Gaw.. who's got the time for all that? That'd taken me weeks & weeks & weeks to put in all those plants...

I still have over 250 plants in pots, taking my time.

Sue I remember back when you were waiting to buy the house and how you had plans for it back then! You have such vision, and I love the way you've combined plants for year-round interest. I wish I could get my photos organized and labeled so I could show our progress too.
One thing I do is host meetings for various garden clubs at different times of the year. Even if I don't have the yard cleaned up or weeded, i go ahead and volunteer, because it motivates me. People who come year after year can pick out the changes and it gives me a boost. When I lived in the suburbs, people walked by daily, and I shared plants often. Out in the country, nobody really sees it but me, and I don't keep it up as well. I also tend to plant more than I can take care of! I don't get the feedback I need, either, and make more mistakes.
This year, we had record rainfall in the first few weeks of August, so the plants are going into overtime! The hardy hibiscus have 10" blooms, and the daylilies are actually blooming again, and this time they are as big as registration says they should be. I never knew how much difference water could make in summer, because I don't irrigate much and normally summers are HOT and DRY! My plants have been surviving basically on great soil, so I think I'll go ahead and install that drip irrigation and see what would happen with more care, more water, and maybe some more soil amendments.

porkpal said:I am sure the soil is a contributing factor, but the main reason for the fantastic garden is SUE. Remarkable vision and industry, congratulations!

I have to agree with Porkpal. I live two miles away from Sue, where the weather and soil are the same, and I'm surrounded by ugly gardens. Growing a nice garden takes a lot of work and vision. Sue has done more in two years than most of my neighbors have done in decades.

And don't forget, Sue had a broken ankle earlier this year!!

Sue.......

Thanks for posting your "before" photos. It made me look at mine. I totally agree that it takes a lot of hard work and vision ... I don't have a visual memory, so that part is hard for me, but it also takes patience and passion and your garden shows that you have all of the virtues to build a beautiful garden.

I had paths, too, when I started. Here's a couple of my "before" pictures:









Spring a couple of years ago ... I am still workin' on it.






I didn't take any progress photos this spring, but I will next year.

Smiles,
Lyn

Lyn - is that all red rock? Painful to remove.. waaaay too much like work!

Oh, yes, it's red rock and the dead soil I mentioned in my other post is under that rock. I traded some of it for the rock I needed for the french drain I had to have put in to control the water seeping under the slope across the yard and then under the house. The rest ended up as the base for the floor of the woodshed I just about had to rebuild. I made several oval and rounded beds to get rid of the straight lines and, of course planted the roses first.

Now, it's time to make it look more like a garden. Yup ... a lot more work. I am just glad I was too ignorant to know just how hard it was going to be to create a garden. The dead soil is still hard to work in, but years of mulching twice a year has made it viable soil, plus all of the other stuff I have hauled up the stairs to help that process along.

Smiles,
Lyn

Skiekitty said:And don't forget, Sue had a broken ankle earlier this year!!

And that explains the explosion of weeds! Still hurts, still limping.

See, it's good to take progress pictures, helps keep you motivated when you see how far you really have come! Great improvement over that red rock!

Found out the hard way last night around 1am that just because your Corona pruners are closed doesn't mean you can't cut the crap out of your thumb with them... the blade extends past the blunt side! OUCH! And open cut + bleach = ouch.

1am what are you doing with clippers at 1AM?

Toni,
Here's a better headlamp for you!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00081NHBA/

Watch out for critters at that time of night! Your clippers may not be sharp enough!

Sue - Couldn't sleep, wanted to clean them as they were a bit rusty, so got out a brillo pad & started to scrub. Got 'em not-rusty, but got 'em bloody, too. Bad thing is that this little cut, while small (about 1/4" long, but kinda deep), is exactly where I hit the space bar when I type.. and I spend all friggin' day on a keyboard. Took forever for it to stop bleeding, too. And I use a lot of Clorox CleanUp and I had just scrubbed some flooring in my husband's office like 15 minutes before & still had bleach on my hands. I don't sleep much any more.. usually get to bed around midnight, up again at 230, back in bed by 245-3, up again at 5, and maybe up for the day then. So I putter around if I can't get to sleep. I was really bad last year.. I left my pruners out where they could get rusty & I need to clean them. I cleaned 2 already.. I have 2 more to scrub down w/steel wool.

Ouch, well, good advice then from someone with first hand (pun intended) knowledge!

This is for your daily AWWW!!.. a lesson on how to Cat.

http://imgur.com/gallery/bmKpy

Awww! Super cute!

However one further bit of clipper advice: don't sit down with them in a back pocket...

PPal - Do that all the time.. amazing how much crap I stick in my pockets. Goes back to when I worked at ABX.. I was always sticking my scangun in my front pocket.. then a bottle of soda.. then this, that, & the other. Have to do a pat-down every time I take off my pants to make sure that I get all the crap outta my pockets! Clippers, bottles, rocks, twist ties, the worst I had in my back pocket that I forgot about until I was about to sit down was this:

I am now officially wise. I received a Garden Sages Badge this morning. Mostly I have been answering questions that have to do with veggie gardening.

And I am so pleased with myself that I also bought myself a new Hummingbird Badge.

I deleted my Garden Sage Badge. I don't deserve it The only think I know how to grow are roses and weeds. I've done quite well with the weeds this year.

Smiles,
Lyn