You're doing a beautiful job! I love all the curves and the walkway & patio are just gorgeous!

Thanks for your kind words, Natal. Usually I can only see what still needs to be done, so the encouragement is appreciated.

Looking at the photos again, I realize I should have said the really narrow strips of grass you see around the paths will eventually be all plants as time and budget allow.

Right now, it's helping to anchor the new flagstones while they settle in.

:-)

Just beautiful!

Oh wow! You've made yourself a slice of Heaven back there. Nice job!

Wonderful transformation and I think if you continue as you have you won't need any advice! :-) The flagstone path is amazing! Both you and your DH deserve a pat on the back for the great results of your hard work.

I like the way you have put in so many different usable areas in the yard. I also like your idea of the espalier. Everything looks great! Very nice. Thanks for sharing.

I love it!!!!! We're in the same position (5 year old homeowners) trying to get all the major stuff out of the way one at a time...I've been struggling with my backyard, but I finally came up with a really nice plan, but it'll probably be a few years yet.....this really makes me want to do it now. I want it to look this nice :D

Thanks guys! I'm so proud of my DH - he worked really hard on this (on what should have been a vacation).

Here's another little project. Behind our garage runs an alley and the entrance/exit to a public path that runs along the ravine on the west side of our house.

In an effort to give walkers something nice to look at as they come out of the path (and slow down cars in the alley), I stole a couple feet of city land to plant a bed. The garbage men don't like me - I've made it very hard for them in their big trucks and they run over the end of it every few months. ;-)

I built this area up by adding organic waste on top of the grass/concrete. We also added a bunch of turf removed from our front yard that was riddled with grubs. Had a big mound of turf wrapped in plastic for a year. Bet the neighbors loved that. But when we took the plastic off the soil was lovely and all the grubs were dead. I only plant cast offs or divisions here because I can't justify spending money in this spot. But I find I enjoy this little garden a lot. It's the one place in the yard where the kids can't see me, and I can get five minutes of peace. (They're five and two.)

I've worked on this area for the last four years and this is the first year it looks decent.

Here's the before:

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And the after:

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There's a carpet rose in the foreground that will bloom soon, and a clematis montana rubens will hopefully cover the fence in the back if it can suffer our dry summers with minimal help from me.

Other plants there: baptisia, lupine (with mildew already), liatris, coreopsis, grace ward, box honeysuckle, heuchera, sedum, echinacea (which isn't getting enough sun and is straggly and slug eaten), and pentstemon (ditto). Oh and iris of course. The iris is original to the house. These ones and the taller bearded iris' near the potager.

The garage will eventually be painted, but that's a way down the road.

Sorry for rambling on so much...

It's an oasis in the making. Wonderful job!

GOOD JOB!!! I wish my place looked so good after the 5 yrs I have lived here! Lovely! Your espalier idea is awesome! I bought one this year, and also plan to turn another (peach) tree into an espalier/trained to grow up under the deck roof(clear plastic)so It will have big fruit sooner. I will be putting an apple tree against the house and train it epalier too. I now have 13 fruit trees, so I better get some fruit one of these days!!! (they gotta survive me)

Really amazing job!

As soon as I saw the pic with the narrow strip of grass I thought to myself that it wouldn't take long for you to beautify it too by filling in with more plants! ;-)
I think it is wonderful how you have worked it to utilize every inch. Room for your kids to play, room for you to play in the garden, and then space enough to relax with your dh and others. What is the garden art you have up against the garage? I like it...

Don't you just love planting out of the way spaces? I did the same thing with a strip along the alley here. People were running over the plants all the time until I lined it with jagged chunks of concrete ;-D

Your garden is warm and charming- PLEASE make sure to keep posting pics Sheri! Thanks...
CMK

Thanks again for your nice words. My friends aren't gardeners so they get bored to death with this stuff. :-)

CMK - I do love planting these out of the way spaces. It always gives me so much pleasure to come across them myself that I was hoping to give that pleasure to someone else. Though we do have some graffiti and trash problems along the ravine, people have been remarkably kind to the "public" garden area so far. It's inspired me to try and plant the other alley fenceline with native plants (the ravine is an area where the community is trying to restore the local habitat.) We are fortunate to be able to hear the creek which runs through the ravine from our bedroom windows at night.

I have a wood carving and a concrete relief up against the garage. The relief was done by my DH's aunt many years ago. She was a mentor of mine, since passed. The piece, unfortunately, was rescued from another garden where it sat unprotected many years and is quite eroded.I don't have a good picture unfortunately.

I wish I had an interesting story for the other guy. But I live up here in "Hollywood North" and bought it at a set decoration sale following a movie shoot. It's lovely, all carved out of one piece of wood. The way I have him propped up against the garage isn't doing him justice. He needs to be poking out of greenery behind him, but I haven't found the right spot yet.

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I lived for 26 yrs in a small home on a 50x100 ft lot. It's amazing how much you can do in such a small space when you put your mind to it. When I saw your pix which are so beautiful I immediately thought "I'd take out that strip of grass and put in more plants." So I'm glad to hear that is in your long-range plan.
I hope you don't think I am being a kiljoy or not minding my business, but I have to say (when I hear of a creek and having been a flood victim myself): get flood insurance if that is available to you. A creek sounds so wonderful but can become a torrent.
Laurie

Really nice! I especially like your potager and the stone area with chairs!

You've done a fantastic job, congratulations to you both. Like the others, we all see the small grass area in flowers, but I would keep them very low so not one inch of your path is not showing.
Cher

sheri, i think you have one of the best features ever- you can look out on your pretty gardens from above! i'd love to be able to do that but i have a one story house.
i know your kids are small but i'm sure that others will join me in telling you that they grow up and are gone much too soon. the one good thing about the way the years fly by is that, sooner than you think, you will be able to garden where that play structure WAS. start planning now. (-:
min

You ladies are so sweet. You've made my day.

Cher -- It's probably a good bet those little strips of grass will be gone by next spring. Sooner if I keep my momentum going. :-)

Min -- I actually only have a one story house, too, but these old Vancouver bungalows were on high foundations with basements, so it looks like I'm high up. Too true, the playhouse will be gone before I know it. Right now it's been so nice having it out there. There's a sandbox underneath where the kids are happy to play while I work. Can't you see it down the road as a little garden shed of some sort? (off the "stilts" of course).

Laurie -- we're not in danger from the creek. The ravine is quite steep that's beside us, so the creek itself is about 75 feet down. If the big quake we're due for comes though, we might find our house sliding down there. :-0

ON-Greenthumb -- don't give up! I didn't show the in-progress pics which track my various attempts to get the yard right. The first year, I dug one long, narrow bed against the back of the house where the potager is now. But it wasn't right and looked all out of proportion. Plus I realized it was the only full sun spot and needed veggies there. So all the plants came out and were moved. There used to be another veggie box where the new path is but that came out last year (and was used for the sandbox instead) so that I could plant a privacy bed to block the view of my neighbors house. They are thisclosetous -- I haven't shown you that. All you can see in the pic is their nice jap maple and huge cedar tree (and tarp and garbage cans, but I don't look there ;-) ).

My point in all that rambling is that I knew the garden wasn't quite right because I had the plan in my head for the patio etc. So though I was gardening, I knew I was killing time until I could convince DH to work on the hardscapes. It wasn't totally lost time because I learned a lot about my yard, and the soil and the light, and what thrives here. But I would say, the sooner you can carve out your hardscape areas, the sooner you will feel you are making progress toward your design.

Even if you can just carve out your paths and mulch them or whatever. Start trying to see the shape of things, even if you can't place the final materials yet. It's hard though I know, because you want your yard to look decent while the work goes on.

Oh that is such an awesome garden art piece! Such a great find...Thanks for the close up Sheri!
CMK

I love everything you've done! What type of fencing is that?

Hi Serenae,

My DH and I designed the fence and DH made it from cedar. I love it except for the gates, which have too much of a "pallet" look for me -- so that's another year's project. (One DH doesn't know about yet.) ;)

you have done an amazing job. love seeing the before and aft pics

I was actually wondering if you'd used pallets in a couple of places, LOL! Then I could have had a chance of copying it! It looks wonderful - I love the colour.

You really have an eye for beauty. I've been working on my yard for 22 years, so I know how difficult it is to get things right...Someday I hope mine looks like yours (but everytime I'm almost finished, something comes along....).

You inspire me! I live in the hills with property owners that have no respect for the environment. I wish I had neighbors like you - your place is beautiful!

You are doing a wonderful job and your husband too! One thing that I nice about gardening in public viewing areas like yours is that it can and will inspire others. It is amazing how chatting with the passerby while puttering in the gardens can spread so much good will and cheer to others.

Great job, I love before and afters.
I know how much work goes into what you have done.

Kathy

This is lovely. Keep rambling! I love to hear about other's garden adventures. I also do not know any other gardeners locally, although I do get to talk to my sister on the phone about our respective gardens.

Your path is really beautiful and co-ordinates well with the fencing. Plus, all the plants look so healthy. The neighbors maple is a nice addition too.

The only thing I can think of is trying for a kid's garden in the center plot. A bean teepee and some towering sunflowers or maybe a 3 sisters corn/bean/squash mound just to model interesting plant interactions. Although it looks as though you may have already filled it up with some goodies since there are plants in the pic.