The changes in your landscape

Here's lower garden, after several years of work.

Here's another view from the lower garden back up to the house (before).

And after.

Lower garden again, looking up to impossible slope, trying to figure out how to reduce erosion.

And after. This area currently undergoing some minor renovation. The lower garden doesn't normally receive a lot of attention.

Up in the main back yard, this is my small patio area with the first plantings, looking towards the side yard and neighbor's house (before).

After. Got rid of chain link fence, moved roses, enlarged planting beds, etc. It's a little dark so hope you can make it out.

This is what I call my side garden. It originally started out as a narrow strip along the garage wall with tulips and that's all.

And after we installed my little GH two years ago. Again a little dark.

Since I didn't have documentation in mind when the photos were taken, it was hard to line up shots of the same areas. I probably have 4 more areas that I can't document properly. We haven't done any beautiful hardscape projects recently but have a couple in mind (of course requiring landscape block lifting).

Cindy the changes are fantastic. Good work.

Love, love, love all the beautiful work you all have done.
postmandug, your retaining wall and stone work is beautiful.
rcn48 love your hosta garden.
Cindymzone5 beautiful landscaping. I really love your patio area and your tulip garden. Great changes.
I got to finally re-do an area in my back yard this year that was just dead space. Hubby came up with idea of a water feature.
Here is the before... and actually it was completely empty, not even the bird bath was there.

Here is our after. Hubby did all the designing and most of the grunt work. I was quite happy with the results and the water feature sounds so nice when sitting on our patio.

Beautiful focal point! I can't leave dead space alone.

A bit of a closer look at the fountain.

I have more dead space to work with next year. It just takes me so long to "see" what I want.

The possibilities are always endless, aren't they?

nothing like a blank canvas

Doug, thank you! Hopefully sometime you'll be able to see it in person - FYI, it always looks better earlier in the year :)

Cindy, I really appreciate you taking the time to find your photos. Even though I've only recently started "documenting" the progress here it's difficult to get all the photos organized and I still need to find some from pre-digital days to scan! I absolutely LOVE what you've done!!! The lower gardens are outstanding and the terraced effect has created a wonderful shady retreat :) The patio and side gardens are just lovely and I especially like the trellis! I really like the blue, did you paint it or purchase it with that color? And an attached greenhouse? I'm so envious :)

staceysmom, tell Hubby he did a fantastic job, what a wonderful transformation of your "dead space"!! The arbor is a perfect frame for your fountain and I love the frog! I have an area which will hopefully have an endless stream some day and I've been collecting frogs the past few years to frolic near the water :)

DH loves taking garden photos - he's got some beautiful pics of blooms. He and my daughter (professional photographer) have all the photo talent. I have none. I have hundreds unscanned and more than that scattered on our computers. We're networked and I'm never sure where to find them all. Gonna learn here real quick.
DH made the trellis and it's actually a dark green and used to sit up against the pale gray wall of the garage before the GH was installed. Our older digital camera and even older scanning software does weird things to green - another reason we're looking at getting a new one. As for color, I wish I was bold enough to paint it blue. Maybe when it needs repainting... I have 3 or 4 clematis on it plus a porcelain vine that doesn't get out of control or bloom (yet) but the variegated leaf color compliments the clematis flowers.

I see the trellis as a seafoam green and love it with the clematis. I do like electric blue but (only my opinion) what you have now is ideal.

Faded dark green paint. :)

The color is perfect for the clematis (to my eyes).

Cindy, thanks for the color clarification on the trellis. I would love it if DH had the skills to construct something as lovely are yours :) He's quite handy with many projects but he doesn't have the patience nor the "finesse" for many of my ideas! Whenever I paint anything it seems I'm always drawn to shades of green but if I ever get my new sunny border started I'm beginning to think a blue trellis or arbor would add a punch of color to the area :)

I have so many areas that undergone "changes" and I'm trying to get my photos organized! I'll continue with this area - what I refer to as the 'Sitting Deck'. This is what it looked like in the fall of 2006, a blank slate!

I had been working in the area just above this spot which leads into the driveway and thought I could continue the path and add an arbor. By late October I found the arbor I wanted!

That is going to look fantastic

By spring 2007 I was ready to start planting but had been thinking over the winter about an area to sit and relax in the gardens. Originally I had hoped for a slate patio but those plans were scrapped when I realized the expense wasn't in the budget. Plus the slope would have required major digging of heavy red clay soil :( A small deck was constructed instead, planting started and by July pavers were added to create steps up the slope.

Wait, wait there's more! LOL

Another year has passed and again over the winter I start "thinking" :) The sitting deck lacks character, just looks like a blob sitting in the middle of the gardens :( So I design a copper arbor, play with some photos and come up with this! It's a little difficult to get the perspective but use your imagination :)

Is the screen in front of the chairs or at the side?

Well, I'm continuing to use my imagination because the copper arbor still isn't done :( I bought all the materials in March 2008, have it all cut and put together but I got sidelined when our dog got sick, had problems with soldering and it's still only half done :( Maybe I'll finally get it finished and erected this fall! In the meantime everything is starting to fill in and this is what the area looked like last September.

It's actually designed to fit over the back of the deck - the chairs were pushed to the side in that photo so it's deceiving :)

I don't have any recent photos of the area but I'll have to take some to show you, I finished a little more planting last fall after taking that photo. This is one from late May this year when the Clematis were in bloom :) The Clematis were purchased as double blooming pink (Josephine?) but neither one is what they were "supposed" to be!

I get it.
the back of the deck seems reasonable,you dont want to cut the view

No...we don't want to "cut the view" :) This isn't a very good picture but it shows you the view from the deck - the Blue Ridge Mountains way off in the distance.

Ohhh my that is stunning.

Wonderful design concept and fantastic view!

What an absolutely beautiful spot. The whole idea of a sitting deck is very appealing as well. And who can beat that view? Are you doing the arbor construction yourself? I'd love to have a sitting area out away from the house but that also means it's closer to the mosquitoes. DH helped me make a copper arbor several years ago for the lower garden. I don't know if I have any photos of it. It has 4 legs, a curved top (almost like a dome) with flexible copper tubing twining all over it for support for vines. Have a large-flowered Clematis (forget the name) as well as autumn Clematis and a silver lace vine (which hasn't bloomed since the first year - must check on what it wants).

My Silver Lace Vine hasn't flowered either and it's about 4 or 5 years old.

I don't think mine is happy where it's at. When I first got it, it was pretty vigorous growing along/on my neighbors chain link fence but then it just started dwindling. When I put my arbor up and moved it, there wasn't much left of it. It is growing but I'm thinking it doesn't like my clay soil and partial sun. I'll have to check and see what it really wants but I'm limited on climbing space.

I have 50 to 60 year old pines so it can climb but all it wants to do is sprawl.

Well, the "view" isn't as nice since a new neighbor constructed the ugliest building I've ever seen in the middle of that field :( It's two stories high and DH refers to it as the West Virginia service station! Right now we're trying to design our plantings to block the monstrosity without losing the view of the mountains!

Cindy, I'd love to see photos of your copper arbor if you can find any :) I initially came up with the idea for the copper arbor after seeing this thread http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/581881/ and thought, I can do that! What I didn't realize was how much the price of copper had gone up in the past couple of years! Of course my design got a little more complicated than I had originally planned and the $100 budget quickly doubled :( I wanted a "tiered" effect after seeing this wooden arbor and finally came up with this design. It was a long process - I made MANY notes regarding all the cuts and only made one mistake which required another length of copper :) The biggest problem I had was learning how to solder the joints. For some reason after my first successful attempts the solder wouldn't melt properly and I've resolved myself to using glue which is why it's taking so long to finish. It's either too hot or too cold to work on it or... I'd just rather be playing in the garden!