Congratulations on your win!  Your Raincoat is the coolest!!!!!

A fabulous neighbor came by today (it was sunny!) and took a few new snaps.'














Too late tonight for details but you can see some stuff more clearly and see other things that are in the works.

I'm not quite complete in my work out there in the garden. I figure four more years (or thereabouts). When it's finished I'm hoping each of the little mini-garden's that represent the CandyLand theme (Hearts, Gingerbread, Peppermint, Chocolate, etc) will have something in them that stimulates all five senses. Sight, Sound, Taste, Smell, Touch. 

The sight part was easy. Just a lot of cool flowers and some arts and crafts. I've been picking those up at a local thrift store or five. I'd like to get a kindergarten involved to help make some as well.

Slowly, slowly I've been picking out things that make a unique sound for each of the gardens.

Smell should come naturally but I have been trying to find things (in conjunction with the taste part) that show off each garden's theme -squishing some of the plants is okay in this garden. I even have particular areas where you're supposed to step so that the aroma wafts up.

Taste has been fun! Lemon Thyme, Lemon Balm. Yep, I have a whole chocolate theme going on in the water area that the bridge goes over. Right now the chocolate mint is plentiful. I've been keeping a extra-large container near the front because so many neighbors and friends want to take it home with them.

Touch is harder, hopefully more ideas will come with time. At this point I'm just hoping that it "touches the heart" of the visitor.

I wanted to recap on a couple questions asked:

When will I be done...  :   I fear never.
  I'd said I had a three to five year plan. We're well into year one now so expect more changes!

Do I have many gawkers...  : Not yet, you can be the first, come to Seattle then head north to the foothills of the Cascades. I'll buy you a coke.

Life-size game play...  : Bring it!
I'm in! The kids I work with even made Halloween costumes last October, they'd need some modifications but that's on the list of things to do in the next three to five years.

Is there a way to grow candy on the trees...  : I can't think of one? Can you? I am doing moss testing trials to try to figure out how to make everything look green, cut down on weeds, and not have to mow or edge. So far Irish Moss is my favorite. I've tried Scottish too and New Zealand scrub and serveral varieties of thyme. I spray milk on the moss to make it grow, <pathetic girl face emoticon>.

Lastly (and sorry if I forgot any questions)...  : Did you know Universal Pictures wants to make a movie of CandyLand? It's supposed to be released next year. I don't know much but they have hired the guy who wrote Tropic Thunder to write the screen play and the fella who directed Enchanted with Amy Adams to direct it. In my mind, I've cast it. What do you think of these actors:  Peppermint: Jeff Goldblum; Grandma Nutty: Bette Midler; Lord Licorice: John Travolta (or and my fav: Stephen Colbert); Lolly: Zooy Deschanel; Princess Frostline: Mariska Hagerty; Gingerbread: Edward Norton (or Billy Bob Thorton); Gloppy: Tina Fey (no offence I just love her work and think she could make it a big role); Jolly: Kathy Bates; King Kandy: Frank Caliendo; and then there’s the garden’s I’ve added on my own: Flame: Bill Murray; Lemon: Steve Martin; Hearts: Jerry Seinfeld; CandyCorn: Cher; Prehistoric: Christopher Lloyd. Any other ideas?

I know it's kind of last minute, but I was able to transfer a video clip from my phone to YouTube. It's an action shot of the garden -ha ha. But it does show the chief fertilizing contractor(s). They insisted on their 15 minutes of fame.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf6ohkLXfWY

I'm just doing it for fun. I barely know a weed from a flower. I just wanted to have a reason to get outside and do something that was more defining than writing documents for Tech every day.

We all need to let our inner-child out, right?

You all say such nice things. THANK YOU.

I had to read up on the etiquette rules but I think I can give you the garden Facebook site here if you want to see the making of the garden and add thoughts for improvements. It needs friends!

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001021056785#!/profile.php?id=100001021056785&ref=ts

(I hope I got that link right. If not search for Kan-Dee Corner --- and remember the hyphen between Kan-Dee.)

These are mostly construction pictures, nothing really glamorous.

Thank you all again for the really heartfelt comments.

I just wandered out and measured it. You're right, it is big-ish. It's 3456 sq feet for the whole garden footprint.
64' x 54'.
The little garden shed is just 8' x 8' but big enough I think.

It took way too much time and conviced everyone in my neighborhood that the crazy person next door really was [crazy]. I worked on it from August to November, took the winter off, and then hit it again in late March. so about seven months.

Some friends started helping me work the soil in July and then I skeched out the plan with twine on the ground in August. Through the rest of the summer I hand-hauled in 8 tons of gravel and 4 tons of crushed glass (cullet) for the 250' linear windy, mazy path. Then there were the 3,000 spring/summer bulbs I planted sometimes at 4:30 am and sometimes up to mid-night when I got home from my full time job.

Mostly I did this because I didn't want to live my life indoors stuck in front of a computer. It worked; I got to go outside and play!

Here are a couple more pictures of the 'work-in-progress'.

I call it Kan-Dee Corner.

---The challenge said "you must promise to try extra hard to create a ridiculously awesome entry"---

It was an idea that had been brewing in my head since I was three years old and wished pretend was real and life was magic.

Now I'm old enough to make my own magic. I worked on this last summer (took the winter off) and am now back at it.

I need to thank so many people for their ideas and input and support. My neighbors have been amazing!




This is one of three boards for the CandyLand game. I took pieces parts of each and then added in my own themes to create the 17 little micro-gardens in the area.



Each little micro garden matches the board game (more or less). They have a theme, smell, color and -where I could a taste made with interspersing herbs (lemon balm in the yellow garden), Licorice in the purple one, etc.




Helps give the full view of how close I got to my "pattern". Most of this work I did myself but the beautiful garden shed was made by one of my skilled and gifted neighbors. The glass came from a 70 year old church being torn down and demolished.

Fun! and a little Orwellian; I can see a whole animal farm series in this!