So this is how he thinks my gardens should look.
Everything all neat and tidy in a box.



This is how I am making it look

Pictures as you progress! Please?

Ask your husband to picture what this will look like if I ever finish.

ok here is what it looked like from google earth before we bought it


when we went to look at it

after clearing trees

Right front further back

Back yard

Haha!!! I love the cottage style That second pic is what I'd like my yard to look like eventually. My wife however thinks we need to have some grass...

Greene

your husband is as misinformed as mine He'd prefer concrete if he thought he could get away with it! Your gardens in progress are great

You got my vote! I know it's gonna look amazing with your entire natural landscape!

I want to know how greene got a picture of my back yard!

I'm still waiting for "Yard Crashers" to come do a makeover here!

I like your style of a garden much better.

I like the cottage style. Looks like you have enough room to compromise and have both you could even have a small knot garden for that formal look that might satisfy your husband's eye and it could be worked into an area of the cottage garden.

daylilydreams said:I like the cottage style. Looks like you have enough room to compromise and have both you could even have a small knot garden for that formal look that might satisfy your husband's eye and it could be worked into an area of the cottage garden.

Good thinking, Betty. I just bet the contrast of the two garden styles would set each other off very well.

I've always wanted to do a very miniaturized version of a formal garden area here, but haven't done so yet.

He has his side of the yard to do what he wants.But usally he stops taking care of his stuff and I wind up with even more stuff to take care of.
He wants all the yard to look like that.Mean while the few plants he planted are dying cause its fun until it gets hot....

There's the difference in the two styles, I guess; in the cottage garden style we know we'll get more plentiful and highly varied rewards (more blooms), and a few (usually welcomed) surprises if we keep on going regardless.

Chelle: " a few (usually welcomed) surprises" -- I am apparently an unintentional cottage gardener... I always have more than "a few" surprises even in the veg garden... for which reason I kind of hate to do too much mulching, tilling, etc.! I get an awful lot of extra plants by (1) not obsessively deadheading and (2) not weeding until I can tell what's actually sprouting -- some people would just call me lazy perhaps

I wouldn't call it that; I'd call it wise. A case of selective energy conservation. At least that's what I tell myself!

Can you do a cottage style in the back yard and something more formal in the front? Choose plants for the formal style garden that don't require as much fuss so it won't be as much work. Shrubs eventually won't need watered that often and slower growing ones won't need hedged as often. Use pots and mulch and add some decorative rocks, a bench or fountain, you don't have to do alot to maintain that when he shows up missing in action.

Hazeleyes - I had that exact same problem several years ago.

This is what the front yard looks like the way my husband had it.



When I took over the landscaping in 2010, I converted it to this. It took me 2 years to get rid of the lawn one square foot at a time, but it was worth it.

Wow, Soils that's incredible!!! I like those crapes but other than that the yard was boring. Now its breathtaking!