|
|
|
CottageGarden
nominate your own title
Iowa, USA
Where we started, and where we hope to end up....23 Jan '06 3:19 am
Sorry I've not been able to post for the last several days. Its been extremely hectic here. I'll explain that at some point later...
As this is the diary part of the forum, I'm going to use this to give everyone a little background info on my gardens, unless, of course someone objects. 
This time of year is winter here in Zone 5, with lots of snow and freezing temps its impossible to be outside in the garden much. This is when I do my garden planning. I keep a file (on the computer) of what the yard looked liked from year to year, what changes I've made, what improvements, what worked, and what didn't.
I was working on the plan for this year's garden when I came across the plans from past years. And I decided it might be fun to share some before and after. Now, let me clarify that my garden (at this house) will only be in its third season this Spring, though a majority of my plants were mature when transplanted here.
In the plans, the bigger blue box is the house, the smaller is the garage. Most of the homes here have parking in the back, off the alleys. The 2 round green things in front of the house are young Maples, and the three darker green things in the back are Douglas Fur pines. We did not plant these. The Maples are too close to the house and will need to be replaced, and the pines are too near each other and the power lines so 2 of the three will eventually have to come down.
Except for the trees, we started with a blank slate. There were only 2 beds (each on small retangle on either side of the front door) that each had 4 neclected rose bushes.
The first year we put on the deck (the brown box on the back of the house), added the large beds on each side of the deck, put in the raised rock bed on the back of the garage, the waterfall and pond, and a small raised rock bed on the East (left) side of the garage.
Last year I got most of the remaining new beds put in and the old beds (in front) expanded. We also helped the neighbor to the West (left) put up a privacy fence so I added another huge bed on our side of it.
This year I will be putting beds around each of the Maple trees in the front and trying to work out the details for all of the stepping stones I'd like to add. I've also got to decide on what perennials to use for the remaining permanent plantings and move around some things that were plopped into places because I had to get them transplanted and it seemed like a good thing at the time, but didn't seem to work out. 
2004 Before.jpg
2004 Before.
This is what we started with
50.4 KB / Viewed 182 Time(s)
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
All times are GMT + 12 Hours
|
Page 1 of 1 |
|
