My Garden Room as promised from Mary lu's post on discussions

17 years ago

These are a few pix of a work in progress. The entire area was a fenced dog yard for my son's 3 huge German Shepards until about 2 years ago.

The first two are what the spot looked like after removing the dog fenceing, prior to any landscaping.

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This is one of it just after the new fence was finished. My DH and I built it.

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This one is of the fence area after I painted and planted a few things.

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Here's one from the back side showing the area after I made the planting beds.

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Another view of the beds.

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This one is looking from the new area toward the large oak tree and graveled terrace, sitting area.

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One last one of the center bed with copper bird bath, looking towards the terraced sitting area.

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Hope you enjoyed my "Garden Room" tour. As usual, it is like most gardens, in that it is never finished. I am constantly changing and adding to it.

Jan

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Comments (12)

highjack
17 years ago
IF you ever get finished with yours, come on up and help me. Mine will never be finished.

Thanks for the pix - Brooke
mary_lu_gw
17 years ago
Thank you so much for posting your pictures. Beautiful. Before/after pics as so much fun to see! You have accomplished a great deal in a very short time.

Love your fence. So much work, but so rewarding when done! Well...as done as it ever gets.... :-)
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Been there. Last summer I was hired by a client for several projects ,one was to untangle several old climates vines in a bed that had been invaded by a weed vine and was covering everything in the bed. As you can imagine this was a painstaking job. He freaked over the amount of labor this took.He came and went watching me work away and kept asking "Are you having a fun time?" I work at a quick pace naturally but one careless yank on this one and there goes the climates. I found it interesting that a job he wasn't willing or capable to do he wanted me to do for a wage you don't need an education, experiance or even the english language to get that kind of money for. I pay my lovely non- english speaking cleaning lady more! I truely value her help. I do know how to clean but I just don't have the time so I hire her occasionaly and don't try to give her half at the end of the job. I did do before and after photos which helped as I tooted my own horn over the thourough job I did. Here is where the rub comes. As he grumbled and tried to make me feel like I ripped him off, the real value of my work didn't appear until this spring. I drove by the house recently and saw his fence covered in blossoms from the 6 climates vines I saved. In retrospect I might have suggested just ripping it all out and buying new vines which may have taken less time but cost just as much for the new plants and I think he would have been ok with the same or higher amount. I am a true gardener and not a buisness lady at heart however and and saw 15 year old big vines and I thought they were worth saving. I learned a lot from this job. I really try to feel out how much the client enjoys the garden or knows about gardening. If they place little value or take small notice of the garden except when something is wrong then they will not value you or notice your contribution to their garden. I don't need for a client to be knowledgable about gardening but simply to have an appreciation for it. I try really hard now to weed out clients who would be better off with the mow and go style and price tag. It's not a perfect system but people who are better clients seem to value me even more when I am willing to say I don't mind if they need to hire someone for less but this is what my work is worth. If they let me go then I think I have dodged a job I would later regret. Good luck
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I lurk here, a lot. I don't usually have much to say, although I do enjoy your posts. I posted on GJ for a long time, but that was a long time ago. Things evolve, a bunch of new ones join up, and the forum changes. It is the way it is supposed to be, I think. I am coming out of lurkdom to tell you that I do have some of those tires in my garden. They are painted all sorts of garish colors, and I actually grow vegetables in them. My DH cut them for me, and spent time turning them inside-out for me, and I am not going to hurt his feelings now by not using them. Besides, we have the most unbelievable black gumbo soil here. None of this nice sandy loam for us. God gave us soil that has absolutely no air in it, slick as boiled okra when it is wet, adobe when it is dried. So, we grow in raised beds, and these cute little beds are perfect. Fill them with good topsoil, good compost, and we can grow anything. A tire will grow 2 or 3 nice tomato plants, a couple of peppers, a package of lettuce seeds, or beets, or carrots, or maybe an eggplant or a couple of zuchini plants. I can weedeat the pathways to keep them neat. The tires do hold up very well to the punishment of the weed whacker, and they will last longer than all of us will. I guess I could paint them all green so they wouldn't stand out so much, but it's just a vegetable garden. And my grandkids love them. They each have a little salad garden in their own tire! LOL Janie
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gonegardening
17 years ago
Wow, Jan! So lovely! Your gardens must be huge! Lucky you to have so much space! It's really impressive!

Is that Brooke up there??! Where have you been??!

Thanks again, Jan!
highjack
17 years ago
Hey gone, I'm here, just reading and observing. The daylily forum is so active now, no reason for me to post unless I have something earth shattering to share. Come winter, I'll have more time to share pics of everything and try to keep things stired up.

Brooke
flower_lover5
17 years ago
Jan,
Very, very beautiful. Looks like you put a lot into it - it looks VERY inviting :)
Tammy
gonegardening
17 years ago
Okay, glad you're around! Of course, everything you say is earth shattering...lol!

Tammy...that's such a nice thing to say...I wish I had thought of it...lol! It IS very inviting, Jan! I think that's probably the ultimate compliment.
tweetypye
Original Author
17 years ago
Thank you all so much. Like I said, it isn't finished, but is any garden ever finished? I really want brick pathways like Mary lu has in hers. Hopefully, I'll get them someday.
Jan
rsts
17 years ago
Very nice. After you finish helping Brooke, you can swing by my place and help. I especially would like a fence like yours. Heck, if it would help, you can even do it at your place and UPS it to me. lol

Royce
tweetypye
Original Author
17 years ago
OK Royce, I'll put that down on my "to do" list with my other million things to do!!!! LOL
Jan
irish_rose_grower
17 years ago
Wow, is that a beautiful garden room. It could be in a magazine. I love the fence and arbor, so pretty. And painted white is looks every prettier. Thanks for sharing the pics

Maureen
daylilylady
17 years ago
Jan, I can't believe you and your hubby are out building and painting fences in that heat and humidity. Our temps finally dropped after sticking for weeks in the high 90's. Today the temps and humidity came down so I took advantage and planted a bunch of DL's that were sitting a bucket of horse manure/compost tea for a couple of weeks. They sure love that horse manure...beautiful big, green foliage!!
Marilyn
tweetypye
Original Author
17 years ago
Marilyn honey, we built that fence a couple of years ago in April or May! :) There's no way I'd be building fences right now!!! LOL We did, however, finally get some rain yesterday and last night, so I was out at 6 this morning, doing some much needed edging of my garden beds. I also got some more flats filled with potting soil and planted more dl seed. Then I transplante some other potted things into larger pots. UPS came about noon and brought my Daylily World order. So, of course, I had to pot those beauties. Got clumps, not double fans!! Now it's air conditioning and a nice shower for me. No more garden duties today!!
Jan

My Garden Room as promised from Mary lu's post on discussions

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My Garden Room as promised from Mary lu's post on discussions

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