What does your front yard look like?

Oh my gosh that place is gorgeous! I LOVE IT! So you have some land to?

Just a little more than an acre. You love it? My chest just swelled up. Never had that reaction before. Here's another view with my "TEXAS" bed and a young scragly Chittamwood tree.

bron,

well :) let me sweeten my compliment with elaboration then! I love a white house---a whole spectrum of color is available now for trim paints and plants. There are some plants others just couldn't use up close to their house because it might clash. It looks like your home is meticulously maintained! The name escapes me for the moment but I love the arches on your home to (my last one had those) and it really adds a lot to the appeal. Add a porch and a nice green view and you've got the best of everything!

Did you plant the cactus garden? Do any of them fruit for you? Like that you have the texas star decoration on the house to. I've never heard of a chittamwood tree----did you plant this to?

Thank you, TND! The prickly pear was there when we moved in 2 yrs ago along with alot of other brush and briars that I'm still fighting. We have really heavy limestone soil and I'm constantly picking up unearthed rocks. One day I took a bunch of rocks and enclosed the prickly pear with a Texas shaped border. Since then, I've added pincushion cactus (native), Blanketflowers, Black Eyed Susans, Wine cup, Mexican hat, Crimson Clover, Lazy daisies, and greenthread. I'm trying to keep it all natives. Yes the cactus do produce fruit (both kinds).
The chittamwood was also there when we moved in. It is a bit ugly right now but I think it will grow into a really nice tree, eventually.
Here's a side view of the TEXAS bed. My yard slopes down into the road.

Oh cool idea!!!! That is neat! And all those rocks were free on your land!? LUCKY!

knolan,

You thought my topiaries might be ligustrum's but I saw some of those at HD today and mine definately are not the same. The leaves on mine are soft---no semi sharp edges. So still unsure what variety mine are!

Can you get a close up picture of the leaves?

Yes I can do that.

Here's my house a few years ago. I have since taken out the cypress (too many bag worms) and replaced with burford hollies I will shape in a tree form.

Here is a close up of the front right side of the garden.

This is a new bed I put in last year on the side of the house by the driveway.

Another view of the side garden.

Texas_Doodlebug, glad you chimed in! You have a nice home and nice landscaping! I like the curves going on in your sidewalks. Did/do you find it difficult to fill large spaces (ie front yard)....my last front yard was really small, the bulk of the lot was behind my house but now I am faced with a bigger front yard and not sure how to lay things out.

Hi, Tir - lovely house. Have you looked here:

http://landscaping.com/ls/

Some great photos of landscaping.

Yes I have thank you!

Going to buy this new 2007 book: http://www.amazon.com/Step-Step-Landscaping/dp/0696230828/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-8763801-1917561?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187988794&sr=1-1 (It's $22 at HD for those interested, amazon is cheaper).

Question: on landscaping.com I used to be able to browse all photos. Now when I click on it just refers me back to the homepage. Must I create a user ID to log into this site to?

Tir_
Thanks. You asked "Did/do you find it difficult to fill large spaces (ie front yard)...."
To the contrary, I am continually running out of room. I have several evergreen shrubs and then plant daylilies and some annuals around all of those. It seems I never have enough space. One thing I have learned in gardening is if there is an empty space I kind find a way to fill it. LOL.

I have figured out that if I don't fill it with something, Mother Nature will fill it with something I may not like.:) There was a DG member named Margie (never see her posts anymore) whose favorite saying was "if you have weeds, you don't have enough plants".

ROFL!

I remember her DG name now. It was Loudigger. Does anybody know what happened to her?

Don't be shy folks---we're in this gardening business together! 1,000 views and only a handfuls of landscaping pictures! :)

I don't have easy access to a camera and I hate to ask my husband to help me get the pictures on the computer... besides, how many people want to see my humble little flower gardens around a single wide mobile home??? !!!

this is my first year in this location after 2 long years in an apartment. I can not begin to tell you how therapeutic it is for me to be digging in the dirt and weeding again! If it wasn't for resale issues, I'd probably get rid of ALL the grass and put in nothing but flowers but I think that would not make reselling this place very easy. (Senior Parks are NOT the place to put in extensive landscaping with high maintance!). It is likely in a couple of years we will move. Most of my flowers have been trades, or postage, seeds from DG friends, or free from divisions of family's flowers, I have not had the money to purchase much so I have been grateful for the inexpensive alternatives I've been given.
Pat

That's likely the route I'll go in my yard---freebies, cuttings, seeds...nothing wrong with that! I'll buy a few lucky plants.

This is spring,

It's now landscaped with large leafy tropicals - helps shade the front windows.
Rj

Love the use of color!!!!!

thx, yeah..I like to mix it up..it's always changing...

This is New Dawn with onion chives in front. On the right is a spirea and a russian blue sage.

This Mdm Alfred Derriere on a trellis in front of our house.

This is our pond this past July. The lantana and gaura got a little bit bigger than I thought they would.
Ooops forgot the picture

This message was edited Aug 28, 2007 11:33 PM

Picture

Another one of the pond.

This is our rose arbor and crinums, vege garden in back.

this is a better one of the rose arbor and pond behind it. The lantana and guara hadn't been planted and the datura hadn't started growing yet. That's elephant garlic growing in the left corner.

This message was edited Aug 28, 2007 11:44 PM

silver,

wow you are so accomplished! it looks GREAT! that trellis is massive!!!! nice and STURDY, I'll be needing to make something similar to have grapes on next year. :) The third pic (pond) was just gorgeous---so lush and green in that area. The first pic takes me back "home" to San Antonio (previous home)---Fredericksburg is a beautiful town!

Thanks TNN for saying I'm accomplished.:) I'm flattered, but the truth is I'm continually wandering in the dark when it comes to gardening. I bought alot of books and read alot and then re-read everything I read several times until I thought maybe I might know something. And then I discovered Daves Garden and a whole new world opened up to me.

The trellises are sturdy because DH believes in building something only once.LOL Neither of us like to paint so pretty much everything is made of juniper which is cheap because it's everywhere. When we were designing the arbor I wanted to tell him to build it exactly the way it turned out, but I didn't tell him what I wanted. Sometimes if I give too many specifics he rejects it. I guess it interferes with his creativity. I was very amused that he came up with the same idea that I did.

The pond bed really came into its own this year, partly because of the abundant rain, but also because there is a leak in the liner where the "bog" is. That's area where the gravel is. We wanted the pond to look like it was being fed by a spring, so the pipe from the pump empties into the gravel area and then flows over a fairly wide area into the pond. The datura and hibiscus would not be nearly as big as they are without the leak. It doesn't look like he's going to get around to fixing it, so I think I might as well take advantage of it and plant accordingly.:) I have a rose that needs a better home so I think I'll just put that in when the datura dies down. I didn't know daturas got that big.

Awesome you have a handy husband! Me to! And we've learned to adopt your rule, "believes in building something only once" to because of past errors. So now if we know we want to create a structure that's not the place to be cheap.

I to found/bought lots of gardening books only to regret that once I found Dave's :) because it's a much more accurate resource I find.

The idea of a spring fed pond is beautiful! If you live in the city limits did you have any problems getting approval to put one in?

What I like about the info from DG is that's it's from one person to another. People tell you what they've tried and either it worked or didn't. The advice you get is constantly evolving too. You can read a book by somebody that really does know what they're talking about, but you can't talk to them to find out what they've learned since they wrote the book.

No we didn't get permission to do the pond. May have been a mistake, but so far no problem. It's only 4 x 8 and 14" deep. We wanted to expand it but I don't know when that will ever happen now. We are very busy building a shop now for our business.

Silver,

Perfectly summed up:

Our business is a custom furniture and cabinet shop, so I guess you could say we sort of recycle large plants.:)

Sorry you have to deal with a HOA. That can be a real problem. Do they care what you put in your back yard?

tir....just ran across this thread; isn't it funny but you talk about your curved sidewalk and how you want it straight...i would have killed to have mine curved.......you have seen some of my front....here is an entire frontal...the photo is so bad