When I moved back 6 years ago into the house I grew up in, I had a rough idea of where the flowerbeds were but they'd been neglected for so many years, it was tough to find them for all the weeds. The largest one--an area that was once a vegetable garden, then the spot where the swimming pool stood, then an ornamental flowerbed--has always been a 30 ft. square section of the property south of the house. As of last summer, it isn't square any longer and it's becoming La Musardiere which is French for "A place to be idle." I named it after a campground in Milly la Foret south of Paris where years ago I enjoyed a holiday with English friends. Once all the weeds were pulled, I discovered a dozen mature peonies, 30 clumps of daylilies and lots of other perennials. Now I'm winter sowing more so I can fill it in the rest of the way.

February 2011
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March 2011
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April 2011
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Early May 2011
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To the left in the photos along the boundary is a 40 ft. long by 30 ft. wide row of mature white hydrangea, 4 mature white-flowering dogwood trees and assorted other perennials, the latter long-since swallowed by the hydrangea. You're looking at the southwest corner of my little green acre. The migrant workers came yesterday and cleared some of the area along the boundary. It remains to be seen whether or not we finish cutting back the full length of the area south of the bed to where there's a dark, glossy green-leafed euonymus that many years ago was once in full sun.

There's a jackmanii clematis at the far back corner of the bed that has nearly 50 buds on it. My mom was convinced she couldn't grow clematis but I found this one growing soon after I moved in. I'd like to move it up closer to the granite bench at some point but am in no hurry as it's obviously quite happy in its present spot.

Both projects look great and such nice places to sit after a long day's work in the garden.

I'm still working on our backyard beds. The shrubs and trees went in over the last couple seasons and this year I've made a big push to get lots of perennials in. I started a bunch from seed in a spare bedroom. I'm sure I've planted out over 200 perennials at this point. This weekend it was time to get crackin' on the annuals from seed that followed the perennials. I got all 150 zinnia planted and I can't remember what else at this point. I still have the rest of the annuals to put in and then I think I'll sit a spell on the chairs in the area and rest and enjoy.

I'm a bit of an overachiever so I'm working mostly on a few beds. I have an east facing bed with about 6 mature maples right over head. This area tends to get soggy in the spring, but because we're about 100 yards from the beach here, it drains pretty quickly. We've also spent the last few years adding soil and raising the soil levels (there's a french drain right underneath it). That's what we're calling the shrub bed.

Then we have an island bed right next to the patio because, well we got soil delivered last year - 3 yards. And we did as much as we could and then just dumped the rest when we couldn't do anymore in that spot. LOL We spent most of the summer turning the soil and pulling grass, but it's almost completely full now.

Finally we have the west facing garden which is actually just joining two beds. My biggest challenge with this one is the dog. There are dogs on the other side of the fence and we have actually had to reinforce it since all of them are doofus' and rush it at any chance they get. I'm planting that one out with roses....LOL...and barberry....do you see a theme? Actually I did most of that last year, this year, we're filling it in with coneflowers, coreopsis and bellflowers....

All three will probably continue to expand over the next few years because they are only getting as big as I can afford (doing three beds at the same time can get costly).....

I'll post some pics of the whole beds tomorrow - I've been taking shots of the individual plants as a course of action so far....

I've been so busy I haven't taken very many pics altho do have one to share. This bed is at the base of the rockery and near the bird feeder and waterer so altho new and well weeded last year it was full of thistles and other weeds by this spring. I removed and potted up some of the plants, removed the worst of the weeds, then lay down cardboard and mulch. I only left 4 shrubs and one perennial. I'm doing this with some other beds also. I have many dozens of plants in pots waiting to be planted when I'm sure the weeds have succumbed.

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I have a whole 1/4acre I call "My Secret Garden", cuz it is a bank/slope I am slowly chipping away at, reclaiming. Had ro clear all the broom and brambles/grass, found a few sorry looking fruit trees back there, someone had planted. Fenced it, then got water down there, got a sloped path going down..arg>up! So the new stuff working on is a series of raised beds along one side of the yard, the 1st bed is 7ft out from fence and 4ft across, and am working my way up the slope(just got ryes neck)ouch! Then I want to make a retaining wall and put a closed in gazebo type structure, ya could be a greenhouse, but I want it to be my girlcave!lol! Making it from scrounged patio sliding doors and big windows, am thinking a corrogated roof(plastic) so a pic of the new bed started, a pic of the slope to tame, and a pic of the first applepear fruit (after living here 6yrs!!!)(
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calamity - keep posting pics of your progress. i'd love to see the process. you have wonderful ideas.

Calamity - what a lovely hilly garden!!!!!My parents just made a green house like that and it does work really well to keep things overwintered....my mom just pulled out her herb hanging baskets and it looks like 90% of them made it through our zone 5 winter.

Luckygal - I think I'm going to do the same in the new shrub bed. I want to get a few more bags of soil, just to mound it slightly, then cardboard, then mulch. Since none of them are really creepers, they should be happy to grow (I noticed new sprigs of grass coming up behind my SEM spirea and Miss Canada Lilac (which is only 3 inches tall right now) so it's time to get rid of it.

I will try and get some photos of my new area. I should have some "way before", mid tornado, the "nothing" years, (I don't have any of the corn year, but that was a productive year!!!), I don't think I have the tomato year (last year) but I did take one of mid-this year and now I'm close to finishing planting. Most everything in it is a tiny seedling right now but then I can always show it off later when things grow a bit more. It's more potager - fruit, veggies and some flowers.

I'll be doing what LuckyGal is doing in her beds, newspaper/cardboard, then good soil to plant in. 5 more beds like this...and I'll be done that one project!!! Then onto the retaining wall and then greenhouse/girlroom! Plus I have 2 grape arbors to build and redo/move my raspberries. Plus I have a tire slope that needs some weed killing on desperately(we have a thing here called morning glory, it is E.V.I.L.!!!!)And I will replant in all the tires and reclaim it all! Another 10yds of soil/mulch to bring back there!!! Just got a bad case of Rye Neck syndrom, doc has me off work for 1.5weeks! Painful too!

Here's the photo of the new garden area. I know it doesn't look like much!
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March, 2009 http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v192/girlgroupgirl/tornado/?action=view&current=IMG_3958.jpg

However this is June 2009.
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The only things not moved by hand were the giant cement pieces of the walkway. Everything else was broken and placed by hand. The solid clay amended by hand. Everything card boarded and mulched. The fence is brand new.

I wish I still had some photos of the in-between. When we bought the place this side had grass, a chain link fence and a huge tree. I had put some gardens in, and they were looking good. The tornado really did allow me to begin doing the things I had envisioned doing. I'm only on the first steps of this area of the garden. Hope fall weather co-operates and I can get a lot more done!

Lavendar-Lass, I love your arbor! Was that custom made? It's gorgeous.

I have been working big time on my largest bed ever. Two years ago, I had all the ugly juniper bushes pulled out of a bed that was directly across from my house. The next two years I lasagna gardened the entire bed - over thirty feet long and ten feet deep at its widest point. Over the last few weeks, I have planted over a hundred plants. I still have a few to go. (It's why I haven't been here at all. Every spare minute has been spent gardening.)

I'll post pics in a few days. The bed is going to be yellow, gold and orange.

a2zmom- Thanks, it's an arbor from Fred Meyer last year (bought on sale). They have another style this year, but there still might be a few of these available. It was a present from my husband, last summer :)

All my little black arches are from Fred Meyer, too. I think they're closing these out, so if you have a FM in your area, you might get a good sale price!

I'm looking forward to seeing your pictures. It sounds like a beautiful bed!

GGG- Your new garden is going to be amazing! I really like what you've done so far.

Gardenweed, Luckygal, Calamityj- Great pictures! I love seeing so many wonderful projects in the garden. Everyone else, let's see some pictures! LOL I know, I need to take more too, so you can actually see some more of the plants!

Thisd is great timing for this thread LL! Its wonderful to see the beautiful things we are all doing on our little piece of earth.
I was feeling insecure about posting my pictures (makes me feel like im posting the before picture of myself in a bathing suit before a diet! :) but hey, were all friends here! lol

this is the earliest pic i can find, probly 5 years ago. Before i got it to this stage, it was seriously 6 ft tall weeds, shrubs and jagged thorny row of overgrown mess. there was just the chainlink fence. We had to put up privacy panels because the community pool and tennis courts are on the other side, and there was no privacy from people.
I was very proud of my little area then. I had just began my gardening hobby and had no idea it would take over my life!

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then a few years later we brought home this little guy after our rottie passed away.

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Who after we fed him turned into this...

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So i had to build a fence around my garden, because he was crazy and would run through the plants, dig one up and run back to me with it! like a sick game of fetch...

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i really didnt get much else done last summer..

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but this spring ive been busy. It has alot of tweaking needed.. And honestly everytime i go back there i panic and leave! I have so much work to do!! but its coming along. I really want a border of the same plant variety on the edge where all the rocks are, but i cant decide.

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I feel overwhelmed too, especially since this year I have suffered thru pneumonia, and now wry neck, and can't get out to weed/plant build beds...grrr. Our bully passed away, her name was Betty Boop, she was all white and super adorable!!! Now I am stuck raising my grandpuppy(dd moved to aptment) a chihuahua and I think the sign says it all....

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:702673}}

Hi LL, so excited, finally I'm getting a flowerbed along 70' of 6' chain link fence in order to hide me from the neighbors next door and all the stuff they store out there! For the first time not doing it myself, I'm getting it done, my son is in the landscape construction business, so he's the man! So far the edging is in (a must here in Texas), and 40 yards of really nice landscape soil has been spread. Don't know if this is enough as have a minor drainage problem and think he plans to build a sort of berm in this area. Next will come the mulch.

It's a curved bed, about 12' in some areas, about 40' in another. Have tons of stuff waiting in planters ready to put in this Fall, plan to put rambler roses on the fence along with large rose bushes, lots of shrubs and such. Lots of ornamental grasses.

Getting old does have its perks!

Getting old does have it's perks but a charley horse under a knee cap tonight from over doing it sure isn't one of them! :-)

I managed to get a big pile of broken concrete blocks cleared away yesterday on our property. Today I screwed up my courage and took my DH's old Isuzu pickup to haul a couple of truckloads of top soil. The place I can get it is a twenty mile trip one way, old truck coughing, spitting and backfiring all the way and irate tourists backed up behind me unable to pass on these mountain roads. Got it done though, hauled and spread by hand and only got stuck in the soft ground once-figured out how to put it in 4 wheel drive and managed to extract myself. I dilagently managed to ignore how awful the yard looks with grass exploding in growth in just the last three days since I last mowed. Needless to say I sure appreciated being able to come to GW and see all the work coming to fruition for all of you, keeps me inspired!

Pictures from a few days ago the beginnings of another garden journey in the making. We just bought the property late last fall.

Here is a link that might be useful: Freezengirls Alaska garden start

Lilyfinch...you should have named the bully Roto or Tiller or Toro...

As for the ? from the OP, I am working on several. Some new. Some expanded. We built a garage and new front porch last season so now I am working on the yard to do beds that suit the new footprint. I will try to post pics in the next few days.

Ne

Ha, my whole garden is terribly overgrown, it needs a complete overhaul. The weather has been my biggest hurdle so far, not being able to get at it and not having the get up and go has been a real pain, but I'n working on it.

I love the cardboard idea, maybe as I get each spot cleared out I can lay cardboard to keep the weeds down until I replant.

Annette

I completely redid a daylily bed 3 years ago. It should have been beautiful this year, however its full of dead and dying plants. someone I got daylilies from managed to send me a soil borne disease. Its very disheartening after all that work. Be very careful where you get plants, it only takes one to do the dirty work. Now I get to sterilize the soil and start over.