The patio was bare.
The patio garden box
was a bit low on soil.
The weed garden
was thriving, however.
My back yard garden has come a long way since I first planted it back in June 2003, and still has a long way to go yet, if I have anything to say about it.
Here are some pictures of my patio and "garden" just after I moved in to the house. You can click on the pictures to see larger (1024x768) versions of them. My mother did all the plant selection for the garden, as I was completely green at the time except, unfortunately, for my thumb, which was not yet green in any way.
I started with pretty much a blank slate, as the following pictures illustrate. All I had were three azaleas (slowly sinking in a soil-deprived patio box), a large garden box filled with weeds and potatoes, an hydrangea, an apple tree (spartans), and a diseased santa rosa plum tree (which isn't pictured - it's on the other side of the shed.) The lawn was covered with clover.
The patio was bare. |
The patio garden box was a bit low on soil. |
The weed garden was thriving, however. |
Here's a picture of the freshly planted garden. It contains california lilacs (along the back), white and purple heather, two fuscias, either an escallonia or vibernum (a topic of debate with my mother), and periwinkle in the front.
 It has a long way to go. |
I later added a japanese willow as a centrepiece, some yellow and coral carpet roses, and two more periwinkles. I also pressure washed and stained all the fence in the back yard. I am loathe to do so ever again.
The patio is slowly accumulating perennials and exotics, with baskets of annuals along the bench that runs the length of the patio. Against the fence on the left side is my star jasmine (trachelospermum jasminoides). In the back corner is my yellow brugmansia (which currently has 15 blooms with more on the way). Against the wall on the right side is a six-foot planter box containing daylilies ("Atlas"), perwinkle, and the centrepiece, which is a climbing lily (gloriosa rothschildiana). Behind the star jasmine, on the other side of the fence, is my dog run.
Also sitting on the bench among the annuals is my rainbow plumeria, which has yet to flower (the flowers are used to make leis in Hawaii and Polynesia.) The purple-pink flowers sticking up against the bench on the left side is my lavatera ("Rosea"), which I have yet to transfer to the ground from its pot.
I also planted two clematis vines ("Blue Lights") on either side of the door to my shed, with daylilies in front of them to shade the roots. Not pictured is my passion flower vine, which runs up the fence between the patio and the hydrangea.
The brugmansia, star jasmine, plumeria, and the gloriosa all need to be taken inside during the winter. That pretty much does away with one of my spare bedrooms. :)
The patio box now has geraniums and two new white-flowered azaleas. The original azaleas on each end have purple flowers, while the one in the centre has really beautiful dark coral flowers.
 A better patio. |
 Clover's gone from the lawn. |
 What a difference a year makes. |
Been a couple of years since I updated this page. The carpet roses I planted two years ago are not terribly "carpet-y", in that they are almost four feet tall. They've just now started to sit over and look quite drape-y at the front of the box.
The Japanese willow has gone insane with growth. This I just don't get. My parents have one and it's not much bigger than when they first planted it. My brother has one in his yard and I think it's actually gotten a bit smaller since it was planted. Mine has taken off with growth and none of us can figure out why. Soil perhaps, or maybe it just gets more sun... or something.
You might be thinking "he needs to prune his garden." You are quite correct. However, I did prune it not two weeks ago. The california lilacs have started growing like nuts. The day I took these pictures was a sweltering 30 degrees (85 degrees Fahrenheit) and the sun was blazing away; It was difficult to get a picture that wasn't slightly washed out.
The apple tree on the right is so absolutely covered in apples that the branches are weighed down and overhang the garden box. Also, my plum tree has plums again for the second year in a row. Yummy!
The garden is flowery for most of the spring and summer. By this time, the escallonia (or vibernum - whatever it may be) in front of the japanese willow has finished flowering, as has the heather and lilacs in back.
 Where'd my fence go? |
 Unrelenting sun is killing my lawn. |