Before / After pics of my backyard

14 years ago

here's a few pics I took of an area that I newly landscaped this year.

Here's what it looked like (the grassy area between the pool & the 8' wood fence) when we first bought the house in Nov 08. Kind of blah...huh?

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Here's two "work in progress" shots from late March this Spring. I've ripped out the sod & begun planting a few things.....mostly just some small palms & bananas that I brought with me from my previous home in Trussville. We now live in Alabaster.

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And finally here's three shots of what it looks like today. We've had a great growing season this spring/summer & overall I'm pretty pleased at how it turned out. But next spring I plan on removing a few more feet of sod so I can spread things out a little. Want to add more color, also.

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Thanks for viewing!

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Comments (14)

ala8south
14 years ago
Wow! That's awesome! You did a great job. You know, you really want to show people pics like this and ask, "now why the heck would you want to have just a plain grass area there?" It's not like plants are horrendously expensive. You obviously put in alot of work. But folks can make changes in their "landscape", or lack of, that don't cause them to be out working all the time. And what a glorious difference it is to have growing things around!
Nice job.
dell
terramadre
14 years ago
WOW! A great combo of textures to achieve a lush tropical look.
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Yes, we all need more trees. I saw something in the news that SL County wants to see 1 million trees planted in the next 10 years. I don't know how they plan to promote that, but it's a great goal. Anyway, I think that's funny how you planted in the neighbor's yard. Reminds me of guerrilla gardening (http://www.guerrillagardening.org) where people sneak out at night and plant nice things to beautify neglected spaces. Anyway, you DEFINITELY should be gardening, Sharla! Don't be daunted just because it can be complicated. It's not always complicated, and you'll learn some things along the way as you do it. It's so rewarding to grow stuff and see your accomplishments as they make your yard a nicer place. As for the red maple, just watch it and see. It may be fine, but if the leaves get pale or yellow, it is getting iron chlorosis from our alkaline soil. It's not that we don't have enough iron, but it can't be used very well by some plants when they're in alkaline soils. These are usually trees or shrubs that came from back East or some other climate that has rich, acid, forest soils. Anyway, if that happens, post back here, and we can help you deal with the sick tree.
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catbird
14 years ago
Add my WOW to the chorus. Great job! Thanks for sharing the pics with us.
tedevore
14 years ago
Wow, if I had some more sunny spots, i would love to try some of those plants.
I see a lot of trees behind--do they have southern or western exposure to the sun?
john_trussville
Original Author
14 years ago
ala8south, terremadre, catbird, & tedevore Thanks so much for your kind comments.

tedevore, the planting bed has a southern exposure but still only gets about 6 or 7 hours of direct sun in the summer because of several large trees in neighbor's yards to the east & west.
haley45
14 years ago
WOW! You should be proud of what you were able to accomplish in one year! It looks so lush and tropical!
User
14 years ago
Fantastic tropical plantings. Very well executed. I wish I had an area by my pool that I could do that but alas no lawn space. I do have a walled garden though which allows me to get away with some things that wouldn't otherwise survive.

What kind of palm and banana do you have that survives the freezes? Thanks for showing such great landscape ideas. Caroline
john_trussville
Original Author
14 years ago
haley45: Thanks for your kind words.

trailrunner: Caroline, yes obviously I go for the tropical look. If a plant doesn't have that exotic, tropical look about it, I usually don't buy it. I'm sure those who like a more structured, well designed landscape think mine looks like an overgrown, out of control mess, but I love the dense, jungle-like appearance. Always room to squeeze in one nore plant..LOL.

The green bananas are Musa 'basjoo' & the one with the reddish tint in the 4th & 5th pic is Ensete 'maurelii'. The basjoos are heavily mulched & left in the ground. The Ensete is cut back, dug & stored bare root in my garage.

The palms are windmill (Trachycarpus fortunei), sabal minor, sabal palmetto, sabal birmingham, needle (Rhapidophyllum hystrix), and pindo (butia capitata), all very hardy here when established.
drippy
14 years ago
I like the dense, jungle-like appearance too, John - well done! Grass is an ugly ground cover - your garden is WAY more interesting. That's one very inviting poolside!
shadowpaige64507
14 years ago
can we get some more close up pictures? I really like what you have done with it.
john_trussville
Original Author
14 years ago
drippy & shadowpaige; Appreciate your nice comments. I'm kinda surprised there are so many other backyard jungle aficionados around here.

shadowpaige there are a few more pics in my post on the Hardy Palm board. Click the link below. If you have any specific questions about any of the plants, feel free to ask.

Here is a link that might be useful: More pics on the Hardy Palm board
User
14 years ago
Thank you John for the info...I will look into what I have room for in my garden. c
Carol love_the_yard (Zone 9A Jacksonville, FL)
14 years ago
John, unfortunately the Hardy Palm board link above results in 404 error.
john_trussville
Original Author
14 years ago
love the yard,

Yes, unfortunately there are only two pages on the Hardy Palm Board & every post eventually gets pushed off.

I'll try to add a few more pics here soon.

Before / After pics of my backyard

Comments (14)

ala8south

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Before / After pics of my backyard

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