Before and after Garden pics.....

hello everyone.. i dont know if this is the proper forum for this subject but i figured it sounded good.... I'm gonna post a few before and after pics of my gardens... now all of these were put in from Oct.2003 to now... so they are still young but it sure is nice to see the difference in those few months... (: let me know what all ya think... thanx... this first pic was taken back in april 2002, my hubbys veggie garden... well we ended up with waaaaaayyyy more then we could eat and gave most of it away... unfortunately we are living in this 37ft travel trailer while we build our house.. well the trailer has been moved further away from the whiskey barrels then in this pic... and keep ur eyes on those whiskey barrels... they never get moved in these next pics....
chrissy

this is a pic of the same area but from the other side... those two whiskey barrels where the ones on the inside of that fence in the pic above... but this pic is still a "before" pic...

this was taken on 4-27-04... the last one was taken some time in feb 2004... what a difference huh?

here is an area of the "hammock garden" sometime i believe in march....

this was taken on 5-2-04.... its amazing how much it has grown!!!!! unbelievable huh?!

Lookin' mighty good to me! Ya'll should be proud of your labors!

thanx horseshoe... i work outside nearly everyday... my husband always asks me if i ever take a break... well we have had 101 degree temps for the past two days , and i didnt work outside then.. lol.. too hot with no wind.. i wouldnt mind the temps if there is a slight breeze... (: that whiskey barrel in the last pic is the whiskey barrel closest to the camera in the very first pic.. (: love my new gardens!!!! (: this a is a before pic back in early feb 04 ...i had just put the middle stip garden in at that time.. was gonna use those scalloped edging but it just didnt match to me.. what a mess around there in this pic!!!! lol

this is the after pic taken on 5-2-04... u cant barely see that horse troth anymore.. lol

this is a closer view of the area where the horse troth is... this again taken in early feb/04....

here is the after.... taken on 5/2/04 ....

Great before & after shots :) Looks like you've been workin your tail off and the plants are are lovin it!

here is an overall pic , the barrel closest to the camera is the barrel in the first pic with the rose bush in it closest to the trailer slider... this was taken in march o4 ...

this was taken on 4/27/04 .....

hi poppysue....yep i sure have been working my tail off... but loven every minute of it... hubby hired his laborer for two days to come up here and help us weed.. it was looking really bad around the trees and gardens... some weeds were 4 ft tall.. he came up a third day and worked by himself... that saved me soooo much time.. but i wouldnt let him weed in my gardens... no-one who doesnt know much about gardening is allowed to weed my gardens.. everytime i have someone help me that isnt into gardening , has pulled bulbs or weedy looking flowers up... even this worker drug the hose without picking it up and guiding it in areas thru one of my gardens and ended up snapping my lace hankerchief iris right off...and ended up pulling up a bunch of daffs i had planted around a newly planted (for this year) pear tree.... he thought they were weeds... he also ran over a few of the pink sea flowers that are planted in my newly planted lambrum path he didnt hurt them.. thank god the riding lawn mower just strattled it... sigh... but i cant complain much i guess thats not too much to lose to get alllllllll that weeding done... i am just glad its done... i need to feed the flowers sometime today and hook up new drippers to the newest gardens... i never seem to be done...lol.. but thats ok.. i dont mind one bit!!!! (:
chrissy

ok last pic for today.. just an overall view to compair to the very first pic.... (: its rather dark but thats because of the sun.. i will post more pics of the other gardens may tonight or tomarrow morning!!! (:

Just got my atlas out and looked up Banning. That's really pretty country around you in your pictures. Looks like a lovely place to build a home! I am so impressed with your before and after pictures! A LOT of work....but a lot of love.
Pati

I love watching the process of creating a garden. Please continue to keep us updated as you progress! However, in that kind of heat, don't forget to water yourself frequently...

Before and after pictures are always fun. In a few years you will look at the before pictures and won't believe what it looked like without flower beds and trees. Do you plan to put grass between the beds or something like gravel or mulch?

I appreciate your wonderful work in creating something great. The one thing I liked is the Hammock Frame. Simply fabulous! What are those wheels standing there for? Any purpose besides decoration? Is it possible to use those wheels on either side of the hammock to give it a cart-look? Those tubs are fantastic.

Tracking the growth and creation of any garden is really fun.

thanx pati... i love working outside... i actually live on the outskirts of the city of banning... infact i am considered to live in the county.. thats who we have to go thru to build our home , the county.. the area around me is all horse ranches.. its one of the last open spaces out here... i love it! ....

bayouposte, yes as things change i will be sure to post it here... (: it shouldnt be long considering these pics were from the begining of feb to the end of april... that what , a 3 month span?.. not bad... once i put perinnials in my raised bulb bed i will post pics of the progress ofthat... (: and dont worry , i drink lots of water thru the day and i soak myself down about every 20 min when its very hot.. and every 10 minutes when its very hot and humid.. (:

mary , i will prob put stepping stones with a ground cover growing around it... then again i may do that in some areas and other areas i may put brick.. who knows.. but it will be something.. when the rains come the mud gets verrrryyy slippy... just about as slippy as ice... the very first pic up top was from around april 2002... and i didnt start to change it till last april, and really didnt get into it till this last fall.. so i imagine its going to be something in a year even!!! (:

dinu, those wagon wheels are attatched to a swing... but i may go buy some wagon wheels for decoration... i may also have the grape vine this year grow around the hammock stand so its not so obvious... u know.. here is a pic of that swing... this was taken on 3-18-04... i was standing on something to take the pic.. dont remember why ,..lol.. oh well..

Wow, what a wonderful space you are creating. did you make that wheel swing? Love the iron cutout on top of it.
I'd be tempted to spend lots of time in the hammock. I've mislaid two pieces of my hammock stand. perplexing.

We gardeners love creating a new garden and then when it finally comes to full up we delight in rearranging them. Keeps us busy, off the streets, and out of trouble.

bloomswithaview... i see u are from moab!!!! i LOOOVEEEEE moab ... its sooooooo BEAUTIFUL out there... i love the red lands of utah.. and moab is just wonderful!!!! about the swing.. no i didnt make it.. hubby bought it for me in march this year from a guy who was making a delivery out here.. he was from oklahoma.. and he had about 10 of them on a huge flatbed... he had different iron cut-outs for the top.. i liked this one...(: i also love moving my things around to give them a different look.. i wish now though i would have made that island near the hammock further away from the hammock.. to make that hammock "room" bigger... oh well live and learn huh? the other areas with the whiskey barrels are that close because i cant move them .. they are tooo heavy... but thats ok.. one season i may take most of the dirt out and move them further out.. today i am gonna move some of my panseys and other flowers i like out of a big garden i have into a raised bed.. i think half the garden is planted on a gopher den... and they have sucked a few of my pansies down there holes.. sigh... i think i will replace the pansies with something animals dont like to eat.. like daylilies or something... glad u guys are enjoying my pics.. i still have a bunch of before and after pics of other gardens , i just havent posted them yet.. (:

here is another before and after pic... of course this being the before...(:

and an after.... the last pic was taken i belive in the begining of january... and this one was taken on 4-27.... this rose bush was a suprise... hubby had bought me a rose tree and this was a sucker off the roots... a gopher had eaten the roots of the original one hubby bought me but my sucker survided and this is the first time i've been able to see the color of the bloom!!! (:

That is a fabulous swing!
Another idea: Can you use those wheels like a rocking chair/bench? Of course, you can think of it when you buy some new wheels.

Very nice, cici. What is the plant with the blue blooms next to the stump? I sure like the ice cream maker as a garden decoration, I have a similiar one but it is still usable for making ice cream. The rose is a great color, I'm glad at least part of it survived the gophers.

yes dinu.. that is a good idea.. these are attatched to the swing.. so those stay .. but i plan on getting some wagon wheels.. i will have to think of a whole bunch of ideas to use them all over...

mary, the blue flower to the right is called felicia daisy blue.. here is a closer pic of it below.. i will prob put that ice cream maker on my porch once our house is finished being built.. so the rain and sun doesnt ruin it so quickly.. i got it at a yard sail for 7 bucks.. its from the 1930's and the guy says it still works but the only problem with it is the top rim of it is all chewed and the guy informed me that rats had gotten into his grandmothers basement and chewed the edge... after hearing that i didnt feel much like making ice cream in it...lol, i plan on moving a piece of white lattice away from my little red barn and putting these wooden shutter doors hubby got me off of a job in place of it and i may just move the ice cream maker in the bed where the shutter door will be...... anyway here is the pic of the daisy...

Thanks cici, I guess I have to look for one of those now. Does it have a long bloom season? As for the ice cream maker, well, I wouldn't share my ice cream with rats either! It does make a nice decoration.

I don't think the felicia makes it through freezing to next year but makes a heck of a show for the buck even for one season here where it does freeze.

marye, well i am staring to put something in the area u walk now!!!! i bought one of those quikcrete cement forms... i bought the cobblestone one, and it looks wonderful so far... 2 bags of 60 lbs bags does 3 forms... i did my rose garden path, which i will have to post before and after pics of that , and i have a few other pics to post.. so here they come..(: here is the area where the rose garden is. this is a before pic of where the rose garden is now.. (: right where my hubby is parked is where the rose garden is now... lol
chrissy

here is a pic of the rose garden from a slightly different angle then where i took the one with my hubbys truck... here all the roses are in and the arbor (bought at Big Lots) this was before i put the cobblestone path in.. (:

here is the rose garden with the newly installed cobblestone path... now here its not quite finished... for one the darker dirt colored ones are still wet, while the concrete was semi-wet i rubbed the powdery dirt into the top .. to color it instead of having concrete colored cobblestone.. then i will take maybe potting soil (since it seems to be the blackest dirt) and fill the joints, and plant a real low growing ground cover so it only fills the joints, and doesnt spread too much on the cobblestone.. but doesnt that look soooooo much better.. also i may widen the cobblestone or put cobblestone rings around the roses.. i havent decided yet.. so the whole path is cobblestone not just the main walking area...

this gets kinda confusing now.. ok now i am going to go to a before and after pic of flowers.. let me give ya a little history with those poor flowers.. i made a big garden bed, planted bulbs, annuals, and perinnials in this bed.. most all of my annuals and perinnials were from six packs u buy.. so they were kinda small.. well i watched them grow in to big beautiful lush flowers.. onlyto have gophers suck them down one by one... well i decided to move the rest of them before they fell into gophers teeth...so here goes their journey.. here is the bed before i planted anything above ground (all other plantings were glads, lilies, bear root clematis and such.... ) other then the w/willow trees that the dogs planted (long story) and the self seeding nicataria (sp?) , and whatever else that self seeded tree is in there ,...

oh what is that i see here???? flowers??? yes snapdragons , larkspur, pansies and such... oh goodie!!!

oh how the garden has grown!!!!! (dont mind all the dripper hose lines.. those have yet to be burried )

oh myyy how lovely these flowers are up close!!!! they are getting soooo big and lovely!!!!!! i just love this garden!!!! (:

ohhhh finally the snapdragons are blooming since i planted them in jan. and here it is in this pic 4/27.... and look how big that larkspur is!!!wow what a show!!!

oh here is my most favorite pansies , coconut swirl...when i planted these the most flowers the biggest ones had was maybe 4 or 5 flowers.. and now look how huuuge they are!!!! i planted a six pack.. see...1,2,3,4,5.... wait... , 1,2,3,4,5.... did i miscount??????? 1,2,3,4,5...OHHH NOOOO A GOPHER GOT ONE OF MY BEAAAAUUUTIFUL PANSIES!!!!!! oh no... they HAVE TO BE MOVED!!!!

here are the pansies moved.. in chicken wire cages... they should be safe here riiiiiight!!!!! wrong!!! a gopher came out of its hole and took it from the top soil... sigh.. they have to be moved again!!!!! sigh...

by the time i moved the pansies, they had eatten two more of them so this left me with three.. but luckily i found 4 seddlings with one flower each on them... and transplanted those... well as i moved them to the raised bulb bed.. i also moved all those pretty flowers in bloom to the raised bed and a whiskey barrel that has spring bulbs in it... here is a pic of how lovely that turned out...the irises and the trumpet lilies where already there...all the spring bulbs died down....