I can answer your question simply: family history, and then roses. Our garden started in 1905 as a flat, empty, 1/3rd acre lot near the downtown of our town with a brand new spec house on it (Queen Anne Victorian, but a spec house non-the-less). The soil was clay. It is 6 blocks from SF Bay. There is a large hill behind our street, which protects the area from too much wind. My DH's German great grandparents bought it, and got to work transforming it. They put in a garden with paths (brick and otherwise), and apple trees, plum trees, fig trees, a grape arbor, vegetable beds, a pond, two formal lawns with boxwood hedges and beds around them, and lots of other ornamental garden bushes and a few very large trees. Also lots and lots of roses. Most of it was formal, but as you see other parts were focused on food production. I have the impression that the main gardener was the great grandfather. The great grandmother is remembered as planting all of the small flowers, many of which are still coming back - iris, grape iris, climbing petunias, bulbs, etc.

Very long story short, when we took over in 1989 it had been a rental for 20 years, and was being maintained, but very basically, by my FIL. Having grown up in the Depression, and being of German ancestry on both his father and his mother's side, he was very thrifty, and did not believe in wasting money, water, or anything else. He did plant new plants in the garden, but most were rooted from the existing ones. One exception was roses. He did purchase and plant at least 2 dozen roses - from ROYAT. The surviving original trees were huge, the ornamental bushes also. The roses still in the garden when we bought the house were from all three preceding generations - I have finally identified 99% of them. It is funny - what happened was that they just went to the local nursery (it is the oldest nursery in continuing operation in California) and purchased roses which were popular. This resulted in us inheriting some what are now very rare old tea roses, most famously Anna Olivier, which I am told was out of commerce in North America until Vintage Gardens put it back in commerce from the plant in our garden. However, it was popular when the ancestors planted it, and very available. The first generation of gardeners also planted these roses which have survived: Le Vesuve, Cl American Beauty, All three types of Cecil Brunner, Cl La France (which my FIL called "America La France - a name chosen to sell it during WWI?). Oh, just saw the time - got to go now - more later -

Jackie

One last item - here is my favorite picture of the original great grandfather gardener, with my DH's grandmother (who was his DIL), standing in our driveway (the street is in the back of the photo). Notice the secateurs hanging from his waistband! From how she is dressed (floor length white dress - mandatory for Summer), and the child's car in the background, this pic would be around 1917-1920. You can also see what I think is a rose bush in the background. And no, we do no longer have that child's car, although I would love to!

Correction - I thought about it some more, and checked some clues, and have decided that picture I posted was more probably taken 1914/16, which is earlier than my above guess.

Jackie

Melissa and Jackie, you've both written very impressive and evocative posts about your wonderful gardens, and mine is I'm afraid much more prosaic and mundane. There was no garden here when we bought our house in the hills, 1700 feet in elevation and about 20 miles from the ocean, which still gave us a bit of marine influence in terms of morning fogs during some months of the year. The garden is basically located in front of and along one side of the house. There were five plots of grass separated by concrete and walks, and a long dog run when we began to think of making a garden. The dog run was dismantled and the grass was removed, along with a bougainvillea and some sort of climber, both of which darkened the living room considerably. The soil, if you could call it such, was/is decomposed granite, and there were places where the rock formations went underground and it took a pick axe to make holes for the roses. We should have amended the soil heavily before we even began to think of a garden. I had gardened previously in the same sort of soil and everything I planted grew like gangbusters with just some bagged soil added to the planting holes. I expected the same thing to happen here, but sadly that wasn't the case. I also chose many roses that weren't suitable for the more intense radiation in this spot from the rock formations, extensive concrete and the position of our property on the sun-drenched side of a hill. By hook or crook we did manage to make a garden, discarding almost as many roses as we originally planted, and then sometimes discarding the replacements. Some of it was impatience on my part; I never gave them enough time to show what they could do. Some just weren't suited to the climate or their position in the garden. All of my purple roses fried, as did tea roses such as Monsieur Tillier and Clementina Carbonieri. Nevertheless, after some time I felt happy with what we'd achieved and began to feel like a gardener. That period of grace began to slip away as the sun began to increase in intensity and the winter rains diminished. I had never considered drip watering, but as the situation worsened I began to feel that without it what was left of the garden would slip away completely. Quite a few of the roses developed canker and the garden became ever more empty and sad-looking. I decided to give it one more try, my husband put in a drip system in all the different areas and I ordered quite a few more roses. It took time, but the garden is slowly beginning to renew itself. Unfortunately I had to remove some of the tea roses which did not recover even with drip watering so that area looks sadly naked. It will take a few years for the new tea roses to grow since all of them are own-root and rather small, but it will be fun to watch them grow. There is no telling what the future holds, with global warming and increasing drought, and my growing inability to work for any length of time. I've resolved to live only one day at a time and to take the maximum enjoyment out of each day, which is really all any of us are ever given.

My tale begins when I moved South to this property in the Fall of 2014. I had bought the property January 2014 but needed time to unwind work, so my college roommate and her husband, who moved over from Minnesota, lived in our home until my husband and I could get here. I had gardened in Minnesota as a child, then Alaska for 33 years before I got here. I had ordered from J&P, RoYaT, Heirloom, ARE, and Vintage, High Country Roses, and Northland Rosarium in the past. Here I added RVR, rosepetal and Burling & Greenmantle to the sources that still exist from the past. High country Gardens, Digging Dog and Bluestone have sent plants.

Our property is almost 5 acres, and the builders/owners had planted Olives and a small vineyard of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. They had fenced the property completely. There were a few entry area plants nicely done and some mature oaks, Ponderosa pine and one fading Douglas Fir. We have madrones, vibernum and volunteer Arizona cypress.

We have a Mediterranean climate with 19 or so inches rain per year. The builder/owner had graded some fill from an excavation over the property after he had cleared blackberries. The "soil" has been gravel, sand, subsoil, the fill and yellow clay if there is such a thing. Drainage is very variable.We need drip in the summer.

I moved here specifically to garden, and it has been a dream come true!!!!!

I also, Melissa, Ingrid and Bart, relate to your "wild" naturalistic garden style. This is my favorite although I love to see everyone's garden. I think it is all one can do, plus I love it, on more land than a city plot.

Ingrid, your last sentence is deeply true. I was thinking of your garden when I wrote of thin soils over rock. I wish you and your garden well.

Jackie, you have that white crow, a garden that has lived through several generations. It's a wonderful place, and it gives me hope that my own garden may survive and continue to develop under other hands than mine once I'm gone. And that the effects of the soil amendment and planting that we're carrying out so laboriously, may in time transform our little piece of earth.

P.S. Cross post with Sheila. Treasure those areas with drainage, though they might not be as valuable to you with your moderate annual rainfall as we would find them. It sounds like a beautiful spot, and, oh, you already have trees in place! Having them will save you a generation of two of development. Good luck!

I hope more folks post the stories of their gardens on here - it is fascinating!

Jackie

Sheila, I'm happy to know more about the place in which you garden. With that much room you have such scope to do lots of interesting things, and with the amount of rainfall you have your roses will certainly grow much more quickly than mine ever have. I've already seen evidence of that. That beginning phase of gardening when you're ordering more and more roses is so exciting, and you have beautiful surroundings to complement the garden. We have lots of great pictures to look forward to.

"There is no telling what the future holds, with global warming and
increasing drought, and my growing inability to work for any length of
time. I've resolved to live only one day at a time and to take the
maximum enjoyment out of each day, which is really all any of us are
ever given." These are true and moving words, Ingrid. I am so trying to get there, but really flopped this year, over-extending myself as usual.And that sucks, is a bad mistake, because now I have the obligation to see my own actions through to the end, to their fullfillment,be responsible for them, in other words!!! Care for all these new plants, whilst I feel that my body is failing me,I can't rely on the climate, and in my garden,as in all of my life, "if I don't do it, no one will".This has always been a cornerstone for me, and I'm scared that my body seems to be failing to agree with my spirit.

I hope your spirit can cause your body to rise to the occasion. What a labor of love. Maybe rains will come and save you too, Bart, I hope so.

Its always good to have an ideal to aim for, Bart...but, as Ingrid mentioned, the changing climate makes it difficult to judge which ideals can be achieved. And its so easy to get too enthusiastic about whats possible..

In Australia, we had a 10 year drought- but even after that was declared officially over in around 2011/12, the weather patterns have become increasingly erratic, at least in my state. So you shouldn't blame yourself if you cant carry out plans that have been made with other conditions in mind....

You can only try and make the best of what you got, and remind yourself that gardening is supposed to be a learning experience, even if it means being able to deal with weather that ranges from subtropical to near desert like...

Thank you all! I'm feeling a lot better; started the tumeric/ginger regime for arthritis,and got some rest. Onward!

Hello Everyone, My tale is different than everyone's, so far, and I hope that you can follow my writings, usually what pops in my head in any moment, and half finished sentences, I do try to go back before posting and reread it, but it doesn't always make since. So here it goes.

My property is one that wasn't previously gardened, so I had to work hard on mine. My DH and I bought this property just a few years after we got together, we were looking for our own place, when his grandparents were/started losing their's. Well I don't remember what happened exactly, but we ended up buying this one, so his grandparents would still be able to stay here as well. We have 5 acres here and the land is in a sort of L shape. Well not too long before I meet my now DH, they had the back of the L cleared of some trees to open it up, So the back of the property is where we put our house. So We are surrounded by oak trees on all sides, except the top of the L where our driveway is. We have two established grape vines, a dog wood tree, and a couple of other trees, that his grandmother planted. She had also planted a blueberry bush,and a couple of other things that slip my mind at the moment.

I started on a garden in the back corner of the L, I worked so hard cleaning it up, digging all the roots and grass out. Now I'm having to move most of it to the front of the property, the trees are shading in my beautiful spot that I worked so hard on. Sending their branches out further. I wish I could get someone in here to clear some out, but it too tight, with the house and septic and all ... so I'm having to move them. I don't have the energy/ health to put such hard work in it like I did with the back garden, so I mostly hole amend now. We have a sandy soil on top, with clay below that. We have rabbit's and chickens, so I get to use their manure to compost with, which is good. I've added not only roses, but a couple of pear trees and a fig tree. They still have alot of growing before I see anything off of them. I did plant three apple trees, but two of those died. Trying to do to much and didn't water them enough.

I'm slowly making my little Eden, one day at a time. I do it the best I can, health gets in the way, as well as this forever changing weather. I am blessed with rain, most of the time. We are in a bit of a drought at the moment. We had a really dry summer, followed by a not much better fall. Here's looking forward to Spring. I am/have received roses this fall and last and next spring, that I am very much looking forward to.

I like the way you talk about your garden, Alana, and hope you can continue working on making Eden. That's what so many of us want.

Spring is so far away for us: it isn't even winter yet, and the days are still getting shorter. Still, as long as I can be outside, it isn't too bad. By January we may even have snowdrops, and winter aconite for sure. The wild hellebores are coming into bloom now. I want to be done with digging and planting and just get out in the woods.

I love this topic and have read everyone's progress with interest. We are the second owners of our home. It was 5 yrs old when we moved in and we've been here for 25 yrs. Our property (a half acre) was part of a wooded area that was once used as a pasture. There are still remnants of the old barbed wire fence. Our front yard is shaded by several oaks and pines and a serviceberry tree. Our back yard, where most of our gardening happens, consists of a lawn about 75 ft. wide and 35 ft. long, several beds around the house and shed, a vegetable garden in the side yard and a long narrow bed along the southwestern edge of our propery. The rest is wooded with a combination of native trees (oak, hickory, pine) and exotic invasives (honeysuckle, privet, etc). When we moved here, I got a tree ID guide to identify all the trees in our yard. The description for each of them contained the phrases, "...an upland tree of poor dry soil" or "..a tree of infertile, rocky soil". What soil we do have is infertile, rocky and dry. It's apt to erode unless measures are taken to prevent it. It is not possible to use a shovel to dig when the ground has hardened so I learned to swing a pick.

We are on the edge of both northern and southern weather systems here so we get a little of everything and storms when the two meet. We've dealt with torrential rain and flooding, to violent thunderstorms, to hail storms and tornadoes, to droughts, to ice storms, to an occasional epic blizzard. Hot, humid summers with periodic droughts are the rule but about once every 10 yrs. or so, we have one that's tolerable. Our winters are less snowy and frigid than those in the northeast but I'd be glad to trade the ice storms for a couple feet of snow. Gardening here is not for the faint of heart.

The first owners did very little gardening other than planting some azaleas in front of the house and didn't seem to be too savvy. They ran the drainfield for the septic system under a couple young oaks' root systems which caused it to fail a few years after we moved in. Trees also blocked air circulation to the cedar siding on our house which had to be replaced. Expensive mistakes Over time we have removed these trees and some others from our yard since some of the pines had died. Change, even unpleasant and regrettable change, has given us opportunities to do something different.

We are lucky enough to host a variety of wild birds and creatures. I am doing what I can to preserve a home for them here and bring in pollinators. Honeybees disappeared from our garden about 20 yrs or so ago and have been gradually replaced by bumblebees, wasps, butterflies and moths, and our much loved hummingbirds. Our modest vegetable garden provides most of our summer produce and we have a couple young apple trees, blueberry and raspberry bushes that we have high hopes will provide some fruit. The rest is a hodgepodge of natives, herbs, roses, bulbs, and perennials; whatever will grow, be useful and help hold the soil in place. I have no grand picture in mind but hope that we can make a place where animals and people can live together and leave it better than we found it.

Did this thread disappear for a day or two, I have been looking for it.