Front GARDENS JULY Tour: PROGRESS + PLANS - Ep. 192

It's been a little over a month since the last garden tour of the front gardens and we've made quite a bit of progress in those weeks. Namely the crusher run for the foundation of our new stone pathway has been laid and it's giving us a better sense of the garden shapes.
We'll do some more tours in the coming weeks so you can see some of the progress and future plans.
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[@Savethelepodopteraa]

THIS … is heaven…. My goodness… to watch this garden transform slowly overtime is an utter delight. The entire team of flocks should be so proud. You all continue to inspire and awe me. Thank you for all that you do.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

We have so much joy watching the transformation ourselves. It's nice to look back on the older videos to see what it looked like just as lawn...Thanks for tuning in and leaving a comment.

[@beatriceanderson9745]

Hi Summer, your gardens are awesome and I love your dress!😊💖🌸🦋🐝

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Thank you so much!

[@rickyt3961]

wow! it’s so beautiful! you two have created an amazing garden.👍🏾😃👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Thank you so much Ricky.

[@rickyt3961]

@@FlockFingerLakes you’re welcome!😉

[@pnel0623]

The gardens are absolutely beautiful! You've done a great job. I've always been following from the start, and I'm wondering if Joey is still a part of this? It's been a long time since he has been on

[@FlockFingerLakes]

He is! But he hasn't spent much time on the land yet. He and his wife recently had a baby and are spending time in the city to stay close to work at the moment while the babs still young :)

[@pnel0623]

@@FlockFingerLakes A baby! How wonderful! I can understand his absence but hope to see him and the family soon.

[@silasd7348]

Please never stop making these. They are very inspirational and gives me so many ideas. Im sure its satisfying seeing your efforts pay off.

[@kerricolwell5080]

I love everything you do - so inspiring! We have 145 acres in zone 3b (Northern Alberta Canada)... so much has been stripped in terms of native species. I want to build back some balance and you are definitely leading the way for people like me.

[@DextersWorld]

Keep inspiring. GOD bless.

[@dkulikowski]

Feeling your joy. You have brought me a lot of happiness with your gardens and house plants. I am in a 5 - stage senior living community which I am in the independent building and can have gardening spaces. Lucky me. BUT your channel brings back memories of my gardens, which I have videos of here on KZbin the last 15 years or so. Young or old, gardening feeds the soul. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and time. Take care and be healthy my dear lady.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

I love that you have documentation of your gardening journey as well and that you can continue to garden in your new space. Sharing that joy back your way :)

[@sherry2836]

To create a space so beautifully natural as to have a squad of geese go marching by, is the ultimate in environmental success. I was here for the purchase, the prep work, the restoring, and the planting. And, like many others, I'll be here for it all. What a joy to see your gardens explode into summer. You, Sander and your team are doing excellent work! Thank you for sharing.

[@toadstool5591]

Just plain water will work for drowning the Japanese beetles. You can even leave the container somewhere in the garden for the night creatures to find and eat them. Skunks, racoons, opossums, geese, etc. love them for a little protein snack. Some people add a tiny drop of soap to break the water tension, but it isn't really nessesary unless you have hard water. The gardens are beautiful!!

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Noted!

[@SequoiaElisabeth]

Beautiful tour. Remember to "Be" and not just do. So much Joy to absorb there. 🙂

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Absolutely. Always good advice. It's why I'm putting chairs everywhere, so that it beckons me to sit and enjoy!

[@charlesbale8376]

I really enjoy seeing the changes in your garden over time...I would love to see more information on edibles and herbal tea options.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Same here. Really enjoy the day-to-day and seasonal shifts. And noted on the edibles and herbals!

[@RillaG]

I have serious pollinator garden envy! So gorgeous! The other night we were out walking around our yard and there were LOADS of bees everywhere! So exciting to see them loving the flowers on our lemon balm, lavender, oregano, and wildflowers. We also started building dry hedge fences and there were loads of bees coming in and out of it, so I'm pretty sure they are building a hive! So cool to see so much life in the garden.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Glad you take the time to observe your pollinators! Slows us down-if only for a moment :)

[@jeanneamato8278]

Upstate NY garden of Eden. Mind blown. I love the idea of a frog pond. You can ever have too many habitats.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

We have several ponds on the land that are wonderful habitat for our amphibians, but we feel one closer to the house will give us more opportunities for observations and experiences with those amphibians. Here's hoping it works out!

[@cavumine]

Here in Zone 7, I often get a 2nd flush of blooms by dead-heading the Aesclepias (for example) and right now, they're blooming for a second time. Be on guard with the ground hogs, though - they will leave GIGANTIC holes in the ground, and I lost a wheel of my lawn mower to it (years ago). It could have been my ankle! Thanks for the tour

[@FlockFingerLakes]

May try dead-heading some when I'm back on the land! Thank you for the tip. And yes, the groundhog holes .... Definitely ankle breakers for sure!

[@carolfisch9750]

Great progress. So much work prior but now really the results give such beauty and joy. You should all feel so proud of the many changes you have already made and making way for new projects/changes. Congratulations.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

We are having so much joy planning and watching the daily progress and changes. So much fun to see the gardens change so dramatically throughout the year too!

[@l...]

9:56 #Carpenter_bee 🐝

[@natashafudge1056]

Absolutely stunning!

[@sjoerdmhh]

Love that! A wild guess on the "tall phlox", could it be an aster? Really wild guess though, just have a plant that superficially looks like that and I know you put in a lot of asters for the pollinators. For the frog pond I think it would be good to have some depth locally, because a very shallow pond can heat up and evaporate fast on hot sunny days. Although the frogs won't be too picky and you have some nice shade there already.

[@foodrecipesin]

Summer is beautiful. I'd love to have you come over and revamp my place😍😍💖💖

[@Tminus89]

My local plant nursery just had some new stock and I spotted Echinacea 'Fatal Attraction'. Could not resist!

[@timgarner1957]

Thanks for inviting us into your garden... the progress is amazing, and seeing your ideas coming to life....and the dress goes right along with the garden! Lol

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Thank you so much. The dress was made by a lovely designer in the uk who hand-dyed it. I love it so much. Non-fussy. I've had it for over a decade now!

[@acaciaiii]

You're a rain. Blessing and a keeper. Thank you for this update on Flock.

[@Crina-LudmilaCristeaAuthor]

I like your idea of uniting the two spots by planting white roses over an arch. It's going to brighten the spot a lot, I think, and make it like a portal. 🤗

[@OldManse09]

Paradise!

[@thomasmarley3646]

Thank you so much for sharing this and what you’re doing for the planet!

[@MonoiLuv]

Stunning. Beautiful video work capturing the garden

[@RHYTHMgirlMo]

Breathtaking!! You are MAGICAL!!

[@beckyisabell4324]

Such an amazing garden.

[@santiagomaltes3145]

I love this garden, its so beautiful and im do happy that you look so happy with it, i would like to be a pollinator there!

[@janaespiker3127]

Summer it is beautiful. I would love for you to come give my place a makeover.

[@l...]

What an ORANGEY sunset 🌅

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Sunrise! the sunrises here are always a nice orange-red :)

[@raselbx]

You and your flock partner(s) are royal! Beautiful!

[@whitercat2302]

May be put white metal victorian small😊 table and chairs

[@Stumpybear7640]

Aw, I thought it said frog garden. I cant lie, I'm kinda disappointed 😂 The more tours you do, the more I would love to watch. I'm here for it! Thanks, Summer xxx edit, oh good a frog pond is on it's way!🦈🐸

[@FlockFingerLakes]

You must have manifested a frog garden with your original comment!

[@Alwaysherethere]

Its just BEAUTIFUL!❤

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Thank you.

[@nadineweiler7747]

Lovely beautiful gardens,

[@42apprentice]

It’s looking wonderful. I love your path, the stone really picks up the hues of the lavender. What a joy it must all be x

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Thank you so much. Looking forward to that stone getting laid out onto the path.

[@plantwaif]

Gorgeous progress!

[@aleksandrashimanovich6345]

Real beauty! Can you make a video of animals, birds and pollinators that are living at flock?

[@FlockFingerLakes]

I think when we have more time. They tend to move around more than the plants, so we have to have more patience in sitting and filming them - and use our long range lens more and our close-up lens as well for the small critters.

[@bretfurgason7615]

Looks great. where do you find these plants? many are very illusive

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Just about everywhere. I try to target specific species and then I just find out who may carry it-whether as seeds, plugs, or full plants. We have GREAT local nurseries too that specialize in native plants. Plantsmen comes to mind.

[@mariyanadudley2312]

The Pineapple Lilly bulb needs to be lifted up. I am zone 6b in PA and I do it every fall.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Very good to know. Thanks!

[@annmariemcintyre6989]

Beautiful and inspiring ❤

[@limitlessends]

Always love your content

[@jcriverside]

Thanks!

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Thank you for the generous tip :)

[@King_of_carrot_flowers]

Thanks!

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Thank you for the lovely tip!

[@dasha200698]

Have you considered taking on a new member/co-living partner with market gargening experience and start the front-facing part of Flock? You guys would be a tourist destination for the area, just for native flower plantings, let alone the food and maybe eggs. An experienced market farmer/gardener would know how to set up plots and start producing food quickly. Opening the doors to the community is where you open the floodgates for the good you could bring to local and visiting people. Excited to see what you plans are for that.

[@FireflyOnTheMoon]

"You guys would be a tourist destination for the area" . Sounds like hell. Keep it quiet and for the wildlife

[@FlockFingerLakes]

At this stage, we're just really focused on practical stuff like getting the main building renovations done, since there are so many to do. And then I think our next steps after that is opening up some sort of ecological and horticultural creative residencies and visual arts creative residencies for folks. Still marinating that idea.

[@lgarden7086]

Absolutely beautiful!!! Thank you for sharing your happiness…it’s contagious. Our yard is a garden in the woods and always a work in progress. The previous owners put natural stones as borders with grass paths but the grass was never that great so we removed it years ago, and put down wood chips. It was fine and free but we want to replace it with stone. I was wondering if there’s a video (did I miss it) on your installation of the stone path, or if you have any advice? I don’t think we’ll be adding anything other than crushed stone to our paths. We’ll need to lift some of the original stones in the border and possibly reshape a bit. T🙏💚👩‍🌾🌻

[@FlockFingerLakes]

We haven't done a full video yet of installing the stone path, because it hasn't been fully installed yet. Basically we removed the lawn to get it down to hard-packed earth, then lay out some type of weed-suppresor fabric. Not necessarily for weeds, but so the mud doesn't come up through the path. Then crusher run stone gets placed in inch-by-inch and you compress it inch-by-inch. That lays the main foundation for the main stone to get placed on top. Then you get either stone dust or a sand and place that in between the stones (or bricks or pavers or whatever you use). ... Hope that helps!

[@lgarden7086]

@@FlockFingerLakes 🙏 It’s a lot of work, but it’ll be a beautiful pathway and save all that time mowing and weeding.

[@adrielathome]

THE DUCKS 😍😍😍 Have you interacted with them at all since being there?

[@FlockFingerLakes]

The Canada geese are quite aloof but they are fairly fearless. They keep their distance but I think also know we're not really a threat.

[@adrielathome]

@@FlockFingerLakes That shot of them walking in a line up was so precious 🙏

[@DragonflyenAmber]

Your gardens look amazing! I see your Canada geese are quite prolific too. (was that 8 goslings?)

[@FlockFingerLakes]

The ones that had babies here had 6 goslings, but they went to our neighbors pond to grow them out because they don't like our high grass. This was a new crew that temporarily came in to enjoy Half Lake and the orchard and there were 12 of them actually! It's just that I didn't let the video go on for the whole crew in the edit :)

[@DragonflyenAmber]

@@FlockFingerLakes Wow, that's quite the gaggle of geese. They must be enjoying your efforts as much as the rest of us. :)

[@rjaquaponics9266]

It blows my mind that you can remember all those plants names!

[@FlockFingerLakes]

I forgot a couple in there! haha.

[@MP-js5ro]

Like a dream in that lighting. Can’t wait until I have enough land to do a meadow😊

[@FlockFingerLakes]

The morning light is so nice. Orange and reds.

[@cosmiccatfish25]

❤❤❤

[@suekuly4723]

What a beautiful oasis you have made for all the wildlife.❤

[@FlockFingerLakes]

We love to witness the transformations daily. :)

[@savorit11]

Beautiful

[@AumsAcre]

Nice video!

[@PlantNative]

Stunning!

[@myapopova]

A frog and toad pond??? YES YES, PLEASE! :D

[@FlockFingerLakes]

most definitely! We are excited for the possibility of one.

[@Wendy-zl8kv]

I love it!

[@judymckerrow6720]

Thank you Ms. Summer. I was wondering what has been going on at Flock. Everything looks lovely. 🌺💚🙃 What has Sander been up to lately? 🌺💚🙃

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Sander has been busy renovating renovating renovating. We'll have more updates on that in the coming weeks :)

[@nicolejenkins-bauer2707]

#goals

[@jcriverside]

More of these, please! Greedy of me to ask, but they are always so beautiful and informative. The place looks spectacular, and blissful. The new polinator is beautiful (and exciting). Thank you both so much for this channel. Would you consider some early morning (or whenever) drone moments of zen videos as a regular thing? I bet you could get a composer in residence pretty easily.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

That's a question for Sander! I'll pass that on, since he's the drone operator :)

[@Tminus89]

Those stone slabs look beautiful, I hope they don't get slippery when wet. Looks that way to me, but I don't have experience with it

[@FlockFingerLakes]

We'll find out!

[@kootenayjoel]

I love how these garden tours are such an immersive experience with nature. The swallowtail caterpillars are SO cool!! Thanks for sharing this work of art with us again!

[@FlockFingerLakes]

You're most welcome!

[@alanFconrad]

Thank You for the wonderful Tour :)

[@FlockFingerLakes]

You're most welcome.

[@karrieharbart9266]

I could spend hours on a tour through your garden! So incredibly beautiful!

[@FlockFingerLakes]

I can easily spend hours filming. There is a lot to see in such a small space because of the intense diversity of plants in a small area. When we aren't crazy renovating and landscaping, we'll spend more time on a visual tour.

[@mountainfigsperennialfruits]

Inspirational. Great work. If you want to include a higher summer pollinator layer, and one that subsequently brings in songbirds, elderberry is spectacular. Would need to be managed and/or well-placed to minimize bushiness and to maximize extension, angular height.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Elderberry is wonderful. We have several native ones growing up around the lake. One is growing right up through a bush (in the middle of it), so it's a weird situation because I'm hesitant to chop either one!

[@mountainfigsperennialfruits]

​@@FlockFingerLakes The one bush protects the other, I imagine. In the wild, about the only place I see elderberry is in the midst of dense bramble patches, protected from deer, and bear. Also leaning out over water which offers some protection too. I see elderberry as the greatest berry, in part due to the unique nature of the summer blossoms and the seemingly invariably high quality of the wild (and propagated) fruit. The elders in northern PA ask where has all the elderberry gone that they picked in their youth? After all, they are still picking wild blueberry and brambles and some strawberries. I assume that when the states artificially inflated deer populations, the herds ate most all of the elderberry to the ground, aided by bear with whom they must be in sometimes intense food competition. Aronia met a similar fate, I suppose. Bramble thorns and vaccinium limbs are less palatable, presumably. Though it makes sense, it still seems striking that elderberry could survive the shrub-browsing mastodons more readily than deer inflated in population by state policy. In many ways, elderberry seems the berry most worth extensive re-population efforts. And brambles, juneberries, and wild blueberries where wiped out. Eastern prickly gooseberry too. Meanwhile, the best propagated varieties of gooseberries and their close relative currants seem most worth introduction, though that's probably true of the best propagated varieties of most fruits and nuts, including aronia. Regardless, diverse and "best" selections will surely vary by situation and location. But as far as elderberry goes, there's something unusually impressive about a robust and flavorful, high-quality, high-production berry that blossoms - and beautifully at that - uniquely in summer rather than spring, let alone late winter. Can't plant enough of it. Its virtual disappearance in many places is felt as a great loss.

[@jrdnnss]

summer you’re so ethereal the dress is sooo beautiful the way the sunset shines through it you’re like a walking painting 😭💚 the garden is so peaceful, sondor really capture the essence of tranquility. very inspiring

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Thank you for that nice compliment. The dress is one made by a designer in the UK who hand-dyed it. It's such an easy, airy, dress to wear. Not complicated at all!

[@raselbx]

I agree

[@icare6076]

I love listening to you give tours of your gardens. Thank you.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

You're most welcome. Glad you're enjoying them.

[@slavicadimcevski9585]

Thanks

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Thank you for the nice tip.

[@cefcat5733]

Yes, you really have changed the BG rating to a... PG rating. The hard work almost doesn't show, as the new view is so fairytale - like. Only empathic landscape magicians could have accomplished so much. Mom Nature finally got some time off and comes home to be pleasantly surprised. She for sure has given you her blessing.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Such a sweet comment.