I have been building the gardens here since I moved to this house with my daughter and son in law.
Retirement left this "A" type with some energy and nothing to do.
2007 was the first year. I wasn't as much of a gardener as I am since joining Daves.and have been thrilled with the friends I have made there and see in the crowd on Cubits.
This is a huge piece of property with the house situated at an angle in the upper right hand corner facing south west.

This is the back yard long view from May 2008.The property at the right belongs to the neighbor who grows a blackraspberry bed of weeds.

This view is from May this year

I ripped out 20 year old junipers,so overgrown I couldnt get the windows open..
West side garden 2008

June of 2009

These are garden scenes from last season. This garden is new,lazagna type and a real lesson in getting my act together. I wilsh I had laid the lazagna bed down the fall before. It was horible to dig thru newspaper and sod and clay and rocks to put in the plants I ordered.The bed was alid down in March and the plants arrived in April so they HAD to go in.
A winter would have made digging easier.

Later

Long views from the deck Spring 2009

Mid summer2009

Back of the house

I had no garden space to speak of where I lived before.I planted 12 tubs set along the driveway.The house was built in 1927 and the garage was too small to use, so we never drove back there.

I moved them all to this huge deck.

Thus began my fun with coleus.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jg...

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Jo Ann, I could sit on that deck for many a long morning! That's such an inviting spot with the gentle filtered sun wafting through. Thanks for sharing a glimpse of your gardens. I'm eager to see how the lasagna garden progresses this year. I've contemplated using that method for my next garden and I value the feedback you gave about allowing adequate prep time.

OHHHH Yes.Lazagna is the way to go.
This is a fairly large on 15x35. I would never have survived turning over that much soil.
15 feet of it will be DD's vedgtable garden.She has been throwing compost,lawn clippings amd manuer there and will rototill this spring.
I believe there is a Lazagna garden thread or forum on Daves. I laid down newspaper and mulch in late March and by July the newspaper hadnt dissolved.
I am going to extend a bed in my Woods Walk garden only 6x2 but lazagna is what I will do and use compost on top of the newspaper instead of mulch.
You can see where I have staked out the extention
I wont put plants in there until next year.
I will have an arrangement of planters on top so there will be plants there, in pots.

I put down newspaper right on top of the lawn. We had a load of amended topsoil dumped on the area that we would be using. (Truck needed to come in early while ground was still hard). We think this was the most inexpensive way to go.

After that I put in all the perennials that would need a few years to pop. Then we put in tons of canna, calla, tulips, lilies, and dahlias so that we would have something to look at while the perennials did their thing for a few years. The area was filled by a small truckload. 20 yards filled an area of 30 x 30 and made a raised bed. I planted ground cover around the periphery so the mower could do the job with no weed wacking necessary.

No digging, not too many weeds because everything was planted so tight with straw stuffed around plants, and a periphery that could be kept clean by the mower. This is the way to go for senior seniors like my DH and me.

Roses you said a mouthfull. When I discovered how to increase a garden without digging I was there.I am 74,arthritic,balance issues,cataracts. Plants and bulbs have to be forgiving because I dont squat or kneel. I am amazed at how plants that were put in askew (i give a lot of compost in the hole as an added incentive to grow) did pretty well this first year. It turned into a nice garden this September.
I have added Asiatic lilies OTlilies, Daylilies,Black Hollihocks,GalleryBlue Lupins Hope to see them this summer.

Jo Ann,

I was given this thing for a gift on Mother's Day.

You can turn it up and sit on it.......or

You can turn it down and kneel on the soft rubber padding. The side bars give you something to lean on while you try to get up.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ...

It's called the Rumford Gardener's Seat

What do you think of it. It takes me a while to get up, but I can do it.