Replies

1. 
   luvmuskoka | Jul 04, 2003 05:59am | #1

   Hey Mike,

   Walking thru that arbor must be like going back a hundred years. Rose bush looks real healthy.... Aphids?

   I was going to post some Peonies....the largest we've ever had...but......

   .....I'll post some of our day lillies.....

   To the flame throwers:.......no I'm not queer.......not that there's anything wrong with that....

   Ditch

1. 
   calvin | Jul 04, 2003 03:47pm | #2

   jeez ditch, working flowers is a fine passtime.  He man stuff.  Post away.

   Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.

   Quittin' Time

1. 
   xMikeSmith | Jul 04, 2003 04:28pm | #3

   yeah.. c'mon... let's have 'emMike Smith   Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore

1. 
   xMikeSmith | Jul 04, 2003 04:56pm | #4

   here's some of Helen's Iris...Mike Smith   Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore

1. 
   xMikeSmith | Jul 04, 2003 05:00pm | #5

   and her plans for extending the irsi bed the whole south side of the stonewallMike Smith   Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore

2. 
   Mongo | Jul 04, 2003 05:06pm | #6

   I enjoy battling Mother Nature...

   All organic, although the voles are killing me this year. Here's a selection from the trenches:

   Pic #1 is New Dawn, a prolific climber. Easy to grow with repeat blooms. Growing along the veggie garden fence.

   Pic #2 is Jayne Austin, a Davis Austin rose.

   Pic #4 is an unknown peony grown from a cutting taken from my wife's grandmother's garden back in Wisco.

   Pic #6 is another Austin rose, August Renoir.

   All of the old english (Austin) roses have absolutely fabulous fragrances.

   Edited 7/5/2003 9:50:56 AM ET by Mongo

1. 
   xMikeSmith | Jul 04, 2003 05:38pm | #7

   mongo.... that New Dawn looks suspiciously like our pink climber... whcih came from a cutting from my mom's house....

   her plants were all laid out in about 1927 by the previous owner who built the house

   here's a closer shot ... and then one from this morning after yesterday's heavy rain ..

    Happy 4th !...

    oh.. and  "Jefferson still lives"Mike Smith   Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore

2. 
   Mongo | Jul 05, 2003 05:05pm | #15

   If your Mom's rose is that old, the rose might be Dr. W. Van Fleet, a parent to New Dawn. I'm pretty sure New Dawn wasn't iintroduced until 1930. The only real difference between the two is that DWVF is a single bloomer, ND repeats throughout the season.

   ND is a very easy rose to propigate. I usually have to take a cane or two off each spring, so I cut the canes into 16" lengths and pop them in 12" deep holes that I make with a length of rebar. A couple of foot stomps to tamp the earth around the cane and it's on its own. Minimal effort. About 2/3rds live to get replanted somewhere else in the yard or to be given away to neighbors.

   Enjoy the weekend...my 11 year-old is a healthy stone's throw from you, over on Block Island with the boy scouts.

3. 
   xMikeSmith | Jul 05, 2003 08:33pm | #16

   one of the LATE plumbers on the island was married to a Block Island girl... said he was fishing off Whale Rock in the west passage and hooked into her... cut the webs from between her feet so she couldn't swim off and the were married for 50 years...

   i'm just guessing about the year of that rose... i know the house was built in '27.... but the  rose could have been planted anytime... just that money was flush in '27... and the whole thing became a barter economy here by 1930..

   i'm pretty sure it's an everbloom... there will be blossoms on it until hard frostMike Smith   Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore

4. 
   xMikeSmith | Jul 05, 2003 08:41pm | #17

   helen wanted to ask you if it could be  a Martha Washington ? ( the pink climber on our arbor )

   on another note:  did you read the article in JLC about the high -velocity A/C ?

   i seem to recall that you've done a few of these

   Mike Smith   Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore

   Edited 7/5/2003 1:42:27 PM ET by Mike Smith

5. 
   Mongo | Jul 06, 2003 09:46am | #20

   Sorry to say that I'm not familiar with Martha.

   I signed my JLC subscription over to my brother. That and a few others. A bit of a screw up with Walls and Ceilings (not sure if you're familiar...mostly plaster/stucco type of info)...at one point he was getting seven copies at a time, and I was still getting mine.

2. 
   luvmuskoka | Jul 05, 2003 02:28am | #8

   Don't have the thumb of you and Mongo.

   Ditch

1. 
   xMikeSmith | Jul 05, 2003 02:49am | #10

   yeah, right... you don't have much of a life , do you... ?

   i mean , it looks like you spend all of your non-working hours  working on your lawn..

    ie:  it looks great..Mike Smith   Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore

1. 
   plantlust | Jul 05, 2003 12:49pm | #12

   I'm gonna have to marry you for your arbor, the stonework and what looks suspiciously like acreage to me.Life is too short so eat dessert first, especially if it happens to be Cookingmonster's triple cinnamon truffles or her ginger-fig caramels.

2. 
   luvmuskoka | Jul 05, 2003 03:01pm | #13

   I used to spend my non-working hours on the lawn and beds....very relaxing.....very rewarding.....but the floor business has consumed me  the last few years.....growing, training, getting ready to install a showroom in an old historic building in town.

   Now I have a yard man take care of everything...just doesn't feel like mine anymore...I envy the guy actually. Smokes a little spliff and mows, accepts only cash, spends the entire winter in Fla. after fall clean-up.

   I just wanna expand the floor thing to the point where I can sell it, retire, build stuff around the house...have a life.....smoke a little spliff and mow.....

   Great thread.Ditch

3. 
   92588 | Jul 05, 2003 02:46am | #9

   nice... dont forget to stick your nose in those things and snort out. show those bees whose boss

4. 
   paulc127 | Jul 05, 2003 07:32am | #11

   That is, without a doubt, the nicest arbor I have ever seen.

   I assume it's redwood?  I will be copying this very soon.

1. 
   xMikeSmith | Jul 05, 2003 04:05pm | #14

   paul..... 100% CCA PT SYP.... not a piece of redwood within 150' of it..

    an architect friend designed it for meMike Smith   Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore

5. 
   migraine | Jul 06, 2003 12:43am | #18

   Thanks alot.  I was looking at your photos and the wife walked in and said "I want one of those at our new house!"   Another mess this website has gotten me into.

   Very beautiful.  I think I'll save these shots to my files

1. 
   xMikeSmith | Jul 06, 2003 12:57am | #19

   don't blame me... it's yur job to keep her barefoot, pregnant , and in the kitchen...Mike Smith   Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore

1. 
   xMikeSmith | Jul 07, 2003 04:16am | #21

   Helen wanted some of the "sea roses" that grow all over the New England shoreline.. so we went down and got some pink specimens and white..

   everywhere we want to plant around our border is completely infiltrated with bull briars.. so our tool of choice is our gravely with a rotary plow attachement.. the plow turns in  a clockwise rotation.. and you learn fairly quickly not to stand between the handle bars..Mike Smith   Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore

   
1. 
   xMikeSmith | Jul 07, 2003 04:20am | #22

   so here's our new rosa rugosa.... the pink...

   and the white... keep your fingers crossed that they takeMike Smith   Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore

   
1. 
   Piffin | Jul 07, 2003 04:48am | #23

   There's something about roses - could cure the world.

   I've been meaning to tell you how impressed I am with your pergola with climbers. Tell your archy friend that it will be copied/borrowed/stolen, and that he will become the father of many pergolas...

   We just put in another White Rugosa yesterday.

   Down at the ferry terminal, the one thing the state did right was to plant a mass of Rugosa in front of it. You can smell the perfume quite a ways away. Ah! De-Lightful!

   I wonder if you could do me a favor and pan to the left a little so I can see that Gravely better. My rig is a BCS walking tractor. I didn't know they stil made Gravelys but yours looks new - almost.

   .

   Excellence is its own reward!

2. 
   xMikeSmith | Jul 07, 2003 05:07am | #24

   i'm guessing mine is about  9 - 10 years old.... but in know they still make them..

   ever been to gravely heaven ?

   there is an equipment dealer in Concord, NH.. called Green Acres or something.. anyways, it's one of theose old wooden mill buildings... you go up stairs and there are about 2 acres of used gravely attachments....

   the only ones i have are the 30" brush cutter  and this rotary plow.. i did have a snow blower that would throw snow over the  telephone poles.. but  the only way i could move it was to put about 60  lb. of counter wt on the end.. and then it wouldn't move... sold that sucker.. and decided to  stay home when it  snows enough i can't get out the drive..

   here's two more views of the gravely Mike Smith   Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore

   
3. 
   Piffin | Jul 07, 2003 06:00am | #25

   That is the freightliner of garden gizmos. My BCS is an '87. I replaced the engine once. I was doing a lot of mowing with the sickle bar attachment in the hot summer and cooked her. .

   Excellence is its own reward!

4. 
   Qtrmeg | Jul 09, 2003 10:56pm | #27

   Gravely heaven is Greenlands Equipment, great place.

   I love yours, oh man what I would give for a chance to break that, ha.

   Hey Mike, ever see one of these out on the links? Talk about a dual compound sidewinder...this thing takes out a 7 ft path before you can wonder if your beer is getting cold, and turns on a dime. Mostly belt drive, about 50 years old, and the company still makes virtually the same rig, but with the requisite safety features.

   
5. 
   xMikeSmith | Jul 10, 2003 03:24am | #29

   i think that's the one that one of my friends has.. what's the name ?

    also i see one of the newport landscape companies using one of thoseMike Smith   Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore

6. 
   Qtrmeg | Jul 10, 2003 11:54pm | #30

   It's one of these

   You most likely see them on golf courses and such, most commercial landscapers go with rotary mowers.

   If you run across groundskeepers in your golf travels, ask if they have one of these collecting dust. 

   Oh, I tried flower pix, but due to a combination of pale green thumb, and camera illiteracy, I'll have to get back to ya on that one.  

7. 
   xMikeSmith | Jul 11, 2003 04:39am | #31

   i think "triplex" is the name i was thinking of... i'm pretty sure that's what my buddy has.. i'd guess his is from the '50'sMike Smith   Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore

8. 
   xMikeSmith | Jul 14, 2003 04:38am | #32

   for those that are not familiar with Gravely.. it's a 12 or 16 hp two wheel tractor  .. with  a big PTO on the front end for different attachments..

    the two i have are the 30 " bursh cutter   with a 3/8" steel blade .. it'll cut up to 1"  trees  as long as you can get on top of them.. the other attachemnt is a rotary plow..

    here's some pics of both and the PTO assembly.. pretty versatile and ruggedMike Smith   Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore

   
9. 
   xMikeSmith | Jul 14, 2003 04:40am | #33

   and here's the PTO and the rotary plowMike Smith   Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore

   
10. 
    Mongo | Jul 07, 2003 10:18am | #26

    I love albas and rugosas.

    The deer never mess with them and, like piffiin wrote, the fragrances are wonderful.

    Seeing your machine makes me whimper when I look at my old pickaxe and crowbar.

    If those new rugosa plantings are cuttings, you may want to snap off the blooms and buds. It'll allow the cutting to put more energy into new root formation and less into bloom/hip formation.

    Do it when Helen's not looking, then blame it on the deer.<g>

11. 
    CaroleG4 | Jul 10, 2003 12:07am | #28

    Those are gorgeous.......Can't grow those in Arizona, eh?