

In that garden I put skull faces cast out of concrete and last week I picked up some black glass beads to scatter among the gravel.  Continuing with my black and gray theme our Halloween decor :)

We are having a wedding at the house next weekend and had a crew of people descend on the yard to get it in top shape.  Some the crew brought their kids.

Kids + concrete skulls + black beads = interactive art!

So now, my skulls have eyes! :D

and in this case a nose! :D

Fairy Garden Competition ~2011

Donni over at The Magic Onions is hosting a Fair y Garden Competition with prizes to be awarded!

Click here to learn more!

The fence is back

Put the fence back on the garden last week.  

Was able to get most of the vines - I have a hydrangea and a trumpet vine that I sadly had to cut back a bit to remove the fence.  They are doing okay and should be back to normal by next spring.

The bench that husband built for around the weeping willow needed to be expanded to accommodate the growth of the tree.    The original bench was in two half circle pieces that were bolted together.  To make more room, he took his original design and made two "benches" in the same style to expand the size.  He put them in the middle of the two circles and then bolted the whole thing back together. 

It will take a few years for the cedar to weather to match the original bench....but I can live with it.

I need to paint and repair the arch at the front of the garden and add a few annuals to the garden and we should be ready for the wedding the end of this month.

I also uncovered the skeleton in the vegi beds.....but that is another post :)

Wanna see some undead roses?

When I first got this rose and it did this I thought....must be the fact that it has been raining so much that it just never opened - just got this creepy undead look.

Davis Graveyard Undead Rose

Now, I am not complaining....that is pretty cool, but not really what I wanted.

I thought....it will be fine next year.

It was not, it did the same thing....has for about 4 years now.

So the Davis Graveyard has a undead rose bush.  How cool is that?!

To make up for it almost all the other roses in the garden are blooming.

Gemini

Ferdinand

Queen Elizabeth

Yes, the Frog Queen has a pink rose....I have several of them actually.  I can handle pink in very small doses.  And this particular rose is on of my favs.