I started this entry as a "comment" in my previous entry, but I kept finding old photos to show you, so I've moved the whole thing over here to a regular entry.



This was in response to Nina who asked if we planted all the plants in our gardens over the years:

The answer is yes, most everything in our property has been planted by us. The giant oak tree that towers over the right hand side of the house was here and it has probably tripled in size.



And the pine tree to the left of the deck also was here but much much smaller, it came up to about the gutter line on the house.

I think those are the only things in all the gardens, front and back, that we didn't plant ourselves. We took down a couple of very large trees in the back yard area, (see picture below) and the stump of one is still visible over near the dog's yard. We took down a lovely spirea bush that was growing way out of control (I loved it) right in front of where the front porch/steps are now. Otherwise we had a blank palate to add to.

This was taken just after we moved in here:


And this one was taken a couple of years after moving in - we put in all the plants except that big oak tree to the right of the house and the pine tree next to the side deck; that, too, was here but was quite small when we moved in:



Also, we had to remove the maple tree seen partially in the above view on the left hand side in the front garden. That tree died of its own free will and we just helped it along, kind of "assisted suicide" type of thing. We only had it here for one season. I do love maple trees and we only have them now in the woods behind our house but not on our property.



An early photo showing plants we put in before they took over the place...



That pine tree to the left of the side deck was here, too, and is huge now. I'd like to take it down but Paul won't do it. It's really encroaching on the house and side stairs.

An older picture showing Paul doing some of his minimal yardwork, before we put up the fence to keep the dogs in the front:



And here was something I loved - I built this round stone wall all by myself. The plum tree inside this walled circle is the same one that is at the top of the driveway area - we moved it there when we got rid of the walled circle. This was very early on in our residence here:



Plum tree in it's new home:



And since we basically don't have annuals around the garden, but only hardy perennials, the maintenance is not as much as you'd think.

I used to be the gardener, back in the day when I was nimble and able to do such work, but now it all falls to Paul, thus the less-than-manicured appearance of it all. I am getting used to the wildness of it, though. It's more and more like an English wood, populated by all sorts of creatures, great and small.

Paul will mow the grass when it gets really long and messy, after much nagging from wifey, and he will rake leaves usually once or twice in the fall and twice in the spring. He has raked the front areas but hasn't touched the back gardens yet this year. He will also trim some of the bushes that seem to grow like wildfire here. And he will, on the very rare occasion, pull some weeds if he happens to be in a weedy area. So that's it. We don't do any sort of pest control at all. If it can't live and thrive where we put it, sometimes we'll try moving it, but generally the plants are on their own and we are just their keepers and lovers.

Cheers,

Bex

2003 - Present Archives at Diaryland
2007 - 2009 Archives at WordPress
2009 Archives at JournalScape
2010 Archives at JournalScape
2011 Archives at JournalScape
2012 Archives at JournalScape
2013 Archives at JournalScape