Here's My Yard Tour

13 years ago

Got around to taking some photos of my yard. Here's a quick intro if you don't know or recall about me...

I'm Gayle. I'm 42. I've got a 5yr old daughter. I bought this house and 2nd vacant lot in 2008. The lot was left to mother nature for 55 years. There was an okay front lawn...enough to justify buying a lawn mower the first year.

There was a small patch of grass in the back, but I ended up killing most of it and starting over due to garlic mustard and other weeds being the primary source of green.

I dug all the beds, planted 90% of the grass, and did all the plants.

First, a couple of hosta groupings:

L-R: Guacamole (bought as a clump), Dream Queen, Abiqua Drinking Gourd, Heatwave.

L-R: Dick Ward, Abiqua Moonbeam, Heuchera Marmalade, Liberty

Here's a spot I just re-vamped outside my front door. I re-sculpted the grass line and finally got to planting this area less than a month ago. Front center: Blue Mammoth (2nd year). All the rest are brand-new...L-R: Sleeping Beauty, Orange Marmalade, Kiwi Full Monty. Back Row: Bressingham Blue, Sum and Substance (planted there in 2008).

On "this" side of the walking stones...it's nothing. I killed that grass last year with plastic sheeting. It's a planting bed for me to work on. Maybe I'll have something to show you next year.

Here's the front area when I bought the house:

Here is the west side of my house...the vacant lot in 2008, the first summer I lived here:

And here is what it looks like after 3 seasons of clearing out. Raw land. As you can imagine, I don't date. I don't have any other hobbies besides gardening. All done by me...by hand. It's dappled sun/shade all day. Can you see the hosta possibilities????

And, the latest acquisition...a playhouse for my daughter (garden shed/storage for me in winter). I got that corner cleared out last summer and have been planning that playhouse for way too long. I get to LANDSCAPE that!!!! Woo Hoo!

Thanks for looking.

Gayle

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Comments (23)

TheHostaCottage
13 years ago
It looks fantastic! Your work is definitely paying off!
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mjjones453
13 years ago
Gayle, it looks great! I can't wait to see what it looks like as you plant your gardens. Your hard work is showing! Mary
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Tour of my yard
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Comments (3)
I had to upload the pictures to photobucket to be able to share my photos. So get a drink pop some popcorn pull up a chair and sit a spell.....Hope ya'll enjoy the photo's of my flowers,ponds,pets,and stepson. Regina Here is a link that might be useful: http://s658.photobucket.com/albums
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Tour of my yard
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Comments (14)
PV Yes I built all the wooden pieces. Stage Rat In the area between the driveway and fence is full of old pieces of concrete from a house that was there 50 years ago. I got tired of digging it up and had 5 yards of screened topsoil delivered. The soil in all the beds has been amended with compost , manure , leaves and grass clippings. And yes there are bags of mulch , buckets and other unsightly items.
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Yard Tour pics
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Comments (24)
Teeka, if you are referring to the fertilizer, Home Depot has a contract to carry Lesco products. I compared prices last year and it was $6 cheeper at HD than Lesco's store off 62 Ave. Katkin, this is my first Stemmadenia taken 6 years ago. I bought it at Mounts Spring Plant Sale in May. This picture was in Sept. It was about 4 foot tall judgeing by the purple post beside it. Look at all the blooms! As for blooming time, it is in bloom by Easter and it stops blooming when the weater changes - now. But it is in bloom the whole time. I think all plants need a certain amout of nutriants - a good balanced fertilizer like a 12-12-12 or 13-13-13, to perform their best along with a good ground medium. And I only use bark for mulch. The good old saying - $5 dollar plant and a $10 hole holds true for me. Katkin, don't fertilize it now, but come the first of March, and every 2 months afterwards, give it a handful of fertilizer. It should start blooming for you. Here's my oldest tree at when it was 4' tall. Look at all the blooms!...........cheryl
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My daughter has joined the small house club! Picture tour here.
Q
Comments (15)
"How cool dilly dally! Does your bathroom have the original toilet & sink? Was the sink a wall hung one? And are the shower doors original or were they added later? There is a curtain rod above the shower doors and we can't figure out why there are both." No, I checked the date on the toilet when I was looking at the real estate and it was replaced in 1982. (You can look under the tank lid to see the date stamp.) I'm not sure about the sink. It is one that hangs off the wall though. The tub I know is original. It is the same as the one you show with the wider ledge in the middle. My shower rod was installed so that the curtain hung inside the tub. I moved it so the curtain hangs outside. No shower doors. (Thank gawd. I hate them.) I don't think shower doors would be original with a tub like that. My tub is grody. No shine left on it and it always looks dirty. I've looked into replacing it but there is no way to get it out without damaging tiles I was told and the size is so odd that a replacement to fit exactly is impossible. I may have to buy one of those acrylic tub recovers to get a decent tub that looks clean. The original "shower head" was called a 'Victorian' I found out. It was like a stick on a hinge from the wall, low, about waist high. You moved it up and tiled the hinged head to shower. Or you moved it straight down to fill the tub. I liked it. I had to replace it when it broke and could not find anything like it. They don't make them any more. I had to redo the whole works adding separate faucet and showerhead and controls. You probably have a built in ironing board in the kitchen. Most of them end up getting converted into spice cabinets. Mine still had the original wood ironing board in it and although I do iron a lot I did not want to iron on an old stinky wood thing. The built in wall ironing boards that they seel nowdays to do not retro fit into these old ones. I made mine into a spice cabinet by adding little shelves. I'm glad I did it this way. It's one thing to be a purist and try to preserve the ingerity of a vintage home but if it means wasted space with a non functioning widget - it goes. There is also a thing built into the wall in the basement that I had thought was an old mangle in the laundry room at first. (They were popular in that era.) There was a slit in the wall by it. There was a built-in long table in the rec room by the slit on the other side of the wall. I figured out that it was made to hold a roll of kraft paper to pull through the slit to use as a disposable table cover. I know they still sell rolls of table kraft paper like this for restaurants, so I could use it but I never throw dinner parties in my basement and don't have kids who do crafts. "The original must have been one with long pipes." I still have the original. It did not work when I bought the house. I found out when I took it apart to repair, that the pipes do not create the sound. There was a sort of xylophone thingy inside that made the actual sound. The pipes were for decoration only. If I had not been able to repair it, I was going to get a wireless chime to install elsewhere in the house and use the alcove for holding a decorative vase or something. "It's when you cut or break it that it releases fibers and causes problems." True. Some people do not know about asbestos tile and try to chisel it up without proper proceedure. I've had to warn neighbors about this. They had no idea. Make sure you let you DD know about http://savethepinkbathrooms.com if she does not already. And also http://retrorenovation.com/category/by-decade/1960s-by-decade/ Here is a link that might be useful: Pink
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on_greenthumb
13 years ago
The possibilities!!!!! Love the birdbath in that first pic (I've been searching for one....HA so it's the first thing I see) What a great extension to have that extra lot.....looks like you keep yourself busy in the summers :)
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just1morehosta
13 years ago
You go girl,what a lot of work,you can feel pround,it all looks great, you are teaching your little girl quite a lot.
Have fun landscaping the playhouse, I am sure it will look BEAUTIFUL.
I have a LOT of hosta,that have come up on their own from self seeding,no names, you are welcome to them for postage,they are good size,and free from hvx.
E amile me if your interested ok.
cAROL
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danimal77
13 years ago
Looks great! Don't you love it when hard work pays off. Can't wait to see future pics.
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Cher
13 years ago
You have done a fantastic job. Lots of hard work but well worth the effort. The gardens you've completed look lovely and I can just imagine the woodland area on that second lot. A lot more work but it will be beautiful when you are done.
Cher
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janroze
13 years ago
Wow! Hosta Heaven!
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jkayd_il5
13 years ago
Beautiful area. Lots of hard work but well worth it. Could I ask, how long does it take to kill off the grass with plastic sheeting? We are in the process of doing that now. I was hoping to get it planted later this year. Thanks, Judy
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frostynyc
13 years ago
It looks wonderful. I envy all of that land! You can add another huge hosta/heuchera garden, and some understory trees like dogwoods and japanese maples, and a water feature, and a rock garden... :)

Are you going to try to grow grass on the area with bare dirt after you decide whats going to be a garden?
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hosta_freak
13 years ago
You have the perfect blank slate in your woodland setting! Flat ground,and not a lot of underbrush,or is that after you cleaned it up? I envy you your youth. If I was as young as you,I would be out doing more in my garden,but alas,I discovered hostas late in life! I know you think 42 isn't young,but believe me,you are many years younger than me! I do what I can,but I have no help,because my DW is not into hostas. Keep up the good work! Phil
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kskaren
13 years ago
Very nice, Gayle! I see beautiful hosta beds there, someday. And that playhouse is gonna be adorable!!
Karen
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mary52zn8tx
13 years ago
Nice, nice, nice!!! It is already pretty and will only get better in time.!! Thanks for sharing!
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Janice
13 years ago
A hard-working woman after my own heart! You're doing great! I can't wait to see how it progresses with your
willingness to do the hard stuff!!

Congratulations on making a wonderful setting for you, your daughter, your hosta and many more plants in your future!!
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socks
13 years ago
That looks like a little bit of heaven, for sure! Just lovely. Does your dear little girl help?
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bkay2000
13 years ago
Great yard. You've done wonders. Your plants are beautiful.

A random thought that occured when I read your post. What if you landscaped the playhouse with small hosta? I've not had much experience with them, but it just struck my fancy.

bkay
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gayle0000
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks everyone!

Judy, killing grass with plastic sheeting takes a couple months minimum in the hottest part of the summer, and needs the fall/winter/spring for the grass to decompose. That's my opinion. It works.

I have a ton of pics...I will post a tutorial for you.

Frostnyc...I will definitely fill in with some grass, but it will be to break up the planting beds.

Socks...yes, my kid helps out some. Her attention span is enough where she gardens with me & helps, but wanders to her swing in time.

bkay...definitely hostas will be incorporated into that playhouse landscape.

Here's a before and "current" of my back door. It was the first area I worked on. Not heavy on hostas here, but it's one of my favorite transformations. Definitely documents the fact that I started with nothing.

2008 Right when I closed on the house. Spring, but nothing leafed out yet.

2011 Taken just the other day. Sorry about that dumb yellow hose again. I only get that thing out when I'm growing grass seed far away from the house.

Gayle
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Cindy Johnston
13 years ago
Wow! That last before and after really shows the great progress you're making! Great implementation of your vision.
Cj
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tsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱
13 years ago
What a fine example of the rewards of hard work. You did very well for yourself.

"...that dumb yellow hose again. I only get that thing out when I'm growing grass seed..."

And when your taking pictures. ;-)

tj
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Cricket_Love
13 years ago
Beautiful! I wish I could start with a blank canvas. I've acquired overgrown gardens, which is ok, because I like the plants that are here, but the gardens are so neglected. A masterpiece in the works! :)
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luvtosharedivs
13 years ago
Magnificent transformation of your back door garden area.

You have an artistic gift for landscaping.

It will be fun filling in the woodsy area with Hostas and companion plants. Please keep posting your progress.

I too, am slowly filling a previously cleared woods area, but it's not picture-worthy yet, as I still need to add tons of mulch.

Oh, I noticed you have Blue Mammoth outside your front door.
You may want to move it to an area where it can spread out to a good five feet, or it will overtake its neighbors.

Thanks for posting!

Julie
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kimcoco
13 years ago
Sweat equity. We know it all too well. LOL. Pays off in the long run, and nice to start with a blank slate and make it your own.

I like what you did with that walkway.

Keep taking lots of pics as your work progresses - my garden pics get me through the harsh winters. And, they'll come in handy someday if and when you sell the house.

Your neighbors must love you.
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buyorsell888
13 years ago
Wonderful~
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gardenfanatic2003
13 years ago
What a beautiful setting! You've transformed it beautifully. Enjoy filling it up with hostas. :-)

Deanna
0

Here's My Yard Tour

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