A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 One of my projects

I wanted to share one of my "triumphs" with you. We bought our house in August of 2003. Even though it was 70+ years old, there was only 1 small garden on the whole property...Can you imagine?? Well, here is a "Before" shot:

Under all those weeds were some huge boulders. I filled them in with some soil from the neighbour and planted up some drought tolerant perennials. I used all the rocks I dug up (from all the other projects)and piled them around the outside. Here is that garden last summer:

I can't wait to see how it looks this year!!

That is so pretty Netty! Lots of hard work i am sure.

Thank You!
Some of the plants are Sedum, Butterfly weed, Bee Balm, Ajuga, Phlox, snow-in-summer, Primrose, Rudbekia, Thyme, Branched coneflowers, Purple coneflowers, Yucca, Liatris, and Perennial Batchelor Buttons. I also add a few Marigolds and ornamental grasses. This garden only gets rain...and there wasn't a whole lot of that here last summer.

Netty, that looks amazing......I love what you did with it!

Can you see it easily from your house?

That's beautiful Netty! Where did you get the ideas for the plants, flowers, shape, size, etc. Did you design it yourself?

Holy Cowwwwwwwwww, I'm jumpin' in on this
band~wagon tooooooo!!!!
BEAUTIFULLLLLLLLLLL!!!
I'll say, that's alot of work,
but soooooo nice..

Thank~Youuuuuuuuu for sharing that with us!!!!

Very Beautiful Netty!!!!!

Hi Netty,

Your garden is awesome and I love the combination of flowers and rocks!

Have a BAUTIFUL day!

netty,

you have done an amazing job, it looks great and yes please, post another picture so we can see what it looks like this summer.

good job...
penny

Thanks everyone!
This garden is what you see when you first enter our 600 ft driveway. I wanted something there to catch the eye. Sometimes I just look at a spot and think "that should be a garden". Those big rocks were placed perfectly and after the soil was added it all just kind of fell into place. But no, I can't see it from the house. I have other projects on the go near the house I'm just itchin' to get out there!! My husband is already nervous...

OK Netty, you're in Ontario, I'm in Michigan, but it's really not THAT far for you to come down and make my yard as beautiful!! Congrats on what you have accomplished in such a short span of time.

Sandy

Hello.I'm another newbie.
That is soome transformation you have made Netty. That's what I like to do too. We don't have much yard left from me turning yard to garden. My hubby is getting nervous too. Though I do most of the work sometimes draft my son who is now bigger and stronger than I. I have plans going for another small pond area.
I was wondering what is the tall metal looking item on the left side of the pic? A lamp?
Great Job
Diane

Thank you buzylady
The tall metal thing on the side of the picture is the old pump from the top of our well, but the wooden handle has broken off.
I like turning yard to garden too...that's why we moved to the country. My old yard had no garden room left That's also why my husband gets nervous He'd rather be tinkering in the garage!

My husband says, "If I let her,
my wife would have the house inside then entire flower bed..

(meaning, I'd have only flower beds, and no lawn
and the house would be smack~dab right in the middle.
The whole property would be GARDEN!!!)
Ohhhhhhhhhhh yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

NETTIE,

YOU ARE A VERY GOOD flower CHILD.. I LOVE YOU BED..
ARE YOU COMING OVER IN MAY TO DO MINE? ;o)

DODGE.............

Thank You Dodge
I'm gonna be really busy here in my yard making new gardens all over the place and driving my family crazy

Wow! Great job, especially using what was already there.

Now that the weather is (finally!)nicer, I have been able to get out and inspect the gardens. I have some changes to make to this garden as the spring thaw washed away a small portion of the garden I will most certainly post some pictures when the garden gets going!

Netty wonderful job, just beautiful!!

OMG!! That is totally AWESOME! Unbelievable! I do have a question, how do you keep out the weeds?? I have a small perennial garden, I will be posting NO pics as it does NOT compare to yours, but I always have grass and weeds growing in it.

Thank you
I'm out there weeding all the time! My biggest problem is the grass...it pops up everywhere!!! I like to head down there after dinner and weed for a while...I can't hear the kids down there
I keep records of what I plant and where and if anything else pops up, its "out of bounds" and it gets pulled out.

That's a stunning transformation. Good job!

Here's a pic of the spring thaw. All that water washed out part of the lower section taking my bulbs with it.

I've been adding more rocks to build it back up. Not too much excitement here yet, but things are all growing so that's half the battle! I'll add another picture in the summer when things are blooming.

Wow Netty, that's one heck of a spring thaw!

I'm sure it will look beautiful this summer though, just like it did before.