Woodland garden

Side view. Path loops around the whole area.

Love the backlighting on the Blue Umbrellas Hosta.

Last one of the woodland area.

This was the original "shade garden" but due to two lost trees it became Cheryl's sun garden.

The front beds along the sidewalk only get morning sun so mainly shade loving plants are in there.

Looks like everything was in perfect shape for the garden tour. Liking the blue bench as well.

Is that your property, Doug?? OMG, how I would love to do that to our place! I live on a wooded hillside that is choked with japanese honeysuckle.

Doug,
I am speechless. That is a gorgeous project! It should be in a garden magazine. I know how hard you worked. You must be awfully proud.I sure would be! Beautiful, just beautiful!!

I'm in awe of what you've accomplished! I've been following this project all along and I love to look at "before/after" photos. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't this the same slope and JUST a year ago? http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=6526860 Amazing! Aside from the "rock envy" I love what you've created and it's no wonder your gardens were the talk of the town after the tour :)

KyWoods, mine was covered in poison ivy until late last summer when the project was started. Yes this has all been done in less than 10 months, all the path and rock work, all the planting and mulching. During the tour everyone said what a lot of work it was and I just replied that it's not work if you enjoy it! They kept asking how many YEARS it took me to complete it and I just laughed at their expressions when I told them how new it actually was. Here's another pic of the before looking between the pine trees leading into the woodland area

Debbie, yes that's the same slope, only a little more sparse! Praise from you means a lot to me considering the pics I’ve seen of your gardens. I WILL see them in person.

Judy, thank you for the compliments! Yes I am quite proud of it and love showing it off. The Garden Tour group has already said they want to come back in a few years when it matures.

Cindy, yes I love the blue bench also. The hardest thing about the whole project was finding new places to sit, relax and just enjoy the view while constructing it. Every time I'd complete a section, I'd find a new favorite place to sit!!!

Doug

I got a little more done last year than the hillside. Built the greenhouse/potting shed in June/July too.

Doug

Beautiful! How did you go about removing all the poison ivy? That sounds very scary to me!

Spectracide Brush Killer and bare handed pulling it up! I very rarely get a rash from it.

Wow, you must be tough!

Just lucky... My neighbor and one of my sons could get it by walking by it!!

nice gardens Doug

Doug, looks great. I know what a lot of work it represents,
but I know what you mean about not really work when you enjoy it!

I made paths through my woodland and lined the paths with a thick layer of woodchips,
like in your pictures. I had a bunch of trees thinned a few years ago to let more light in,
so had them save me the chips.
I recall spreading over 200 wheelbarrows of chips along the paths over the winter.
But as you know, wood chips break down over time, so now my paths have the best soil in my yard!
When I run into mucky soil in the garden, it's awfully tempting to plant the path!
I haven't replenished the woodchips yet - I keep meaning to,
but there always seem to be other priorities.
I have heard people who clear their breaking-down chips from the paths into the garden at end of season, and replenish. But I never seem to have the energy at the end of the season!

I'll be interested to see how your woodland garden progresses. Again, it looks great!

Unfortunately, once you get sensitized to poison ivy,
you'll tend to develop the rash more and more easily with subsequent exposures.

PI! Ugh. Had my first case in the winter we moved in, pulling leafless roots and stems from my future lower garden during a January thaw. Always on the lookout for it here as there are new seedlings every year. Have to wear gloves all the time while gardening.

Wee, as I told RCN, coming from you with one of the nicest gardens I've seen the praise means a lot to me!

Debbie, I look at nature and see things scattered about not crammed together and that's how I try to plant. I know it will mature into something a little tighter in a few years but for now I'm fine with it. (Except for the wild ginger and wild hydrangeas I have sitting in water waiting to be put in the ground up there somewhere...) I still have areas around the outside fringes that are prime for adding to so I can still expand. But for the moment it's a little break from the tour and the heat before I start on a bridge across the gully down below and an Asian style garden adjacent to the woodland area with a JM already planted to celebrate our 20th anniversary back in April.

Doug

The bridge will be across the gully where you see the the rocks between the chips on either end of the path. Still haven't decided if I'm gonna do a waterfall or just create a dry streambed there. It gets a lot of water thru there in heavy rains so I'm leaning towards the dry.

A bridge with w/ an asian garden??? I can't stand it !! Where do you find the time, energy, etc.. ?
I'm busy enough trying to keep weeds at bay, rescue plants from all sorts of other nefarious varmints,
not to mention mulching, watering, pruning ... and sqeezing it all into weekends, of course.

I'd love to have an asian garden...
I'll have to rely on yours, since I don't see it materializing anytime soon in my yard.
I'm sure you'll keep us posted on your progress!

How much land do you have, Doug?

I tried a 'dry stream' idea a few years ago. A fairly amusing fiasco. We have a wooden extension off our porch which could conceivably look like a asian-style bridge. So I put small smooth black stones on both sides trying to look like a dry stream passing under the wooden extension. I had a couple chinese paper-bark birches and a couple japanese maples. Variegated liriope lined the 'stream' banks. It looked great for about a minute. But as it evolved, it never lived up to the image in my imagination. One of the birches died, the other is chlorotic and pitiful-looking, the JM's have outgrown their space, and I'm sure no one looking at it would guess in a million years that it's supposed to be a dry stream-bed. Ah, well... So I've pretty much given up on the idea.

I like the dry stream idea, especially for a hillside.
I have a short, "imitation" dry stream under a downspout at the corner of my house. Since there's a garden bed about 6 to 8 ft deep wrapping around the house and on to around the patio, I was racking my brain trying to think of an attractive way to handle the water from the downspout. I put in a dry creek bed with an irregular, curvy shape, lined with one of those pond liners and pea gravel, along with various sized rocks scattered about. Carries the water at least 6 to 7 ft away from the house and even looks nice when it's not wet.

Sounds like a great solution, Cindy.

Not many creative ideas end up as they started.Sounds like a good one.

Sounds nice Cindy, I think I remember seeing pictures of it on the original "Astilbe" thread? I might end up with a combination - start out with a dry stream bed and instead of the hassle of digging for the pump, etc. just install a small pool of water where it ends. Of course I'll have to keep filling it with water and I won't "hear" the water tumbling over the rocks :( Biggest problem right now is finding the rocks. The local stone place went bankrupt over the winter and the closest source to buy stones now is over an hour away!

I'm sure Doug would be willing to share some!

LOL, Doug knows all about my "rock envy" and I do think he's promised me "ONE" when he gets the chance to visit :)

rcn - I had thought about turning my little dry stream bed into a water feature with a pump but it went beyond my impatience level at the time (I get hung up on getting things "done"). It's just as well since I think our winters might take a toll on it. It does have a basin at the end so water does stand for a day or so and then drains out (I've probably poked holes accidentally in the liner over the years). With our mosquitoes here, I guess it's just as well that it drains.

Cindy, your "impatience level" sounds similar to Rick's! LOL I'm not saying my dream of a disappearing stream is ever going to be a reality but I AM a patient person :) I don't have problems with mosquitoes but I do have to be a little more creative with the design now that my pest (aka our dog, Lucy) has developed the habit of plunking herself in the middle of any water on the property!

Yes, I really have to bite my tongue when DH tries to help me. I tend to get overly focused.

Doug, all I have to say is WOW! You must be Superman. Please show us pictures as it fills in. Will you be planting bulbs this fall?

He's probably out there weeding...lol.

Too darn hot for that!!! Don't know yet, I may plant some daffs in the general area to naturalize.

And KyWoods to answer a previous question, we have just shy of an acre.

Hot and sweaty Doug...

You're right about that! Even the dog refused to walk very far outside today!
Let's see, if it took you ten months for about an acre, and we have 25 acres, that would take me....sheesh, I better get started, I'm already 53 years old, lol.

I only did a small part of that acre and I'm 52 so you'd better hurry up.....

LOL I'll just work on the parts you can see from the house, I guess...