Beginner Gardening: My yard, almost done with landscaping, 2 by jdlcav

jdlcav wrote:
In the early summer, I got tired of looking at the edge of our yard, which had become overgrown with weedy sucker trees and creeper/smilax vines. So, I lopped all of the trees down (almost all of them were smaller than 2", so a lopper worked just fine), dug out the roots, took out the trunks with a pick-axe and talon shovel, roto-tilled the soil, punched through the hard-pan in a few places, mixed in compost and some "Penetrate," and dug out the new vine roots after they started coming in.

After that, I planted a bunch of stuff. I could not have told you the difference between a camellia and a coneflower before I started this, so everything was, and still is, new. I have read dozens of books on plants, landscaping and gardening over the last six months and I realize that I know hardly anything.

I am almost done with the initial landscaping, so I have attached the photos below. I left the large trees in place and planted six new small trees (Jap. coral bark and paperbark maples, chaste tree, redbud, and two fringe trees), about thirty shrubs, 90 or so perennials, and about 500 bulbs. I finished the fence and am also almost done with the edging and path (biggest lesson to date - stone is extremely expensive). My hope is that most of these will live so that next summer I mostly have to add rather than replace. It ain't perfect, I am sure, but my more modest goal is for my wife and kids to have a special place to enjoy.

Thanks again for the guidance you have provided me to date, both in direct response to the questions I have asked and in response to the questions of others. I have thousands more, but I will only ask a few at a time.

j