When I moved to my just-under 2 acre yard house in '95 the yard was so barren and ugly birds wouldn't land in it. There were trees, but the yard ran right up to the house and around the forsythia bushes that some knucklehead planted in front of every window and then ignored so that they grew up OVER the windows. There was a small orchard that had not been pruned in at least 4 years. All the previous owner did was to run her riding lawnmower over the areas it would reach and allow the grass to grow up everywhere else. A gutter had come loose from the "high" end of the house (sloping property) and had washed the dirt away between the house and the concrete steps that led from the basement garage to the front deck. She'd helpfully thrown concrete blocks, boards, and a half-wine barrel in the gully but did not reattach the gutter! So, when I moved in it took me forever to just bushwack back and remove the forsythias, put up the gutter and terrace back in the ground between the house and the steps, prune back the fruit trees and removed the impossible ones, and create flower and veggie beds. Lots of times I'd be out there until full dark pruning branches, dragging junk off to my huge compost and branch piles, or moving around the huge pile of mulch I had delivered (two dump truck loads). When I took my son around the neighborhood to sell cub scout popcorn, he identified us as living in the corner house...to which one neighbor replies "oh yeah were the crazy lady lives that's up the tree in the dark sawing." I said, yep, that would be me. LOL They love the resurrected yard. My house is the first in the cul-de-sac and it had been an eyesore for the 4 years that the previous owners had it. Its not perfect (I need to just bomb the flower bed at the mailbox to get out the creeping juniper and bermunda grass) but it is now a productive yard that invites family, friends and YES the birds flock to the yard now. BEFORE (Ok, I had put the gutter back up and started wacking back the bushes): AFTER: They don't look down on this corner property anymore. They do drop by from time to time for cuttings from the lavender, slips to start their own herbs, or in hopes of a bag of squash.

Sorry; I was wrong about thinking that the Corintian Rose and Mauve cultivars as being new developments. Did some checking and now realize that a few years after more nurseries began offering the Ornamental trees, I must have seen a photo of the Corintian Rose which appeared to bloom more red colored. But the latest photos I have seen of the Corintian Rose seem to reveal that tree's blooms being more true to what reported descriptions of it have been turning up. Dr. Dennis Werner had successfully developed these Corinthian peach cultivars, and reports of them started showing up in web perspectives back over the winter of 1998-99. Those perspectives projected that nurseries would be making these trees available by the winter of 1999-2000. I have not seen the standard nurseries in my area offering these trees, but after I inquired about them to my favorite nursery on the northwest edge of town. They fairly easily found some being offered to the wholesale markets from a local regional grower. My extra research about the development of the different cultivars has reminded me of what I had obviously forgotten when I posted what I replied above. The truth is that Back in the winter of 1998-99; the cultivars which had already been developed were Corinthian, White, Corinthian Pink, Corintihian Rose, and Corinthian Mauve. With the Rose and the Mauve cultivars just now showing up more often on various web sites, must mean that now those cultivars are catching the eye of people more than the White and Pink cultvars are right now. One thing I do know is that the photos on the web of these trees do not capture the dynamic beauty that one is surprised to see in any of these trees that are thriving out in their planting beds. Must be something about the camera shots being so far away that the size and shapes of the flowers appear more non-descript in the photo's and also the amazing way that the sun make the colors of those flowers to appear so stunning must be an aspect that the camera's missed capturing in those photos of these trees that I have been more recently seeing on the Web. I know that the Pink cultivar blooms certainly are such, simply because a friend of mine planted four of these trees along the narrow strip along her front driveway and that boarders her neighbor's yard. The first Spring that her trees burst out in bloom, her husband who never seems to say much about the items at her house that we have planted, well even he, was taken aback at the sight of how stunning those blooms were. At first sight he rushed to get his camera and quicky attached that photo to an email and sent it to me to let me know how amazed he was at first sight of those tree tree's bloom. That was 3 years ago, and the only other item he has reacted the same about was after he first saw blooms, on the hardy, Blue Satin Hibiscus that I had trained up in a tree form and helped my friend plant at her house. Those clear blue...

After a long absence from gardenweb, I stumble on this new forum. What a coincindence because I have been absent because I told myself no cruising the web until I had finally eradicated the ivy that is threatening to strangle the north border of my property. I bought a 40 year old home from the original owner. This owner had done the original landscaping way back when so i had some very nice, well established plants...mostly natives. Pinus contorta contorta, Doug Fir, Redwood, Coffeeberry, Manzanita, a glorious and huge ceanothus, Port Orford Cedar. But I also got ivy plants that went on forever, a dying pear tree, a dying Monterey Pine, liquid ambers and norway maples planted way to close together. I have thought of the seven year process more a rehabilitation process. I went at it like triage: remove the dying pine, thin the maples, prune and try to bring back the pear. Little by little remove that damn ivy. I finally got back to the two mother plants.....with stems as big around as my upper arm. IT has been a three year process gettign rid of it two lawn waste bins a week. I have had great fun replanting that denuded area....using natives only....tiarella, saxifrage, heucheras, dicentra, ribes, Oso berry, ceanothus, evergreen huckleberry, more manzanita, native hazelnut, mountain mahogany. I am glad it took me so long to remove it all because it gave me time to reallythink about what I wanted there. 7 years ago Iwas largely ignorant of CA natives having moved here from the midwest. I have always been an organic gardener so ecological principles go without saying.What I have noticed during this whole process is to get it done right takes enormous patience, hard work and knowledge. OR lots of money so you can hire the right folk to do it for you pronto. Unfortunately the average person seens not to have any or all of the above. Not that it is theei fault. Americans work longer hours than most of our first world counterparts. Because we want to or because we must just ot make ends meet. So when I look around my forty year old neighborhood I see either sadly neglected and overgrown yards....or unispired bonsaid/poodle cut plants tended to by mow/blow/go guys. There are a few folk who like to garden and have "restored" their yards but only after patronizing the big box retail/hardware places and ending up with the safe things: margurites, junipers, roses, agapanthus, etc. The natives dont seem to be considered even though we have at least 3 wonderful native plant nurseries nearby. I hope this can change and look upon my little back yard restoration as a step in the right direction. Claire

Wow again MrC. I'm tired just thinking about all those lilies. I'm planning to convert the 24 ft diameter above ground pool area to raised bed gardens. so far the pool is gone and 3 out of 5 of the raised beds are constructed. Still need to distribute the rocks that ringed the pool into each bed and order the dirt to fill each one. I'm also finally creating a compost heap. This soil is so sandy. It really needs compost and lots of it. I'm getting a little bird crazy. My SIL in South Carolina has attracted blue birds to her back yard. so far there have been 3 fledged families. I would love to do the same but worry that blue birds are not prevalent in this area. Last I want to get climbing roses established against the shed wall. My hope is to construct trellis' similar to those on Nantucket. I painted the shed wall today and will transplant a couple of climbing roses I've been nursing along. Finally, can you belive this weather!!!!!! Yikes!!!! Everything is gonna bloom at the same time!!! BTW This year's tomato plants are coming along. I chose 2 varieties of green heirlooms along with 4 others. Can't believe I missed "Ruth's Perfect"--- next year for sure!!!