David, I love all the tropicals and succulents. Living on the edge of a temperate rain forest limits that variety of plants. We only have grass in a little orchard area so I really appreciate seeing your paths open up onto what looks like a little grassy glade.

When we got Doberman Pinchers (we are on the second generation) our grass started disappearing and I started laying pavers over the barren sections. Then about six years ago I started becoming abscessed with making garden beds. The dogs constant playing and patrolling the yard eventually led to lots of bark mulched paths, and no grass. My abscession is on going. Where to put the next plant? How to fit veggies into a shaded yard?

I am currently working on Huglekultur beds for veggies where the filberts once were. Having created it this spring (the day after I discovered the process )and planted it before it was properly settled has led to some interesting challenges. but I am learning as I go.

Those Huglekulters are going to be perfect for you!

Your borders alone show the potential. Add more small twigs and branches fill with soil and I'll bet Sedums and Simpervivums would fill them right in in your zone.

Keep up the good works!

Love your garden David. Nothing is too busy as long as you enjoy it. I could spend hours exploring all the unique areas and walking down those paths. I enjoy seeing so many plants that I can't grow in my zone.

My idea of landscape planning is to buy a plant, walk around the garden until I find a bare spot with the right amount of sunshine and plant it there. A few years later, I may decide it would look better somewhere else, so it gets moved. Works for me.

My style seems to be "Flower Floozy". I like lots of blooms and want something new to be in bloom each day. I also enjoy very modern, stark, minimal gardens and many other styles, but mine is the type that gives me the most pleasure. I overheard a neighbor behind me talking one day and he said if he lived in my house, he'd dig up all the flowers and have a nice lawn. I had to laugh, because when I walk by his house I daydream about where I'd put the flower beds in his yard if I lived there.

I love your anecdote about your neighbor and yours differing vice-versa concepts 'Dew!

I think my landscape planning is exactly the same as yours, and you do "Flower Floozy" beautifully!

Your neighbor is flatly jealous and its a fact!

You GROW!

David

Susan, lovely flowers. Your neighbor obviously doesn't have a clue

I LOVE the term "Flower Floozy"
David, of course your neighbors are jealous.
I chuckle at the remark about the lawn. I get comments all the time that my gardens must be so much work...little do they realize their lawn is much harder to keep up!
Susan, I use the same method of planting as you described. For a new area I do try to have some sort of plan, but of course I don't always follow it. And over time I change things for various reasons. I do have ADD, and I suspect my gardens show it. I also have to fight my urge to be symmetrical, so some areas look very lined up and some chaotic. Oh well!

Agreed, Stilldew. *Gasp* That's a gorgeous bed. I'm trying to restrain myself in what I buy, but my mentality is similar to yours in that I get what I like and then I figure out where to put it I'm with Jewell: flowers over lawn any day!

Jewell, I enjoyed the photos of your developing garden. What an undertaking. It's looking great.

roseblush, I wish I could help you. Your question regarding the ground cover is specific. Is there a gardener/nursery close to you who can answer that for you? What are you aiming to do in your garden? Make it more lush? Want more variety? Add natives? Are there master gardeners around here on allthingsplants?

David, you make me like Florida plants with your pictures. Wonderful garden.

My mother is the one who tells her guy which plant she wants bought, where to put it, how much to prune it, if she wants it fertilized, etc. She is aware of the health of all her plants. Her patio garden was erected by her for the most part as it consists of many little plants that she can easily lift and plant. She is almost 80 years old! I consider her a gardener.

I just took the time to go all the way through this thread and saw all your awesome work on the gardens. Very nice! They are always a work in progress, never perfect, and never finished, in my humble opinion. But that's a big part of the fun. Plant what you like where you like, and if you don't like it anymore, move it.

Roseblush, regarding your groundcover woes, I would like to suggest one of my most favorite and useful plants - I called it bigroot geranium, but the official name is geranium macrorrizum. I looked it up before responding, and it is rated for zones 3-8. This plant will grow in sun or shade and tolerates drought once established. I started using it on a steep slope under large shrubs and trees, and now I use it sort of everywhere. The only qualification it doesn't meet is that I wouldn't say you could walk on it, at least not much. There are a number of cultivars, and most flower in shades of white and pink. If you look at my multiplant posts, you will see plenty of it. I have not yet found a spot where it won't grow and look good. Look up 'Bevan's Variety' on the Missouri Botanical Garden website.
Just a thought...

One photo of it on the hillside:




Here are before and after photos of what my front yard/corner area looked like when I bought my house and what it looks like now. Improvements took place incrementally year after year. Gardening has taught me patience, when nothing else in my life would do so.

I have been missing a good great discussion and all your home eye candy. You have all done such a beautiful job with your landscape. I have made a big mess that I need to fix.

50 lashes with a wet noodle David you did not tell me you had started a discussion over here.

Jeanie - what a wonderful transformation!!!

Susan - I would take your flower garden over lawn hands down. Yep - he was just jealous.

Susan - I also try to plant a variety of plants with differing bloom time so that something new is opening up. I revamped my list of flowering plants and since January, I am up to 105 cut flower plants and about 15 fillers. Almost at saturation point, so I have to look extra hard for bare spots for new plants.

That sounds beautiful Dianne! Send us some pictures!

Okay I promised to discuss my front mistake. As I said it was a blank slate. The couple as they aged could not care for the property and something old people do is cut down trees I do not know why but as a side job I buy and sell homes and it seems to be a pattern when there are elderly people in the home they cut any trees and bushes down in front of the home. Okay I digress.......

This is the front. Blank, nothing, at all the grass was in bad shape. I wanted a formal type planting design to match the style of the house.


This is the first year. I thought a few bushes would be good. Well it is full sun and again the soil was so good. I now have a jungle and you cannot see the front of the house.



I keep over planting for the look I want.

Cinta, I think you made an amazing transformation! If you think it's too much, maybe some selective pruning would suffice. I also overplant for two reasons: everything in my yard is on a slope, and I'm impatient. So when it gets to be too much I cut back or remove pieces or exchange for smaller pieces. But seriously I think it is a nice selection of colors and shapes, and it doesn't seem to be drastically out of scale with the house at all.

Cinta,

You're clearly historical home is flatly a Jewel even without the landscaping.

I think you are trying to cover the modern additions with the electrical meter boxes and such.

That would bother me too on such an incredibly beautiful and scenic home.

Your front landscaping doesn't really seem out of control at all to me really and you have added a lot of interest with what you have done.

I absolutely love your Greenspace and home, and think that the electrical boxes are slowly being forgotten because of your landscaping. Painting that upper lifting conduit in the brick tones would make it completely dissapear visually, and at the top where it joins the house could be a great space for an early Amish Hex Symbol type art,....and knowing you;...preferably one with the face of something in it whether a bird, other critter of choice or humanesque hidden in a Sun shape!

Thanks for sharing your beautiful historic home and love that slate roof!

David

:iagree:
Love the house, like David's painting and symbol ideas too. I don't think you should call it a mistake at all. Looking good, Cinta!

Thank you Jeanie and David.

But.....Do you ever have a vision and just cannot seem to hit that vision? As David so aptly recognized it is a style of house that calls for a certain style of landscaping. I thought I had picked out the right plants. But I think my problem is I am a modern Milly and David your style would be my comfort zone of planting and really what I like. It is what I have in the back. I need to go back to the drawing board and see if I can find more structure type plants.
The front of the house needs more structured plants in my mind.

David that electrical box bugged me from day one. I talked to the electric co to see if I could move it but they said because I am over 100' from the street it is the only place it can be legally. I wish we had like some cities of underground wires. I cannot paint it either. grrrrrrr I am going to try to grow some kind of vine up that wire.

Cinta, I do understand what you mean. I have a few areas where I haven't gotten it quite right yet and can't figure out what to do. I think we all probably have those spots. Just keep working on it, look at books, magazines and online, or whatever you can find to inspire you. I particularly like www.bhg.com; there are lots of garden plans on that site. While I resist using any preplanned garden type things, I do find inspiration from what they show. Maybe even just drive around. It will happen!

Cinta,

The fact that your home is asymmetrical does give you a lot of freedom though. It has so many interesting angles and even the way the windows are arranged allows for your more natural style landscaping at present.....

Do you think the addition of a few pyramidal shaped evergreens in key locations would add some dimension and shape drama?

I like bhg.com to Jeanie. Great idea!