I hope some of you have before pictures of your gardens.
I love to see the transitions in a landscape.
Even though not all changes are in a shady garden, lets post what we have
Mine are only 2 years old, I sure wish I had taken pictures when we first moved in.
Here are some of mine.
This was the end of the garden on the border of neighbors.
We all know ,gardens never end.
This is the DayLily garden last summer July 15,2008
this year July 16 nearly the same area
Wow! Beautiful and so much color! That's one thing I'm missing, "color". There's so much shade here it's tough to match what you've created. I have one large area that I'll be working on in the next few years which WILL be a sunny garden so I'll look forward to seeing photos of everyone's gardens to borrow ideas :)
Ditto, rcn. ge, I'm envious of your coneflowers and I like that shade of yellow - what is that plant?. Oh, I can grow them but with the shade, they're pretty wimpy, leggy plants with faded colors. The 'White Swan' tends to do a little better because it's shorter. BTW, I saw that you posted plant file on Campanula poscharskyana - one of my favorites. It's my main edging plant along the sidewalks. I started with an no-name plant which I've divided like crazy over the years and then acquired 'E.H. Frost' (a white variety) and 'Blue Waterfall'. Ahem - returning to topic - I'll see if I can find old photos (yes, real photography paper) of my befores.
Cindy!
The yellow flowers are FataMorganas lilies I planted in May of that year.
Not being a hip gardener I just bought plants and bulbs for places I thought theyn would grow.
I didnt realize the bulbs would bloom that year but later.
The bloomed on time this year. mid June and July.
Here they are this year before the echies fully bloomed.
Before: October 27 2007
Doug
After: August 20 2009
Doug
Before: July 27 2008
GREAT PX Doug
August 20 2009
Really nice stone retaining wall.
Ahhhhh yes the labor
That's why I'm doing it now. In about 10 years I probably won't be able to do all that heavy lifting just sit back enjoy all the fruits of my labor!
This one's from June last year.
Doug
And this one is from a week ago.
Your doing a fantastic job.
Beautiful Doug! I am SO envious of your rocks, an "easy" supply of rocks for my gardens is non-existent here :( After years of living within a stone's throw from a gravel pit with an endless supply of rocks for my gardens in Maine, I'm frustrated and too cheap to buy them! I finally found a pretty good source along one of the creeks on our property but I have to "jump" a barbed wire fence, collect the rocks, struggle to get them over the fence, then walk them up a slope to load in the van to take back to the house for placement in the gardens :( But they're free! LOL My rock collecting journeys last spring stopped when the weather starting getting warmer... the brush on the slope gets pretty thick and the critters who have been hibernating along the creek start showing up! I'll be back there though this winter and stockpiling more rocks to replace those I've borrowed from spots in the garden this summer!
I'm running out of time this morning but I'll get some "before-after" photos to share tomorrow :)
How wonderful to have a natural source of rocks/stone. Here, field stone will occasionally show up during farming or construction but rarely in these woods. If I could only make an equivalent with clay... We've been envisioning a new retaining wall to replace the 20+ year old railroad ties that came with the house. They're pretty much hollow and make good homes for the chipmunks. That would involve those huge blocks which are beyond my physical ability. I can handle the small ones (still).
I can handle the small ones (still).
nice job on the wall
I'll start posting my "changes" with this spring's project. We planted this Hosta border in May of 1999 and it was absolutely gorgeous until about 3 years ago. As we continued to work in other areas of the landscape, the Hostas suffered from neglect, lack of water (two years of severe drought) and the mole/vole population explosion. One by one they either disappeared totally or looked really sad :(
Nice selection
oops, that red "someone's posted" always jolts me! LOL Thanks ge, I really miss my rocks :(
So...it's March and still a little too brisk to be working in the soil but I started thinking about what I could do in this area for a new look! This is basically what I started with - the head of the path where the Hostas used to live...a ton of Bamboo roots to remove and I will FINALLY get that lamp post straightened :) LOL
The Hostas I want to plant are all dormant but I want to make sure my selections "work" so I play around with Photoshop and this is what my "vision" looks like!
I am looking for a good hosta grower. I have bought from Hallsons in Michigan but am interested in a couple of giants for this area.
I would plan them for as far back in this view as I could get.That would put them at the border of my neighbors property which is the lawn you see at the top of the photo
I decided the path needed some rocks to define the edges and I start collecting from the creek. Now I'm ready to start and I got that lamp post straightened!
But the weather takes a turn and the soil's still too cold to plant :( So my design takes a new curve and I decided to collect more rocks to build steps on the slope!
O also like the definition od edges.
Rocks look great
The planting commenced and by May the head of the path is looking a little different :)
The lamp post with new Hostas.
Continuing around the curve of the path...
wonderful,what are the tallest plants in there that look like sticks from this view
My mind tends to stray while I'm working and one thing led to another and I incorporated a small pond into the design.
A closer look at the pond...
And finally the steps are planted! I've added a few more plants since these photos were taken and I've still got more planting to do in the area but I'll be back at it this fall or early next spring...once I collect more rocks :)
ge, that's my Black Bamboo "forest" which gave me fits while working this area. It's invaded this whole area but I'm trying to contain it and knock it back hard!
Love the black bamboo. I've been intrigued with bamboo ever since a visit to Cheekwood Gardens in Nashville - the path through the bamboo grove was quite entrancing. Tried growing a variety in a pot once (due to hardiness issues) but it did poorly. How did you construct your pond? Do you have to worry about mosquitoes there? And the rock-hauling - omg.
ge - I used to buy Hostas from Shady Oaks until they went wholesale. :( I don't buy quite so many Hosta now as I used to due to space limitatons although I do buy a few locally every year - especially the yellow ones which I'm now stuck on. They show up so much better in my shade.
Got some old "before" photos scanned last night and just have to find the right "afters" to go with. DH has narrowed down the new camera options to 2 so hopefully I'll be able to better document things in the future.
Debbie that is beautiful.
Doug
I don't do a lot of photo documentation so I really had to scrounge for "before" and "after" shots (not that the "afters" are all that great). I don't have any photos going back to the very beginning before any work was started though. So here goes.
My lower garden, salvaged from garbage (previous owners) and poison ivy, backing up on wooded wetlands, sits about 10 ft down from backyard.
