I hope he is okay. No way to know unless we hear from him. I just sent him a c-mail.

valleylynn said:I hope he is okay. No way to know unless we hear from him. I just sent him a c-mail.

sorry all for not posting. I bought a webstore in November and it's been keeping me busy (and out of the garden...) But spring is here and I"m ready to take on the backyard once again. Here is the response I sent Lynn re: Buddha
Hey Lynn
I was waiting for the real winter to stop before I added more plants to it. I just got another 50 or so plants from the new owner at North Hills Nursery. She took over during the fall and does just as great a job as John did with plants. I just got the boxes last week full of beautiful healthy mother and plenty of babies in each bag. Once I add these to Buddha, I'll take another photo and add it to the site. Some plants on Buddha didn't survive the winter or the squirrels knocked them off. Expected some of that. The material inside the topiary shrank a bit too. Will figure out how to bulk it back up since the Sempers don't grow very fast to cover all the chicken wire. I knew when I started this, it was going to be at least 2 maybe 3 seasons for it to totally fill in. I could of bought a million plants and just covered it, but my goal was to let the Sempers do their thing and fill and spread like they do normally to fill in a gap or space. I have started a new succulent project which I will also add to the site with photos. I am taking salvage materials, shutters and vent pipe flashing and covering an entire outer wall of my greenhouse with all the pieces, and planting succenlents/Sempers inside the pieces. The shutter alone took 30 plants. Once it's done, it'll be virtually wall to wall succulents inside all the salvage items. It's already pretty amazing and I've only got 4 pieces on the wall. It's a ongoing art/garden project.
I will upload a few pics by next weekend. thanks for asking
Den

YEAH!!! Den is back. I can't wait to see the new photos of Buddha and the new project.

Yes, Martha is great and I love ordering from her.

Good to hear from you Den. You sure take on some major projects! I'm looking forward to seeing pictures too!

Sent a photo of wall project on the Living Wall thread. I have a new fancy digital camera and it's has an amazing Macro lens. The problem is that I can't share the photos unless I export them into another folder with the software into much smaller format since the original pixel size is poster size. LOL. That being says, I'll shoot some shots of Buddha after I install the new batch from NH. I was waiting to build his crossed legs until the first seaon came and went, to see how much growth and how many I need to replace. His final resting place in garden is next to the pond that is being built this summer. I built him on a plywood platform that us easily picked up by two people to move. As I said in previous post, I built him with the thought ut would take 2 or 3, possibly 4 growing seasons to totally fill in.

It will be fun to see the difference from last year Den. Have they started making offsets yet?

Funny you asked about offsets. I was out planting the new order from NHN (not into the Buddha, but the greenhouse wall) and was watering the Buddha with a good long slow soak. I noticed that many of them had offsets, but the ones that looked like they struggled over the winter, were not sending out babies. I really thing this will take at least 3 seasons to come to it's full fruition. I will take photos this weekend when I can get the right light and really look at what I need to do next. I will clip open the wire on the back (where I have not planted any semps yet) and restuff with sphaghum, and make the wire below some of the plants. Right now many of the plants are under the wire and eventually will make their way over the wire, but want to make sure there is plenty of material for them to grow from. It's a work in progress for sure, but in the long run, it''s going to be absolutely amazing. There must be over 200 plants on their now and that is only his head, chest and arms. Half the head and the back needs to be filled in, the back is empty and I have to make the legs now that I see how everything grew and stabilized over the winter. I'll keep the group up to date now that I have more time for garden (and well, more motivated now that the sun is shining on my shoulders as I work) I've already got my pre summer tan, even from the little sunlight San Francisco has gotten so far.
Happiest when gardening in the 80 sun lit day, hands in dirt, and birds singing. Content.

The spring sunshine is so good for our soul. : )
That's how I felt today out working in the yard. It was wonderful.

I think your right Den, going to be a long term project for sure. This year should show a huge change by the end of June in it's progress. I am so happy I get to see it happen. Thank you so much Den for allowing us to share your adventure.