I don't see the weeds. I see enchanting Monet-like borders and like it very, very much. You really did some work, Lass. Congratulations. Can't wait to see the roses climb the arbor.

Oh my gosh LL, you should be beaming with pride! What a beautiful garden! It looks like you have accomplished so much in one season!! I really like that arbor with the 2 benches. What roses do you have on that? And your horses are just so pretty. Im so glad to finaly see pictures of your beautiful garden! I love the wide openess of it all. Like its endless.

Wow! You've been busy! That looks great, and will only get better with time I'm sure.

Tell me about the horses.. Are they Quarter Horses? Are they for pleasure/hobby or are you in business with them? My riding days are long past now but I still miss my Nutmeg and the scents and sounds of a stable.

LavenderLass, I really love your property and that horse in the first photo is a real cutie! Your design for the garden beds fit the surroundings perfectly, like a hand in a glove. It looks like it's always been there. I think you are going to have many happy years there, growing a beautiful garden. I agree with lilyfinch, the wide openess of it makes it a very satisfying and peaceful place. Hope to see more photos as you continue to garden this space.

The horses are our pets...they are so spoiled, but they're very sweet. They like to come up and see what we're doing and "hang out" with us, while we're outside. (LOL) That's one reason I wanted the arbor there, so we could enjoy the view of the creek and the back hill...and sit out with the horses.

They are quarter horse and paint mix, but my mom thinks Cordell, the dad, is part Morgan. The horse in the first picture is Chance, and he's the one all the way to the right in the second photo. The little guy behind him in the first picture is Lucky and he's behind Chance in the second one.

As for the garden, thank you for all the encouraging words. I would love to put roses on the arbor, but I think the deer would love that, too :) Instead, I'm going to put clematis, which works out well because the yellow jackets don't seem to be at all interested in them.

This year, the plan was to have morning glories in the pots with the purple petunias and moonflowers in the pots with the white petunias. The morning glories came up, but haven't grown much and the moonflowers didn't even sprout, so with our short summers, clematis seemed like a much better idea. I have a purple clematis growing on each of the arches, but I don't know if you can see them, in the pictures.

I LOVE your garden LL! I can't believe how much you have done your first year!!

Your fairy garden is so cute and colorful. I see you have cosmos just thriving there. Did you end up buying more of them after the late frost, or start them by seed? I'm loving all of the wild things growing around the arbors too. Are the white flowers Feverfew there, or something else?

Where is your row of lavender and hyssop in the pictures? Or is that closer to the house?

My favorite picture is that last one though ;-) That must be a lot of fun sitting out there in the evening with the horses and enjoying the garden!
Thanks much for the pics LL! You should be so proud of all you guys have done this year.
CMK

WOW! How pretty. Y'all's work really paid off.

Kathy

CMK- Thanks! I ended up getting lots of cosmos from Fred Meyer that have all grown huge. The white flowers are like little daisies and have big roots. They're pretty, but they try to take over the whole garden. Feverfew is probably a good guess.

The lavender is in the front garden. The fairy garden started out on the east side of the house, but now kind of wraps around the front of the house and along the porch. Since the plants are all similar in these areas and I had to spread out my little decorations, the fairy theme seems to have taken over! LOL

Oh what a beautiful garden. And beautiful property! I'm so glad you were finally able to post pics of it all!

I'm surprised to see many trees - I thought eastern Washington was quite dry!

I love the fairy garden! Good job on everything. Can't wait to see even more gardens!

Are you sure the after-the-corral-was-moved photos are not from June of LAST year? The transformation is remarkable, so if it has all only happened in the couple months, may those of us who are less successful at least say, "well, of course, they had horses to pre-fertilize their growing beds."

In any case, both plots show great planning as well as some very green thumbs. You should be proud as Punch.

Central Washington is pretty bare and not many trees, but eastern Washington looks much more like northern Idaho and western Montana. It's a beautiful area, with long winters, but the snow is very pretty on the pine trees :)

As for how fast everything has grown...it's got to be all that horse manure! I have pulled weeds three times in some part of the kitchen garden (since mid June) and you'd never know it. Most of the time I spend weeding around all the roses in the front beds and fairy garden (which has the same dirt added into the beds....with all the same weeds) so there's not as much time to keep up on the kitchen garden. I'm hoping next year, it will be easier to see the raspberries, blueberries, roses and everything else, once the weeds are under control.

I'm going to add asparagus and grapes to the garden, but only after I really get control of the weeds. I'm hoping perennials will be better, because anytime I dig up the soil...more weeds. I'm going to put the annuals in a smaller garden next year, with smaller beds and hopefully mow around everything. One nice thing...with lots of water, all the weeds where we're mowing the paths through the kitchen garden, will be mostly grass, next year.

Wow! Lovely and very impressive what you've done this year. You've done so much in such a short time is why you haven't had time to catch up on the weeds. You won't be doing as much next year so it will be easier to stay on top of them, plus you'll have plants multiplying and taking more space too. Big congrats on a super job. Love the horses also.
Cher

Lavender Lass, that is absolutely beautiful, it's obvious you've put a LOT of hard work into this! It almost makes me homesick, but not in January!

I thought the same thing as Honorbiltkit, then remembered from living in Montana that the amount of light you have in the summer is so much more than we have south of you. I remember waking up at 4 in the morning and it was light, lasting until after 9 at night.

Love your horses too!

OGRose

That's true...it's light (at least dusk) until 9:30 or 10:00 in June, but it's dark at 4:30 in December. We had so much rain in June, which is unusual...that the weeds have all gone crazy this year. The little daisies (feverfew?) are all over the place. I don't remember ever seeing this many before.

Montana to Texas. Wow, that must have been a big change! How do you like DFW? Do you ever come back to Montana to visit, maybe in the summer?

I see a garden of great beauty here. You have worked wonders.

How much rainfall do you get? Do you have to install sprinklers or some form of irrigation?

Rosefolly

Actually, we usually get very little rainfall in the summer, maybe a little in June and a little (sometimes) towards the end of August. I water the gardens every two to three days, when it's hot, but maybe wait an extra day when it's 70 and not 90. I usually use sprinklers, except for the roses, but when it's cloudy, or shady, I water the roses with the sprinkler, too. The only ones that seemed to dislike it were the Zephirine Drouhins, so now they're in my mom's garden, where they seem very happy :)

Thank you all for the nice comments. It's been a lot of fun, but also a lot of work...but not as much as I thought. Except for the weeding, the watering has gone pretty well and everything has stayed very healthy. When you get past the weeds, the plants look great! LOL

I've uncovered blueberries, strawberries and a few herbs. I have one area, where I hadn't seen three of my blueberries for a while, so I made sure to weed them, hoping they would be okay. The weeds were just barely taller than the blueberries (which I just bought this year). When I found them, they were fine and actually had a few berries, ready to pick.

It got down to 33 F last night, so I'm guessing it will freeze sometime this week. With the creek behind the house (you probably can't see it in the picture, but it's behind the horses) and no pavement, it gets pretty cold at night. My mom lives a mile and a half away, but usually has her last frost in mid-May and her first hard frost in mid-September...which gives her an extra month for growing tomatoes. I think I'll have to get some from her this year :)

It's absolutely gorgeous, and what advantage you have of such lovely back drop of open pastoral scenes and your lovely horses. How wonderful to garden with horses, of all things!
You've done a wonderful job!

You have done a great job in a short amount of time! Everything looks lovely, I'll enjoy watching the garden grow over time. Thanks.

Great layouts! And so green...
Renee

What a wonderful garden ! Love the setting and how your garden fits right into it; love the design; love the plants. What a great base for a garden---a former horse corral. You obviously did a lot of planning and work to have such a success in just one season. Those benches by the arbor is where I'd be spending time ! How enjoyable.

What a warm and welcoming spot you have created. Very good work in such a short time. the weed control will come. No matter what you can't get everything done at once. You've achieved more than one would usually think possible in this little amount of time. And I love the arbor with benches abd the fairy garden too.
kay

Thanks for sharing your pictures with us..Yes, I agree you have accomplished a lot this year. Can't wait till next year's pictures. Your horses are beauties! That aged manure should come in handy next Spring. I attended my first plant swap back in May and a fella bought a pickup truck full of aged horse manure to give away. He gets the burlap bags that coffee beans come in from a local coffee shop FREE and he handed you a shovel and a burlap bag and you filled it with manure. Most women only took away half a bag full because that gets heavy. This fella was very popular that day. We were parked 2 vehicles from that manure truck and I swear, there was no odor. It was very fine, almost looked like it had been processed with some potting mix but he said not. I was told he brings a truck load of manure each year. What a nice gesture!

got down to 33 degrees last night...

What a difference a few zones can make! With all the windows open it was still too hot to sleep last night. It was in the 90's yesterday and will be again today. I'm skipping the garden work I had planned and thinking about a dinner that does not require turning on the oven.

Rosefolly

that's really a big difference, wow, congrats!

I love all your gardens..so beautiful with all that open space to set it all off. Love your horses too! I think Clematis will love those arbors! I'm so glad you posted the pictures and I don't see any weeds!!!
Joann

LL, I always find it very enjoyable to read your posts and it is just amazing to see the major transformation of your yard. What a huge amount of work you have done. I love the way you really planned the gardens and put in the structures before you even planted. An absolutely fabulous job! Thanks so much for posting pictures. You must feel like you're on a permanent vacation with that beautiful spot and the gardens you have created.

Wow! Beyond wonderful! What a beautiful garden! I look forward to seeing more pictures! Missy

Wow, what a wonderful transformation. I don't see any weeds either only lushness and beauty, not only that look at the beautiful, peaceful surrounding countryside. Love your horses. I've never really been around them, but think they are beautiful and magnificent and I think it's wonderful that they are your pets.

FlowerLady

Lavender Lass,
Yes, the differences between Texas and Montana is huge, both places have their challenges, that's for sure. We don't have the natural beauty (at least in Dallas), and the soil is hard as rock clay, so amendments and mulch are a must. We have lived here for over 40 years, but I swear the older I get the hotter it gets! We had 20 days of over 100 this summer so NOTHING got done in the garden other than watering, not for beauty but just to keep the plants alive. However, when the weather cools off this fall everything will come alive again, so we get two planting seasons of absolutely wonderful weather, spring and fall. And in Jan and Feb we do get gorgeous days in the 70's, but also can get ice storms and snow. My hobby is antique roses, which I have found to be quite tough in our conditions, and as time goes on I tend to plant more and more "Texas tough" plants that can handle drought.

Once you get out of Dallas, which is realy not representative of Texas, it's like another country, lots of ranchers and totally down to earth people. I love it!

Wow, what a transformation! You've done a lovely job. I like your arbor with benches facing each other. I'm looking for one like it only wooden.

Such a lovely scene with the horses in the background. I can imagine sitting out there with them!

You've created yourself a beautiful sanctuary.

Wowie Zowie! A beautiful garden AND horses !!! You must be in heaven! Thanks for sharing these lovely pictures! meo

Thank you all for the very nice comments! It's such a gift to have all of your wonderful support and creative input with my garden. It's been a lot of work (still moving plants around) but it's also been a lot of fun :)

Your garden is looking lovely. All of the colors and the structures are lovely together. Beautiful worl.
kay

You've been quite a busy little bee! Your gardens are dreamy, such a lovely tranquil location out in the country. All that hard work is paying off, it looks wonderful. The horses are a nice touch too!

LL, How wonderful to get up this morning and look at your beautiful garden pictures. The evening shots are so ethereal and inviting. They make me miss my gardens at the ranch where I too had my horses following along the fence line watching everything I did. I completely understand the weed situation and I know first hand how country weeds in bare land can take over and smother the plants you placed. The only answer is mulch and lots of it at least 4 inches deep. If you are not planting seeds a goodly amount of Preen can also help but if I remember correctly you are a chemical free gardener. I used to buy 10 bags of mulch each month from the farm store in town all through the year so that each spring as things began to come up I could clear the areas and mulch them well. I also had opportunities with the state folks who cut trees to have loads of mulch dumped at the ranch or they'd give me a heads up when they had left a pile along a highway somewhere and I could go load it in a pick-up to carry home. Weeding will still be required after this but it will be minimal in comparison to what you are dealing with now. What you are doing is back breaking and frustrating, I know. The gardens are beautiful, wonderful in fact and I personally love the spreading Feverfew as it adds a feeling of open meadow to the overall look. It looks natural and that is very difficult to achieve in open country. Bravo, my dear!

MeMo