ok took completed photos today of the whole front yard.... my entire garden is now only 16 ft by 22 ft, compared to the 60 ft by 103 foot garden at the old house but much more manageable!

Nice seating area you built there! I have slopes in my yard, too, which is a bit of a challenge at times! It looks great and I am sure in the Spring when everything is in bloom that it will really knock everyone's socks off!

What is the wall? Is that a property divider? o you have a deep lot or a shallow one?

I have a long thin lot. about 40 ft wide and not sure how long. so house is only 22 ft wide and then we have about 10 feet on each side of house.

The wall you see is the retaining wall for our parking area at the street level, pix is a side view of the yard. We get to climb up a whole flight of stairs to get to the street/car area, then down another flight of stairs to the basement, and yet another set of stairs will eventually (once they are built!) take us down to the backyard. right now, we just hike up and down a steep slope to get to the back yard.

Its a GREAT yard for sledding down in the winter time tho!

My imagination is impaired. I am trying to visualize the parking area near your house. You have to take a photo of the house from the parking area for me to understand the stairs. Remember ... I live in flat Florida. Few stairs here. LOL!

I think it's interesting that you have another concrete/block wall bordering your yard. Is that common in CA? You know that wall would be a great place to grow some Morning Glory vines!

NO morning glories here in CA!!! they would overtake the entire state here!

I can take a pix of the house from the parking area, but all you see is the roof I'll try to get better photos after church tomorrow and post em so you can see the set up better.

Awww ... come on! I think the MG vines would look pretty growing everywhere!

LOL! I think they would take over my house here tho!

Last year in February, I posted this photo of my butterfly garden: http://cubits.org/gardenrooms/...

This is how it looks today. The daylilies have filled in parts of the 3-tiered bed. The Black and Blue Salvia on the top tier has turned into a small bush. And plants are filling in everywhere.

Here is looking at that area from a different angle. You can see into the outdoor patio area, through the rose arbor, and out into the butterfly garden. In this photo, you can see how I used a white picket fence to section off the patio room, the fence and house section off the butterfly garden beyond, and then there is the climbing rose cattle panel arbor to the far left that leads out into the backyard.

I eventually want a herb garden (possibly another 3-tiered bed) out in the backyard, a square foot gardening veggie garden bed, other raised flower beds and more seating areas, and my wildest dream is to have a small screen house to raise butterfly caterpillars in. I am in a losing battle with the wasps who eat all the caterpillars and thus dwindling my butterfly population. I currently have 10 Monarch butterfly chrysalises and 12 Gulf Fritillary caterpillars being raised in cages. They will be released as butterflies to grace my yard!

Becky, What a lovely haven you have created. It is just beautiful.

Oh Becky its BEAUTIFUL!!!

Oh my! There is activity on this cubit! LOL! Yay!!!

Thank you Holly and Annmarie!!!

Well .. I just have to brag a little. Here is a photo of my daylily raised bed. All of these daylilies are NOIDs grown from seeds that were received in a trade! I hit the jackpot and got some beautiful bloomers!

You sure did Becky! I really must grow some of these.

Jon - Did I send you some seeds? If so, ya gotta grow them for sure! They need cold stratification, so sow them in the fall in a protected container and then when they sprout you can separate them. No names, unfortunately, but all beautiful. And yours will be crosses from mine! LOL!

Yes Becky you did, good job I haven't sown them yet, thanks.
Jon

Becky your Daylilies are beautiful. Mine haven't started blooming yet. I will be getting a few new ones in a couple of weeks. We are going to a Plant Swap and one of the members is bringing me some new Daylilies.

Holly - Cool! I hope you get some really nice new daylilies to add to your garden! They are really easy to hand cross-pollinate to make seeds to give you even more daylilies. I got over a 100 seeds and most germinated. Though I neglected them when they were young plants and lost some of them. The heat here fried them. I take real good care of them now though. Learned my lesson. I think I have about 60 different plants now. All are NOIDs. No names on any of them. All grown from seeds I received in trades! I have never personally seen such nice daylilies here as I have in my own yard! No lie! The stuff I've seen at the nurseries are plain looking. These about knocked my socks off when they bloomed the first time last year! And this year they've put out huge bloom flushes. I have become a big daylily fan now because of these NOIDs!

I saw this link mentioned in a Southern Living magazine: http://www.southernliving.com/...

Some amazing ways to convert a simple patio or screened room into a stylish and comfortable area to enjoy being outdoors!

I'm planning a wood deck and screen room for the kids when I can get to building it! Great link Becky, thanks.