Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Stepping Back

Kristin and Donna Marie asked for longer range pictures of my Giant Backyard Project. We have too much shade for a lawn, and the weeds had taken over. Last summer I started taming the feral garden.

This is the entrance to the garden. I planted the vinca on the left of the path last spring, and the patch to the right earlier this year. The hosta bed on the far right used to be confluent, but the deer have thinned it.
More of the vinca and hostas.
I had a large lush European ginger plant under the large oak on the left of the top picture. It disappeared, but I have found "babies" throughout the garden. I transplanted them to a rock garden, and they seem to like it.
This is the other side of the vinca I planted last year (around the corner from the top picture). The stones under the rain spout help prevent erosion.
I'll post more pictures later in the summer, as the plants fill in and I get more weeding done.
Click on the pictures to enlarge.

7 comments:

Regina said...

What a lovely place! I hope to visit someday :)

Ann Finkelstein said...

Oh, Gina. You and your family would be SO WELCOME. And while I chose pics that didn't show too many weeds, I never ask guests to help with weeding.

Natalie Aguirre said...

Your backyard is lovely. Mine hadn't been weeded in about 20 years. This year I'm working on cleaning up a section of the back property line. But it won't look as pretty as yours, even weeded.

Buffy Silverman said...

Love the ginger in the rocks. Your garden is looking decidedly unferal.

Ann Finkelstein said...

Natalie: Any yard is overwhelming. I try to stick to specific tasks like you're doing.
Buffy: I was very selective in where I took pictures. Even though I probably spend over 10 hrs a week in the yard, there are areas that haven't even been weeded once this year.

Kim Van Sickler said...

Gorgeous! Now I see how easy it was for you to pick up poison ivy! Hope it's gone by now!

Ann Finkelstein said...

Thanks, Kim. Several of our neighbors' trees have poison ivy growing up their trunks. The seeds rain down on our yard and thrive here.