That's pretty clever!

You have made some real changes in difficult, rocky conditions. I see why you have a pick as one of your garden tools.
Mike

That is absolutely stunning how you overlayed the pics. I have to learn how to do that! Your angles were right on the money.

Very nice. Well thought out design. Beautiful conifers with a great back up which mother nature had a part in.

The rock work is also stunning.

Thanks for sharing you garden with us.

Dave

I agree with all others.

Beautiful nature, beautiful landscape,beautiful beginning with gardening.

Much luck for going on.

Wolfgang

Very cool. Certainly inspires one to continue the good work.
Gary

Wow, your excellent garden layout and plant health was almost superceded by the cool use of photobucket's animation! It really shows the changes and how well things contrast to the old.I think we're all jealous of your setting and your cool rocks!

Now we need some more closeups. Hopefully there is more to come.

-Will

Mike, the pick is the most important garden equipment. I made 60 plant holes this past year. Every one of them need several minutes of work with it. Most of them even hours. Everywhere I dug there were many big rocks underneath that needed to get out and make room for the rootballs. Thank you. I have many times been thinking of your garden when I try to plan my staff This is what I target in 30 years!

Will, the animation is easy. In photoshop. I saw the aproximate angles of the past photos and tried to take similar. Then in photoshop I made some layer combinations of 90% old and 10% new, 80% old and 20% new... and so on. Then you follow this:
http://www.wikihow.com/Create-Animated-GIFs-Using-Photoshop-CS3
You should do it. You just have to wait until next spring to complete one year of progress! :)

Dave this words coming from you mean A LOT to me. Thank you very much.

Wolfgang, thank you. Glad you like it! Still more to do as I planted little bareroot cultivars for conifer hedge that still doesn't seem much but in 4-5 years they will change the way all these look, to the better.

Gary, happy to hear that! My first year, I need to be inspired (and I am) from the experienced gardeners-landscapers in here. I've tried many staff I saw or red in here!

Will, the rocks are great (just not when you dig for a new plant!) but as I told you I could use some shade like your forest setting Right now, although I haven't lost a plant in the ground yet, I am fighting with some severe sun burning in few conifers and JMs. Plus many wind problems, for example I lost yesterday the top of my metasequoia g. 'Ogon'. All the top 10cm were cut from the tree and I wasn't there to do anything. I'm counting on the vigor for it to replace the top quick before fall.
Cedars, sequoias and Picea pungens don't seem to care about weather here. Thriving, the least. Not many health problems with others but let's say many plants are not like they were in spring. Thank you again! I will make a follow up. I also try to fill your species galleries but I haven't many plants... yet! And mine are quite young and uninteresting.

Thank you again all for your kind words.

Best regards,
Fotis

Looks fantastic! Beautiful setting / surroundings too! Where are you located that you are in beautiful mountains like that and in a zone 8a?

You have come so far and it's all really beautiful, the home and your gardens. Congratulations!
Cher

Hello nova. I'm in center-southern Greece at an altitude of 800m (~2400 feet). From what I read the US zone separation is quite different from ours in south Europe. The only fact that I made me declare zone 8a, is the lowest tempratures that are at -12 to -13 d. Celcius. But that's not enough. My climate is quite diferrent from a US zone 8a climate due to the surrounding sea and temprature stabilization. Thank you!

Cher, thank you very much!

Best regards,
Fotis

Ahhh ok. Thanks! Well, the zones here are a bit of a misnomer too. For instance a zone 8a on the east coast is fairly different from that of the pacific NW coast. 8a on the southeast coast have usually VERY HOT summers, and cool/ mild to sometimes cold winters, very little snow. The 8a on the Pacific NW coast usually never gets the extreme heat during the summer that the SE coast gets, and they also may not get quite the cold snaps that the SE coast 8a can experience. Generally, the temp extremes in the Pacific NW 8a seem to be a bit less than that of the SE coast 8a here. 8a, at least on the SE coast (though it seems pretty much the same in this respect on the west coast as well) is just about the limit where palm trees will grow freely without protection.

So basically it sounds to me like your 8a is probably more similar to that of the Pacific NW zone 8a, than that of the Southeast coast 8a. Am I reading that correctly?

Thanks!

Yes, it should be closer to the NW part of the US. Although surrounded from the Atlantic, the Mexico gulf stream does heat things up to the already south parts of the country rising up the tempratures during summer (though UK, being way up north, enjoys the benifits of the Stream). In NW missing this feature, the ocean is free to cool things down and keep smaller temprature deviations. That's what happens to me too. I guess...

Best regards,
Fotis

And even more like zone 8a in the Sierra Nevada foothills in California. Somewhere like El Portal (near Yosemite) or at the entrance to Sequoia National Park will be near-exact matches, with similar mediterranean dry summer / wet winter climate.

Resin

Resin, I don't know if I have so wet winters here, like the entrance of the National Sequoia Park, but I've seen in my area more than 100 Sequoiadendrons and they are all VERY helthy and full.
In the big town, just 19 Km (~12 miles)away from me, at about 600m (~2000feet) elevation, there is a group of people that planted some 25 years ago, around 60 Sequoiadendron giganteum and 4 Sequoia sempervirens in a part of the main square. This is what it looked like last October. Very healthy and happy trees! A bit crowded though. I wonder if they knew the exact proportions of the plantings they made!!!

Sequoia sempervirens and Sequoiadendron side by side cmpeting for the sun

Some younger plantings

And one Sequoia sempervirens I saw from a Km away and I thought this must be one!The others in the car told me 'Come on, you see them in your sleep now?'. When we got to the gus station we saw the tree and the sign below was saying 'Sequoia Cafe' so....

Best regards,
Fotis

Nice! The Sequoiadendron look very happy, the Sequoia sempervirens a bit less so, maybe a bit too dry for them.

Resin