I have lots of iris that were on the property I purchased. There is 4 acres of surprises for me.

I like the one growing upside down.

Very pretty!

How neat to have all those surprises! You must have purchased the property from a gardener.

PollyK, yes it was a family home she raised 4 boys and the parents lived here until they had to go into a home.

It was in very bad shape because they had gotten to old to take care of all the property but historic plants that live without care are still in their garden beds.

But what fun you will have seeing all the new plants as they come out. However, I must say, it's easier to start a new garden, then to bring an old one back. You've got your work cut out.

At least a couple of them look like historics. Beautiful flowers, thanks for posting them ~Jan

What a lovely surprise. Thank you for sharing the photos.

I tried to bring back the gardens that were here and gave up,ripped them out and started all over again.Believe me there wasnt much to begin with,1 heuchera on the east side of the house
1 hosta further down the row and a couple of Torch llies that nedded a jackhammer to remove.

The garden at the driveway was full of Siberians ,I gave that space to DD.

Polly is right easier to rip-out and start fresh.

It really has not been that hard so I did not have to start from scratch. Some perennials are easy to identify plus when you are dealing with 4 acres there was no way I was going to be able to do them all at once. So as I am working on one there are so many others that things are coming up in the other beds. I just made a journal took pics and when I get to that bed I know what is in there and if I want to move it to another area.

It also depends on the type of gardener you are. I love packed beds more of a cottage garden style. I do not like to see a lot of mulch. I do ground covers and compost in my beds with lots of plants. I hate to weed and the more plants the less weeds.

I retired last year so I have lots of time.

I was selling my other house and the Realtor told me to cut out some of the gardens I had at that house so I was digging plants from that property and bringing them to the new property.

It has been a adventure. I have 15 garden beds.

Your garden style sounds familier.

Wow, 5 garden beds. Please show us pictures when you can.

Not five, Polly -- fifteen!! Can you imagine?

Oops, sorry, my 1 has been sticking. I did read the 15. Probably 5 wouldn't overwhelm me, LOL.

I have everything in Photobucket. I have not figured out how to post from photobucket or if it is even possible. But I do have my account posted in my signature if you want to look through the pics.

It has been an adventure. I am trying to do some of the gardens as just bushes and groundcover. Moving the flowers that I find coming up and moving them in the gardens that went down from not being cared for so many years. There are some old plants that if I had just trashed and not waited to see what I have would have been a lost for me.

Why kill everything and start from scratch when you can use what is already there? When you have this much ground to cover it is economically better for me to try to use what I have on the land.

I hope to have most of the work done this year. I have friends that thought I could not ever have this much land looking good in my lifetime. It has taken me 2 years to get it looking presentable.

Yeaaaa for you.I also have a similar situation. DD and SIL and I sold our houses and pooled our money to buy this big house with a first floor master suite which is my apt. at the end of the house. There were a few plants here but I needed something to keep me from going nuts in this far burb.
I had a five year plan,worked my buns off for 3 years and am still going but not at the pace demanded when I started.
This is one garden on the border of the property thats called Shade in 2008

All thre of the scots pines died and were cut down
Now it looks like this

Dont you agree its so satisfying to show some care has been taken of a baren area?
The work you put in will return rewards you cant measure now.

That is beautiful Jo Ann. I know it will be worth every bit of sweat and tired bones is worth the effort. You did what I did. The first thing I did was dropped 20 trees. I need to drop some more. I do want to keep a lot of mature trees but some are junk trees that grew up and shaded out the original gardens.

I simple dont understand why homeowners dont count their trees and landscape shrubs as important as a new roof when needed.
Was your's a "learn as you go"? I had a vague idea of gardening because I spent time with my grandmother who had a large vedg garden and flowers.Lilies mostly. My knowlege was anecdotal. I have learned a lot from the websites.

I like what yours are becoming.

You are so right the value of trees is as valuable as your roof. I had a drunk driver run down a Lilac bush it was as big as a tree. The insurance company said it was property value of 600.00. Can you imagine? So I am being very careful of what trees I cut down. I could devalue the property by cutting down the wrong trees. Mature trees in the right location are valuable.

I was brought up in a pretty large property home so I was raised to understand the value of plants and gardening was breed in me. I have a pretty good idea of what I am doing it is just a lot of work.

This is my first time trying to rehab a property with this many acres. I have always had medium to large suburban lots to garden. I am just dividing this property up as if I was doing 4 or 5 large suburban garden lots. I have 4 acres of land.

It is a suburban neighborhood it is just every house on this street has a couple acre land property. So I am not living in the country so I have to be aware of what I plant should look like a suburban landscape just larger scale.

Sounds lovely. We are on a shy acre. Its enough for DD and SIL and me.