Garen, your yard is insanely wonderful! So many treasures. You've got some GOOD STUFF! I envy you all that property. My puny little third of an acre is just not sufficient. Great job!

I love my chainsaw also!

Yeaaahh! Coolest thread I have seen in months! This shows lots of note taking, great interest in conifers, artistic skill in layout, LOTS AND LOTS of hard work, a great selection of plants and a wonderful climate that seems to let you grow a wide variety of plants well. I am both thrilled to see this and impressed with your hard work and artistic skill.

I have a few notes, though Edwin may come through with a spelling check, you seem at a glance to have spelled just about everything wonderfully.

Tsuga mertensiana 'Bump's Blue' - Yep, dwarf even when it gets going, and from everything I have heard, tsuga mertensiana is very slooooow to establish. It may take 3-5 years before it reaches peak normal growth instead of 2-3.

Abies procera 'Blaue Hexe' - Yep, normally very late to push, here in the Pacific Northwest, plants come along slowly, so when plants push later then others, it's easier to measure it, where as many places Spring explodes and plants burst into growth. An example from my climate, Picea glauca specimens were pushing in late March - Abies procera began showing signs of pushing in early June. It's second to last for me here(to Abies magnifica) to show signs of pushing.

I go back to it though, WOW, well done!

-Will

Very, very impressive! Interesting that you waited three years to come out of your lurking closet. ;o) You are about three years ahead of me, and your collection is impressive. I have added some to my wish list off this thread!

I have to say Wow also. Beautiful job and some really great choices you've made garen. Like the non conifers you've added also. All the rocks look fantastic. You've been saving up since you've been posting until you had everything just like you wanted. :) Don't blame you, we were in for a great treat!
Cher

yeah ... yeah.. all our fault ...

now.. how can i get the lake view.. in my garden ... lol ...

thx for the effort to post them all

ken

Simply beautiful. Wonderful.

To me also, you are the next rising star (conifer garden) on the forum. That willow is aweome.

I want a lake now, too. I could have one . . .

Dax

Great work!

Where are you at in southern Indiana? I'm in Evansville.

Fantastic! I like the rocks too. Thanks for the tour!

Great job, Garen. I love everything--the mulch, the rocks, the location the perennials, and the conifers! Awesome selection of plants. Your pup sure looks nice, too. Where did you get your conifers from?

Matt

Nice work! Got any more pictures of the job in progress? Would love to see them.

The sloped site works really well with this kind of garden. I like your rocks too - were they all dug from your site?

Alex

Quite the envious views you have there! Consider yourself lucky on the stone!

All I find is feild stone, which is not nearly as attractive as what you're pulling up.

Nice work, can't wait to see more pics as you refine and add to your collection.

Thank you all for your great comments and accolade. To read such kind comments from all of you and from so many of you that I greatly admire makes me a happy fella. Thanks for the inspiration!!!!

firefightergardener (Will) - Thanks for the info on 'Bump's Blue' and 'Blaue Hexe' and your awesome contributions to these forums. Greatly appreciated.

Sorry, I don't have anymore pictures of the job in progress. I'll have to remember to take more before, during, and after pictures. Eventually I plan on putting in many more beds and I really want to make a small pond or two. I would love to add a little trickling creek bed going down the hill from pond to pond but I don't know if I want to mess around with pumps and all that. It's a little too hot to be digging ponds with just a pic axe right now so it will have to wait until fall.

Speaking of pic axe, that's the best tool I have bought in along time. I couldn't have dug up all those rocks without it. Yep, all those rocks came directly from my yard. I dug a lot of them up while trying to put in fence posts. Not fun, but I was able to put them to good use. =)

A friend of mine recently moved to a house with a small yard and he needed a place to move his own cross pollinated day lily creations. I said I have plenty of room, so we just finished lining my fence line on the other side of the property with about 400 day lilies. 400! A lot of them are one of a kind. I know nothing about flowers but that should be quite a sight next year. I think I may need to try and take a break.

The lake you see is actually the Ohio river. You can't see much of the river in the summer because of the trees but winter morning sunrises reflecting off the river are beautiful. I pretty much live out in the middle of no where about 45 minutes down the river from Cincinnati.

Here's a list of my mail order sources. I don't have any complaints about any of them.

japanesemaplesandevergreens.com
maplestoneornamentals.com
iconicgardens.com
carterscoolplants.com
Dan's Dwarf Conifers
Coenosium Gardens
cloudmountainfarmcenter.org
bluerivernursery.com

Thanks for looking! =)

Oh and a picture of me....
....for Ken lol.
Ha ha, I know you don't want to see a picture of me, but for some reason I enjoy seeing the faces of all the great people on these forums. =)

The only recent photo I could find was this fancy photo of me and my lovely wife on our wedding day last October. Coke should buy this pic from us lol

I. LOVE. Seeing faces to go with names! Congratulations on your wedding and your yard. I would think you have earned a break. ;o) If I know anything, though, it's that you won't be able to stay away from the catalogs, but now look at all the space you have to fill!

One of us, one of us, one of us.

Well, one of "them" as I certainly do not count myself among the great conifer garden guys here.
But that didn't have quite the same ring to it, LOL.

Very impressive- the amount of work you have done is amazing.

I haven't seen this before ,, Garen cool for your first post ,, before & after...

your garden has turned into something special

I LIKE IT!

ron

What an awesome setting and trees! I bet drainage is not an issue. I too would love to see updated pics. I thought you were in North Carolina, not Indiana?

Thanks! That's a good idea. I'll have to get some of this years photos together for an update.

Yeah Pete, I'm in Patriot Indiana (the middle of nowhere) about two and a half hours from Columbus. The hill side drainage is great except for the top soil washing down the hill leaving rocks and clay with the occasional low spots of great soil. There's also springs of water that gush out during rainstorms from all the water coming down the hill. It is a fun and interesting landscape to work with.

Pete, are you a member of the ACS (American Conifer Society)? There's a conifer weekend happening in Columbus next week the 14th and the 15th. Two days of touring great private gardens and a few public gardens in the Columbus area. The evenings wrap up with stuffing your face with fellow coneheads. There's sometimes an auction with cool plants for sale too. The deadline for registration was the 5th but I'm sure that they could squeeze you in. I think the membership is $35 a year. If you want the info, PM me and I'll email it to you. Would be cool to see you there. If not, no pressure. I'm not the most social person but I have fun when I push myself to go.

I third the motion for an update!

hmm I haven't been to Columbus

here is later post,,,,droooooll

[garen 2016[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/garens-garden-2016-dsvw-vd~4327672)

& did you guys know that you can click member name , click activity , click posts ,,, and see past stuff