My gosh, that looks Gorgeous ! what a great site! would be nice to have a path winding down to the creek, and a landing or platform or resting-place by the water... and you could wander down to the water thru' rose-gardens on each side... the path could wind back and forth... what a nice little-heaven-on-earth... and have really tall roses or climbers in the back, and mid-sized in the middle, and Polyanthas or short ones along the sides of the path, so you have whole banks of roses as you go down the path.... very exciting to visualize it...... good luck, sally

Wow, what a grand opportunity! That's a lot of space. Maybe you and the neighbors could pool your resources and get some roses and the other great plants some have suggested. It doesn't seem as steep as I thought. I just know you can make a beautiful garden spot out of it. Try to put something on paper. Maybe that will get your mind organized about it. Maybe a meandering path 5'-6' wide from your one side of your yard to the other (looping in and out) with a connection to the public access area and plantings along it on the upside and downside, so basically you'd have a bed at each lower corner and one in the upper middle with the path dividing upper and lower. Maybe with longer steps (3 blocks together and a rise to the next 3 blocks) with mulch around them. I don't know...just some thoughts. Very exciting.

Sherry

Thanks, Sally. You can't see the roses well now because they are just coming out. The winter has been so harsh that the roses look like sticks and twigs. One section look particularly bad because I had a huge vine of poison ivy. I waited to deal with it, and now cannot touch it until it gets leaves, and I can find it.

We are going to put 4 Martha Gonzalez near the path on the south. And today I bought many packages of seeds, and of bulbs.

Thanks Sherry. I didnt' realize how much the roses did not show up. We are definitely putting in more roses, but right now we have about 10 not counting the ones on the bank before the slope.

Now that the city has made the lower part level, it will be a fun place to sit, but we cannot count on that to plant. Every year the water covers it about 3 times. It goes back in a few hours, but I am afraid to plant anything there except crape myrtles. As the crape myrtles get going, I am going to take the cuttings and try to start them on the flat section. I don't want motorizedd vehicles to try to go there. (dune buggies, motorcycles, etc.)

Sammy

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

Oh, Mary. You are creative, and I am going to take good notes.

The area is really private, but people can walk through. People used to go through with dogs, but then skaters started going through, and then bicycles. That is when I decided to not clean up behind the building beside us, and to put in a rugosa rose. Anyone trying to go through has a tough time now. We even put in some stakes close together, but the heavy machinery tore them out.

The neighbors from across the creek can see the yard, but it is pretty hard to see the back yard above the hill. It is an area where there are all backyards, and the streets and driveways are on the front of the houses.

I feel fortunate that the other neighbors mow their lawns and keep the area nice. The house next door is rented, but I was very friendly with them years ago, and mentioned how many snakes come through the creek. I said that our appreciation of the snakes and other critters encourages us all to keep the brush way down. Isn't that mean?

This man has been a great neighbor, and I hope he stays for years to come. It may not have been necessary for me to have said that.

Sammy

Wow, you've got a lot of potential there, this will be gorgeous when you've finished! I know it's depressing this time of year (I'm south of you in Dallas, and my yard looks horrible), and I always feel like I'm always "planning", but Spring is coming!

It's a beautiful area with a lot of potential. My two bits' worth of advice is that I would make a wildish-looking garden, with relatively informal plants (Hybrid Musks and once-blooming old roses, not Hybrid Teas would be an example) and no highly exotic-looking plants; and I would research native plants for inclusion. I agree that a pergola might well be feasible, and that garden "rooms" and sitting places are a good idea, but then they are in just about every garden. Have fun!
Melissa

Thanks Melissa. I am getting ready to go back out in a few minutes. It is interesting that you mention Hybrid Musks because we already have Penelope and 2 Ballerina there. We have 2 Carefree Wonders, 2 Carefree Delights, and The Fairy. Every year I intend to move Erfurt, and may or may not this year.

It looks so bad now before the leaves, that I need to take a picture later on.
Thanks everyone.
Sammy