A Kentucky garden walk this evening

Too many to post here, but here's a link to my Flickr set from this evening.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/postmandug/sets/72157629643295614/

Doug

Doug,
Beautiful. You have so many of my favorites, and the natural setting is perfect. I love how you used the rocks and seating (love the blue bench and the adirondack chair grouping). Pretty purple siberian iris and clematis growing on the trellis too. My eye caught a glimpse of something in one of your blue bench photos - magnified it and discovered a horse admiring your gardens too LOL! Terri

Good eye Terri, I hadn't noticed that. It's probably that nag I bet on in the KY Derby!!!

Doug

Terri, now I know why he was looking that way. On the right side of the pic is a pile of his buddie's poop!

Doug

Lovely. I like how you provided both the long view and the detail, so we can see what you did and the effect you managed to achieve. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks blue and Happy Birthday!

Nice! Are you still hauling as much rock around?

Ha Ha, the horse is probably not only eyeing his buddie's poop, but also standing guard so you don't take it for the compost pile - and thinking, those rotten poop snatchers.....

I agree with blue - I like seeing both long and close up shots - can't get a real overall vision without including those long views.

Terri

No Cindy, I'm close to being finished with the hardscape. Just maintenance now....and adding more plants!! It's so much fun to get up there and mess around, then show it off to amazed friends that it's only about 2.5 years old.

It is quite fun once you're past the maintenance thing. The slope sure shows off the paths and plantings. Well done!

After living here for 20 years this month I don't think I'd enjoy gardening on flat ground. The elevation change gives it a lot of character. Already told everyone, when I'm too old to walk anymore I want a 4 wheel drive Hoveround so I can still get up on that hill!!
This is what it looked like on April 18th 2009.

What a transformation. And after all of that work, you deserve a Hoveround. Wish I had your determination.

Thanks for the birthday wishes, Doug. I can't believe the garden is only 2.5 years old!

Not determination, just a passion!

Doug, that is so cool that you have a picture of the blank slate you started with. Amazing what you have done in so short a time.

I just got around to looking over your pix. Wow, what a great space you've created!
It's so much fun at this point filling in a bunch of plants. I'm way jealous.
I can't resist buying more plants, but then have to wrestle with where to find a spot for them.
Then they're overcrowded, etc. Your way looks much more organized.
I particularly loved the blue iris, by the way. You'll need to keep us updated as you fill in.

My garden is also a shaded hillside and I've got significant erosion problems.
The paths I started with gradually migrate down hill, along with the plants.
It's hard finding a groundcover which grows well enough to prevent erosion without being totally invasive and overwhelming the other plants. Have you figured that part out?
Or is your hillside terraced enough to avoid the problem?

I don't have an erosion problem at all. I guess the stone terracing does help with that but even before I converted that hillside into what it is today there wasn't much of an issue with it. There's only a couple of spots where natural gullies are that I get any runoff during a very heavy rain and then I have wet weather springs shooting water out of the ground! I'm convinced there's a huge underground cave/river system below the area. Across the road from me my neighbor has a vegetable garden that gets crawdad holes all over it and I get them sometime in my front yard. I told him that one day he'd probably have an underground house whether he wanted it or not... There's a lot of pretty good sized sinkholes further back in the field behind him.

A scary thought...

Looks great, I wish I had 1/2 that shade
Wonderful if they can do some kind of testing to see if there's any holes under there?

Doug, It's quite lovely. Do you have any trouble with slugs damaging your hostas?

Very little slug damage, but some this year more so than any past years.

Doug, Glad you don't have much of a slug problem. I had to resort to slug pellets several years ago. I use the "supposedly" wildlife and pet safe ones and if I start early in the spring the pellets keep them pretty much in check. Thanks for posting your photos so we can enjoy the walk around your place. You did a marvelous job on the design.

pjo

It's really lovely. How did you plan out your paths and terracing? Did you just "do" it an hope for the best? Or did you have a plan in advance?

Doug,

I just absorbed your May 8 garden walk. Your design is inspired!

Every thing I do has a plan.... In my head only!! Now I'm obsessed with putting in a pondless stream/waterfall. I found a ponding forum and have been eating up their threads. Oh the joys of gardening.

I really would like a waterfall too, but don't have a water source. Will you fill yours periodically from a hose, and otherwise let it recirculate?

I'd love to see pics of your water feature when you get it installed. DH and I always talked about it since we have some inclines down to the lower garden but have never gotten around to it. I wanted to keep it super natural though.

Happy, yes it will be done using a pump and piping to recirculate. Similar to the picture below.

Doug

We have a hill that would be perfect for a waterfall, but I've never gotten close to planning that -- we don't have any water features. Too much is on the calendar already for this year -- maybe next!

Doug - that style looks like it would fit your landscape perfectly, especially with all of the rocks you have.

Oh Doug. Wonderful. I'm jealous!!!!

Doug, like your garden could be any more beautiful. This project looks like the icing on the cake. I have a gardener friend that added dry creek beds and a dry waterfall in her garden and that worked well for her as she loves working with rock. I put in two tiny little dry ponds with rock and plants---the easy way out. LOL ........looking forward to seeing the finished project or better yet would like to also see it in progress.

Yes, I hope you'll post a progress report, with photos. I need inspiration!

It will probably be another month or two before I even start the digging, but I plan on taking plenty of pics during the entire construction process. It will be about 45-50 feet in length with a vertical drop of around 12 feet and a width varying between 1.5 and 3 feet.

Doug

Wow -- that's huge!