Here are some closeups of the side bed, and the tulips under the pear trees.

Old Blush

r. roxburghii

Anna-Lyssa... oh my word, you've worked wonders there, absolutely gorgeous and I love that gravelled area with the borders and seating.. very special,...

You've created Paradise out of a wasteland!

It looks glorious. And nothing eats your tulips? Wow.

Thank you Marlorena, Anne and Meslissa. Compliments from the three of you mean a lot.

Melissa, it's one of the benefits of not living quite in the country. Although I'd love acres and acres of land like you. Slugs get at them. I try to use ashes to deter them but I always procrastinate and do it AFTER they've already somewhat mangled the foliage. Nothing eats the bulbs though. YET. A porcupine did major damage to the slope this year, eating the arum italicum. But I figure there are enough delicacies in the slope to keep them there. I hope!

Oh how beautiful! The shutters, the stone and of course the flowers. Thank you so much for sharing your pictures. It brightened my gloomy upstate New York morning. Where are you?

A stunning and mind-boggling transformation. The gravel sets off the flower borders beautifully, and your home looks like a villa in the country with no neighbors to be seen. annz, Anna-Lyssa is in Italy.

Impressive progress

Wow! It's simply astounding what you've done with that spot!

What a lot of work you've done! It looks wonderful. Why is it that I don't see that kind of "old charm" in gardens around here? Oh I know, in California, everything old is torn down and replaced with modern buildings and landscaping:( Absolutely gorgeous! Lisa

Carol, you're too kind. And to be stalked by you would be nothing less than an honour. You're welcome to stop by any time! There's plenty of room! As long as you don't mind me slyly asking for suggestions about dealing with the back garden over aperitivo. I know your super powers......

Lisa, California is soooo charming. Your houses and gardens always seem to look fantastic and lovely. Believe it or not, I've had to fight quite a bit to maintain old things here. Like old curtain rods, and trees. There is a passion for young healthy specimens ... lots was destroyed while I wasn't looking (nobody wants to tell me the truth about what REALLY happened to the brass curtain rods) but I do my best to halt overzealous "renovation". My partner's father is no longer allowed anywhere near here with shears or a saw in hand. Not even scissors.

Speaking of hard work, there is still so much to be done!!...... but it's so much fun!!!

Fascinating and beautiful Anna-Lyssa!

Super job Anna-Lyssa, well done!

Very elegant garden. I love it!

Wow, that is incredible. I see so much hard work. Lots of lifting and digging. But it has certainly paid off with the beautiful oasis that you have created

It's just stunning!

Italians really are prune-happy. I think it's the heritage of the tradition of cultivating plants for food and drink: orchards and vineyards require pruning; vegetable patches require digging; so, reasons the gardening Italian, pruning and digging are what you do in the garden. That inaction is sometimes the right action is an alien concept.

Thank you for posting these beautiful before and after pics. It's very inspiring to see how a space can be transformed! And it's really been a relatively short time since you started this garden.

I still remember your (first?) post asking about the Graham Thomas you planted in front of your house.... (I've been reading these forums for many years, but have only recently decided to emerge from the shadows...haha!) That rose grew to be absolutely stunning! You have a real green thumb.

I keep coming back to this post and looking again. I'm so impressed! You've inspired me to to perhaps show some of my own before and and after pictures. Maybe.... Lisa

Rosylady, I can't believe you remember that! :) it seems so long ago but I guess it really wasn't. So glad you've emerged from the shadows!! :) :) how many other people I wonder are here and we don't know.... Hm...... I saw you posted a question about cdm... And I hope you post photos of your garden which sounds like it's going to be quite something.

Lisa, please do! Please! Before and afters are so exciting.

Thanks everyone for your kind comments. I swear it makes the heavy lifting and double digging and hauling manure easier when you know you have the antique rose forum behind you cheering you on. I'll post photos of some other parts of the garden soon.

Beautiful garden. I can see the artist's eye at work. And I love your stone house. One day I hope to live in a stone house once again.

Anna-Lyssa, I can only echo Carol - it is a fairy tale, both the house, (what I can see of it), the outbuildings and the garden. The transformation is stunningly beautiful. You have created a magical place. Trish

Anna-Lyssa: Yes, I will post pics of my rose garden project...and I will be sure to show both befores and afters. I love seeing transformations!

Also...just out of curiosity: how old is your house? It's quite charming

Anna-Lyssa, most of the time I'm content to be the crazy plant lady with all her plants in pots (I really want to move from here). I have no clue about garden design, but your before and afters are so impressive, I wish I had the vision to see what could be done with the plants I have... and the energy to actually make it happen.

In my next incarnation, maybe?

Virginia

You're doing a great job, Anna-Lyssa; I like your house a lot, too.Now is the time of year when I have to fight off envy of all of you who have gardens near your homes!

Italians really do seem to over-do the pruning IMO, too. Especially ornamental trees! to me they "butcher"the pore things, lol. Also have seen some ppretty pathetic rose-pruning: people taking out all the vigorous young basals in order to conserve the oldest wood...

Rosefolly, Trish, Bart thank so much! Rosylady, that's great! I so look forward to seeing your photos. I think the house is turn of the century or so. Early 1900s.

Virginia, I think the photos just look nice, but really the garden is a total mishmash with no planning whatsoever (mainly born out of my curiosity about a certain plant and obviously lots of roses). I noticed the irises and japanese anemones are "mirrored" on the pear bed side and the long border side, but that was totally by accident (a happy accident I think). I lliterally just started digging, amending ("feeding" really) and planting willy-nilly. My order-and-tidiness-loving boyfriend was concerned at first, but it's worked out and I've earned the right to pretty much do whatever I want with the garden now :) Except for some compromises of course, but that's fine. Bart and Melissa, yes..... that Italian predilection for pruning.... (and cutting stuff down! Fare piazza pulita as it were...)... I know.

The thing I love most about the garden is the light. The way the light hits everything. It's interesting when you have a space and you think "I want to let sunshine in here and for it to be luminous" but you have nothing for the light to actually HIT, youget less "light". I don't know if that makes sense. That's why I love the irises and their tallness, and the gaura (which is emerging now), and the spires of lavender and oregano in flower, and the olive trees,.... they really catch the light in a way that animates the whole garden. Also the insects - they also catch the light and make it feel alive.

Anna-Lyssa, you write in such an evocative way - a beautiful mind is creating that beautiful garden.

Ingrid expressed, once again, what I would have liked to be able to say!

Anna-Lyssa, I love light too, and of course, in Italy, the light is beautiful. Here it is rather harsh much of the time. I recently had my house painted. The colour was chosen in haste, as I thought the painter (he has become a dear friend) was just going to do the woodwork. He turned up the afternoon before he was due to start, and said the whole house needed doing, and he was starting on the walls. So I rushed out and got some sample pots. It is not really what I would have chosen given more time, but it has softened the light (the house, 3 storeys of it, was white previously), and I love it..

This is an old building (possibly the place the original owners lived) next to the house. The new colour is the peachy one. It's still only half painted. I've done what I can reach (a lot more than in this photo), but waiting for Tim, the painter, to do the rest. Whatever I chose had to tie in with the rather ugly tiles which surround the house.

Trish's Garden · More Info

Sorry for rambling on, but when I sat there last summer I realised the light reminded me of Florence. Trish

Oh Trish, I love all of that stone. What a canvass you have to work with! I'm glad that you have a dear friend as a painter. So many of us have horrible contractor stories!

Sheila, I love the stone too, and my son has just cleaned it all. I must take photos when we get some sunshine. Rain has set in here for a week or two. I only wish I had your, Anna-Lyssa, Carol or Ingrid's vision to know how to set it off best!

I have been very lucky to have Tim in my life. he is very sympatico!, and has recommended a builder to me who has been wonderful as well. Believe me, I've had plenty of horrible contractor stories in the past!

Yes, please take pictures! (but I don't have the talents of Sheila, LOL!)

Sorry, lavenderlace!

No worries! I would take it as a compliment if somebody confuses my garden with Sheila's!

Trish, I think that peach colour looks so great! And Ican imagine how much it softens the light. Very Florentine colour! :) it looks a lot like the colour we chose for our kitchen which is in the north western corner of the house so it gets a cooler light. With the peach colored walls though it always looks sunny in there! I think in a garden that peach looks fantastic with green and purples and red and pinks, practically anything! Can't wait to see more photos!