I don't know yet whether I'm going to give up on this space entirely; it makes a good archival sort of look-see. But it's so long, and such a monster to edit. I could perhaps break it up into different pages, but I think the online gallery will take care of those needs: you can search by "dogwood bed" or "patio" or even "rose" or "heuchera" and see everything that meets that criteria. It's automatically organized by date, so eventually it too will have an archival function. I do think, though, that I'm probably not going to mess with this page for a while (giving the others their fair chance), so if you have it bookmarked, you'd better bookmark this instead.
Here's how the house looked when we bought it: this is a particularly good photo of it, it looked worse in person. Notice how the bushes cover half the kitchen windows. Not only did they leave little rootlets in anything they touched (shutters, trim, screens, everything) but they were just infested with this nasty little bug - Euonymus Scale - that makes tattered, linty, ragged nests of white fuzz everywhere. Very nasty to look out on, and so indigenous to the bush that they named the bug after it!
|
Here's the walk up to the front doors. The bushes were unhealthy and an eyesore - much too big for where they'd been put! And they prevented light from falling on the rest of the garden bed.
|
So this is the first step in my landscaping. Bushes almost gone! Light in the kitchen! A million little euonymus scale flying in my eyes, hair, into my clothes and mouth as I chopped away - yuck! (click to enlarge)
|
In place of the nasty bushes, flowering perennials. In this picture I haven't yet gotten rid of the junipers or moved the azaleas, but that's coming. Here's a closer view:
|
9-04: And a long shot! I am so proud of myself! (my neighbors have started complimenting me by this point -grin-)
|
2-25-05: Here's a view of the front walk just after we had the junipers ripped out and the new little plants put in. They look so tiny! I will just have to post more pics once they've filled out a bit. (click to enlarge)
|
3-23-05: My bulbs are coming up, slowly but surely...(click to enlarge)
|
4-18-05: The front with all the bulbs blooming (click to enlarge):
|
4-22-05: A view of the house from the north:
|
A view of the house from the south:
|
The Daydream tulips, daffodils, grape hyacinths, and itty bitty peony...click for a larger view!
|
An El Nino tulip
|
The irises were just lovely when they came up:
|
5-13-05: The whole front garden is growing so fast it feels like I'm losing control! (click to enlarge)
|
9-16-05: The front garden exploded this year, since it was the second year for most of the perennials. The combination of black-eyed-susans and Victoria salvia is just great! Unfortunately the crocosmia only lasted about two weeks - it was supposed to add a bright splash of red to the display. And one of my azaleas died, so next year it will be substituted with a "Heritage" Austin rose - the most amazingly fragrant rose I have ever smelled! I'm not overjoyed about the very pink color, but it's worth it for the scent - and it'll be right in front of the kitchen windows, so we can open them whenever we want a whiff!
|
4-2-06: The daffodils and hyacinths are in bloom again:
|
4-2-06: I wish this was a better picture. The front looks really good right now, with all the daffodils. The cherry blossoms only lasted one day, because yesterday was so breezy it took most of them right off! Still, you get the idea. The tree is ringed with daffodils all swelling with buds, but you can only see one open. Too bad you can't see the pansies or violets in the background.
|
4-24-06: The azaleas are just starting to bloom. The grass is just barely greening up (time to fertilize!), and the peony buds are just about to burst open. All the daffodils and tulips are finished, but three irises have opened up.
|
4-24-06: A closer view of the kitchen window bed. Nothing much blooming yet...
|
|
Here's what it looked like when we bought it... just grass. And that, mostly dead and weed-infested.
|
This is the plan I came up with after a few months of work. Sorry it's hard to read - it's drawn on a sheet of tracing paper over graph paper so I can get all the dimensions correct. Didn't scan too well. : /
The garden's gonna have a patio (hopefully flagstone) shaded by a grape arbor, and gracefully surrounded by several perennial beds. I like having some grass for contrast and visual space, but perennials are my favorite so there's more space for them. The patio is just big enough for entertaining couples or small groups, about 10 X 11.
|
Here's a view from the common area that will give you a better idea of what the whole yard looks like. I've already started work on the lower left-hand quadrant of my plan, installing the retaining wall. I've also begun marking off the different flower beds with stakes - if you click to see the larger image, you can just barely see them!
|
Here's another view from the common area after I got the two largest beds broken in in the back (click for larger view):
|
And another view, taken from the cement stoop towards the common area: (click for larger view)
|
4-22-05: Finally, a view of the back with the plants in! (Most of them anyway. You can even see the pile of bricks and stone that will become the patio ... hopefully before May 21 when his parents come... -grin-)
|
5-12-05: Josh eating breakfast on the patio a couple days after we finished it: (click to enlarge)
|
California-style dinner with Lloyd Ballinger on the patio, with fresh flowers and good wine: (click to enlarge)
|
This was our only souvenir from Cancun - I carried it all the way through the airport, but it was so worth it! (click to enlarge)
|
3-19-06: The arbor is finished! I did the whole thing all by myself! I can't wait to see the roses (Ginger Syllabub and Gloire de Dijon) climbing over it - they'll be shipped tomorrow and should get here sometime next week!
|
4-2-06: This was the view out the back window today... quite a difference from the first picture in this section, but just you wait until everything starts blooming!
|
4-26-04: I'm standing right between the two lowest birches to take this picture. The dogwood and lilac are both covered in blooms!
|
|
|
The "pond" is really a large terracotta pot. I plan to make a funny clay face that will "spit" water into it from one of the two ivy-covered trellises lining the corner behind it. Because of the sweetgum tree (the hole along the side of the bed) this is a full- to partial-shade bed, so I'm surrounding the "pond" with Lady ferns and hostas (grown from my own seed hopefully), and the foot of the tree will be scattered with a grouping of lily-of-the-valley! The downspout (bottom left) will be cloaked in two more large ferns.
|
Here's a pic of the southeast bed, taken from the cement stoop:
|
This is a closer picture of the wall. It only needs a block and a half to be finished - I'm gonna put those in tomorrow (2-22)!
|
Yay, I got it filled in with dirt! (Actually I used the torn-up sod from the broken beds, turned upside-down. As soon as the grass decays, it'll make great compost throughout the bed!)
|
3-23-05: The southeast bed has been filled and mulched, and the trellises look great in the corner where the pond will sit eventually. (click to enlarge)
|
4-22-05: The southeast bed planted: I moved the trellises to the other side to hide the downspout and to be closer to the electrical outlet (you need water to run a fountain, duh! -laugh-) I planted huge elephant ears in the corner where the fountain would have been, but they'll take a while to come up. (click to enlarge)
|
The plants are getting bigger and bigger in the shade bed - the bleeding heart is just about taking over! The nasturtiums are just poking up along the edge of the patio, and soon will get tall enough to tumble over the edge with all their bright flowers. I don't think you can see the bird bath here, but it's a hammered copper dish hanging from a tree branch just over the columbine.(click to enlarge)
|
And here's the beginnings of our fountain, a beautifully glazed blue terracotta pot with a little pump in the bottom. I finally found a use for all those beautiful bright red and yellow stones I kept collecting; some will go into the pot around or below the plants, and some will be piled around the base of the pot like a mini-rock-garden. There's a white clematis climbing up behind the fountain, and a hosta "So sweet" (very fragrant) in front of it. Unfortunately, you can also see the pile of stones I had to tear up when we put the patio down - what do I do with them now?! (click to enlarge)
|
9-16-05: I just love the nasturtiums I put in, and the way they spill over the edge of the patio - they're so colorful! The plants in this bed seem to do especially well because of the extra shade they get: these summers sure are brutal.
|
Here's a picture of the fountain setup. I love the combination of foliage around it; small-leaved veronica and agastache with broad-leaved, honeysuckle-smelling "SoSweet" hosta. I even had a little frog (not the ubiquitous ground toads, but a real frog!) living in the pond for a long time, till a neighbor's cat ate him! -pout- I have yet to throw a fountain head for the pond, so right now it's still just a black tube, but it's fairly well masked by the pond plant.
|
4-24-06: Everything's coming along... I planted a maidenhair fern to the right of the tree. In front of the post, you can see the newest rose, along with its delphinium and heuchera companions.
|
5-31-06: The shade bed by the tree: No buds on the hydrangea yet, but the hostas are happy. The violets are still putting out a couple blooms here and there.
|
And by the fountain. The heuchera is in full bloom, and the lilies are rocketing. There's the dwarf lemon in the pot I made for it, and the clematis is blooming behind it.
|
|
This area is tough, since it's where the trash can and air conditioner are. Unfortunately, the living room looks right out on these two beauties. :/ I'm trying my best to cover them up; I'm going to plant a clematis that will climb a trellis and mask the air conditioner; tuberoses will be planted at the base for a sweet smell whenever we open the sliding doors.
|
To the left of the trash can for a few feet is my vegetable patch; I'm going to try to train tomatoes and squashes up trellises against the fence, and plant herbs and bell peppers at their bases.
|
|
Finally, I got the vegetable bed broken in, filled with compost and fertilizer, and edged! I didn't bother taking a picture though, because until I actually get the vegetables in it's probably just going to keep looking like, well, dirt next to a trash can. -laugh-
|
Okay, I changed my mind, here's a picture - you can barely see the two trellises side by side that will support the tomatoes and butternut squashes.
|
4-22-05: All the veggie seedlings, sitting and waiting to be placed as soon as the patio is in:
|
5-13-05: The veggies are getting bigger, slowly but surely. You can see my tomatoes interspersed with the butternut squash... the beans aren't showing their faces yet, but they'll fill in the empty space next to the patio. (click to enlarge)
|
9-16-05: Here are all my veggies! Hm, four tomatoes and 2 butternut squash in a space about 5' x 3'... perhaps I overdid it a little, ya think? -laugh- But they're growing in pretty much pure compost, and seem to be thriving - the caterpillars seem to find them juicy enough! -grumble-
|
Here's a pic of the air conditioner: only one of the tuberoses bloomed, and obviously the morning glory didn't cover as well as I'd hoped it would, so I might have to think up something different for next year... or maybe the extra light shade the arbor will provide will be enough to keep the morning glory from burning in the sun. Still, it's nicer than looking at the naked air conditioner!
|
This area behind the shed is going to be (eventually, probably long after we leave) taken up by a lilac - these get 15' tall and 6-10' wide. That's good since most of that space is not easily visible from other places in the yard, so the bulk of the plant will be hidden but a good foot or two of its blossoming branches will be visible - and smellable!
|
In front of the lilac I'll plant tall Caesar's Brother irises (5' tall!) and a false indigo; those blues will be contrasted by the yellows of three black-eyed susans, a small bed of nasturtiums, and some vibrant red crocosmia.
|
This bed was particularly fun to break in, despite having to race against a threatening snowstorm. At least I didn't keep hacking up against random wires that might or might not electrocute me! -laugh- The mulch is covering 15 teeny brodaiea bulbs.
|
3-23-05: I got the azalea (no idea which kind/what it's named) and lilac (President Grevy) planted! Soon the bearded irises will go just behind the azalea next to the corner of the shed, so we can see them from the living room. As soon as it stops raining and I can actually get out there. -grin-
(click to enlarge)
|
4-22-05: The southwest bed planted:
|
6-4-05: You can see one of the delphiniums half-bloomed, and the last of the variegated iris. Most of the sword-like foliage is gladiolas, but some is bearded iris, and in front of those are coreopsis, yarrow, and false indigo, with the lilac bush behind them all. (click to enlarge)
|
9-16-05: Sorry about the long grass! Maybe in October I'll take more pictures after I mow the lawn. -laugh- This bed is pretty well played out for the year: a little more show from the black-eyed-susans, and the salvia are still present, but since it (like the rest of the garden) is a first-year bed, I don't expect too much showing this year. Neither the lilac nor the baptisia nor the crocosmia even deigned to form a bud! The echinacea did pretty well, but they were fodder for the japanese beetles, so we didn't get too much of a show... and the oriental poppies and deliphiniums died (to rain and moles respectively), leaving me with some holes to fill. What to get, what to get? I know, a terrier to get those dang moles!
|
4-24-06: The lilac has finally bloomed!
|
The focal point in this bed is going to be the dogwood; but it'll take years for it to get to mature size and again, we'll probably never see it that large. The one I'm ordering is going to be about 2" tall! (then again, the redbud in the front grew 6' in a summer, so you never know!)
|
The rose will be "Just Joey" and I'm looking forward to that evergreen wiegala in the back, not to mention the border of delicious alpine strawberries... :)
|
We got the dogwood in! Or rather, we got a new one ... we put the previous 1' tall one in the common area and broke down and got a $60 one from behnke's nursery. It looks gorgeous, like the garden is already established. I'm so pleased! I planted paperwhites all around it. The tip of the bed, with the mulch on it, has little baby Stella D'Oro daylilies (5) and 20 blue and yellow iris bulbs. (click for larger view)
|
4-22-05: The northwest bed planted, click to enlarge:
|
This picture was taken in the middle of may, and already at the beginning of June it looks much different. Here you can see one of the iceland poppies in bloom (now there are 4), and a couple of the first rose blooms (now there are 9). The delphiniums seem to love it next to the fence, though I don't think the daylilies (left-hand side) are going to bloom this year. I'm still waiting for all the bachelor buttons I planted to get taller than 1". (click to enlarge)
|
9-16-05: Long grass - I assure you it looks better when trimmed up. -laugh- The japanese beetles were not kind to this bed, and neither were the moles. -grumble- Nonetheless, my little rose was enthusiastic about putting out new blooms, even if most of those lasted only a day and were very small. I've heard roses take 3 years to establish, so I'll let her be for now. I just love the pink gaura - when the "Champagne Bubbles" poppies were blooming (they were where that gap is now) they made such a lovely combination! The colors of both the purple phlox (center) and the pinks (right) were mislabeled, but I don't know that I'll get rid of them just yet.
|
4-24-06: The dogwood has absolutely covered itself in pure white blooms the size of my hand. Can you see the terracotta pots that I made, hiding among the plants? Two hold blueberries, one marigolds, and another one Oriental Poppies.
|
5-31-06: It's starting to look like a cottage garden!
|
home