Purplemoon, Thank you for the sweet welcome! And thank you so much for that link. What a wonderful compilation of art---just amazing! Just as I expected, I was still up looking at the GJ Inspiration Album when I noticed the time -- 2:20 A.M. ! I didn't just look at the photos. I enlarged, cropped, magnified just so I could inspect every detail up to page 9. (guess you know what I'll be doing tonight when the family settles in and I have the computer all to myself. LOL) I had spent the last few weeks reorganizing, pulling out, moving, transplanting, changing focal points and now I have a whole brain full of new ideas thanks to all of you who have posted photos! I have an album at PhotoBucket but it only includes nicer areas of the gardens. Never dreamed anyone would be interested in my camping coffee pot or tennis shoes planters! I'll have to start taking new pictures and this time include what I used to think was "my way of saving the landfills and me being thrifty --- and anyway, who wants to see dirty white tennis shoes planted?". That's what I used to think, now I've found this board! Also, more about me --- other than a few 4", 6" and 8" clay pots to use as starters, there isn't a pot or plant stand in the backyard that I've ever paid for. I love curb shopping!

Hi all! Happy first day of Spring - especially for we northerners!!! Record snowfalls, record days below zero, that's what we had here in CT. I'm anxious about my saucer garden, but still optimistic. I took the last pix yesterday - the last day of winter. I can't yet get any closer than that pix shows but from what I can see, it's only the Blue Star Creeper that looks iffy to me. The three pix below are from Jan 21, Feb 14, and Mar 19, 2014. I still have a frozen stream along the path. In anticipation of success for this saucer experiment, let me add a few notes and tips that I forgot to include above. On my second try I used a lot of local dirt over the base of potting soil. Seems happier - potting soil not earthy enough? This sled is made of aluminum. I don't know about plastic - might its chemicals leach into the dirt over time? Maybe a year or two would be okay? I don't know - anybody else? Since last summer I water (drizzle) with rain water only, and only when needed, concentrating on the drier perimeter, letting it soak to the center. All that said, I'll probably finish this thread with one more pix in early summer - with critters. As for the rest of my time in here - I'm still learning from everyone else - with very little expertise. Onward and upward for us all - flowers included! -- K

Sammy, All kinds of potential there! You can probably do pretty much what you want. I'm enjoying imagining things there now... Is this waterway a public access area? Then you might want to start your planning with a decision as to how you are going to have some visual separation between your yard and the public area, if this area has a noticeable amount of traffic. It seems to me that that planning would come first, and then some decisions as to exactly where you want the pathway to come down the hillside. It doesn't look bad as it is now, but depending on how you switch things around, you might want to find a way to visually separate the differently colored stepping pavers so that one sweep of the eye doesn't notice the difference in materials. As a matter of ease in walking, you might also want to buy some more of either kind of paver and place them a little closer together. Consider buying enough pavers more that you can pile some up as some platforms right next to the path. Pile them at different heights on the way down the slope directly next to a stepping paver so that you can place large and variously sized pots on those little platforms next to the path. Make sure that you have different plants in the different pots, including some vertical things, like (perhaps) some ornamental grasses. One other way of handling this might be to buy some extra pavers, of whichever color you want to make the path, and then use the other color, of which you'll have fewer, to make the piles that become pot platforms. You might be able to get some of those pots in a color that looks really good with one color of paver or the other. You might actually want to investigate pots before deciding on which color to select for the stacked pavers. It's amazing how much little platforms next to a downward path can add to the overall appeal of the path. Another consideration would be to add some plants that are evergreen and some that are rather tall, to use as a backdrop for the roses in little garden rooms that can branch off the main path. Camellias are just one plant that can do this "wall" separation nicely, if you get varieties that are good for your area. I'd suggest going with sasanqua camellias if you do camellias; they are more hardy and aren't prone to root rot. As long as the area that floods doesn't stay under water for very long, you might even be able to grow some sasanqua camellias in the low flat area. A few varieties you might consider for vigorous upright growth: Kanjiro, Hiryu, Hugh Evans, Misty Moon. I think you'd absolutely adore Shishigashira in some pots placed on paver stacks going down the path. (We actually have cut a shishigashira bloom here in January, and again in February, after multiple nights in the teens, including a couple with an official low of 13 degrees!) A bunch of crepe myrtles will be beautiful near the stream. I also think it might be nice to have some evergreen things there to separate your yard from any public areas. As long as the area doesn't have standing water, there might be some evergreens that would work. Arizona Cypress or perhaps Burfordi Holly might work. The taller growing sasanqua camellias would work, though it would take a few years to do much for your privacy. For something else that isn't evergreen, a weeping willow tree or a River Birch might be nice. A single weeping willow tree can become a natural focal point. Depending on your budget for this, it isn't impossible to have something like a pergola built at the bottom of your stairs. You wouldn't want it directly in the public access portion of the lower area, but farther away from the stream than that. You can build it with an elevated floor and nice stout posts, with a large planter built on one end that rises maybe 30 inches above ground level, with sides exactly meeting up with the outer edge of the posts on one end. Put wonderful dirt in the planter, and then plant it with a couple of Madame Alfred Carriere roses to climb there. MAC likes a lot of water (though not standing water, of course). Build a little bridge to get from the path to the pergola. (I've little notion of how to do that, but one or more of the Sunset building projects books have something like that in them.) Under the bridge to the pergola and all around on the flat low ground, plant ferns and lots of bulbs and other flowers that will give a wild carpet look to the low ground, and help to emphasize the pergola as it rises from that low ground covering. Hang a couple of wooden swings inside the pergola, and place a pot or two with a somewhat vertical plant at its entrance, and one that's very low and traipsing. Do the same thing with pots at the point where the bridge meets the path. Martha Gonzales will look wonderful on your hillside, Sammy. It might be nice to repeat her near the path as you go down, especially given her height. Or consider her for some pots going down alongside the path too... Lots of choices! The possibilities are endless! Have fun! Best wishes, Mary

mine - or should I say my daughters - Ah! who am I kidding! It may be enjoyable to the girls and any little kids who stop by sit and stare for HOURS, but essentially it was my idea, I designed the whole thing, and have been the driving force behind having it at all... And I continue to think up and create new things for it... Anyway - mine has ended up being placed under a 2 year old corkscrew willow tree instead - It's closer to the house and is much much bigger than originally anticipated. For now the sweet woodruff and wild strawberries are filling out the area around the base of the willow, there's a violet and elfin thyme covered hill with a small lake at the bottom of it and a small gravel path leading to the top (a gazebo and miniture roses pruned to look like climbing roses are being added to the top of the hill later this fall) and a flattened out hollow covered in irish moss for a "meeting place." I have variegated forms of thyme and melissa lavender as shrubs around the edge of the garden and a few branches from my over zealous pink and white weigela hangs over the "hollow". The fairy garden is actually an extension of my butterfly garden, just slightly shaded (and will be deeply shaded when the willow fills out over the next couple of years) I just added some rembrandt tulips I hope will give a nice dramatic splash of color next spring before the freesias, columbine, violets and roses bloom. (and after years of plain colored tulips I can tell the girls that the fairies painted these ones!!!) I will post pics as soon as I can but right now I'm being selfish - want to keep it to myself till I feel it has some semblance of being ready for public viewing... :) Also waiting for the plants to fill out and really look like it does in my head (did that make sense or did I just seem nutty???) As well as the gazebo I'm working on 4 houses to put nestled in the sweet woodruff and a "bait shop" for beside the lake and looking for some small stumps or seats to put around the thyme hollow, maybe even a little swing for the fairy babes? Next year I'm hoping the willow will be big enough to dangle twinkling lights in and lots of birdhouses of course... Soon as I figure out where to put it I'm adding some white heliotrope that I grew from cuttings and have slightly too much of. Now I'm just hoping that the wild strawberries calm down cause they are going bananas and I fear they will choke out the rest of my plants... I'm 30 years old, mother of 4, a criminal psychologist in training and I am no afraid to admit that I love my garden. I am envisioning a few years from now laying in soft green grass in the shade of my contorted willow tree staring into the little village and seeing if I can see the sparkling glint of gossamer wings, or hearing the giggling of fairy children in the rustling leaves of the willow tree.....