looking back....then and now

Yesterday I was looking through some pictures trying to find a particular one of Dave's grandma, when I ran across these old pics of the "garden".  A giant stretch of the imagination to call it a garden!  A craggy, old hill top with no top soil, a giant rock vein running right smack through it and what wasn't rock was hard clay.  I was 15 years younger and optimistic.   Yep, I'm sticking to optimistic, not crazy as a loon.  Over these years, I have made so many mistakes.  I've moved more than I care to count of retaining wall.  Same wall, at least 3 different times.  Plants that I put in the wrong spot...all the time.  Some times the plants preferred where I moved them, sometimes, let's just say, they've gone to plant heaven!  Nature, to her credit, was patient with this gardener.  I didn't start out with a plan, I learned from trial and error.   A garden evolves with the gardener.  They say you can tell what type a person is, by their garden.  My garden is still a work in progress...as am I.

What I started with.  The erosion was my first concern.

Same slope...I put in a bed with some shrubs to help stabilize the soil.  Grass helps with erosion and I wanted some open area.  The arbor I just moved there last year...it has been in at least 4 different places around the yard!  I'm getting too old to move it anymore.  You'd think I'd learn.......

The first retaining wall I put down.

Moved the retaining wall and used stones I had found on the hill.  Whew, don't want to do that again!  Dug up butterfly bushes I had in this bed.  They didn't make the transition.  But a volunteer redbud liked it here, so there it stays.  A birdbath, some Spanish lavender (which grows shorter) and a peony is most of what's in the bed.  Daffodils in the Spring, too.

Shed before it had a window or porch.  Yard not lookin too good!

Took me years to get them, but finally got steps to the next level.  Notice all the rock?  Some places in the yard, the rock is just an inch or two below the soil.  The porch has been a nice covered place to sit.

Had some topsoil and compost delivered.  I was going to spread it out until I had the brilliant idea of making the hillside a vegetable garden.  What was I thinking!?  I planted veggies in those strips of dirt.  Nothing to keep them from becoming flattened out from the rain and being on a slope, it was too much work each spring raking them into a mound.  Live and learn....I started learning to go with nature instead of against.

Looking at the same area, I've added a few raised beds, shrubs and some small trees.  Alot less work than what I had before!  The roots of the shrubs and trees have been great to stabilize the soil.

My feeble attempt at creating some hardscape!  I should be ashamed for even posting this!  I had a thing for putting fences everywhere...like, what was I trying to fence in?  Weeds are looking good, though.

Looking the same direction.  The steps are right beside the large rock outcropping.  We built a shed where I had mistakenly put in an asparagus bed.  Don't ever try to dig out asparagus...I found out the hard way! The roots grow to China.  In fact, some cultures use asparagus for erosion control on steep hillsides.  I was so glad to get the steps, finally.  I planted English lavender beside the steps.  I needed a plant that could take dryer soil as it is on such a steep slope.  The lavender has thrived here. 

The asparagus bed is hidden, but is beside the tomato bed to the far left.  A few veggies growing in the other bed!  The stairs will eventually be beside the large rock.



After the shed and stairs.  One of the places I had the arbor.  It stuck out like a skyscraper there and there wasn't much soil to plant anything to grow on it.  Poor arbor.  It's a wonder it still together after all the moves!

Picture of the large rock outcropping.  Most of it was hidden by dirt and I spent many hours with a trowel uncovering it.  I like rocks.  No, I love rocks.  One of the butterfly bushes that I had dug out of the bed, left a little start that still grows in the rock.  Don't know how it survives, but it's still here.

The rock today..the butterfly bush in the rock is to the left.  Plants are amazing.

Well, there you have a little history of my garden.  Over these years, I have learned where the micro climates are in it, where I can dig and where I can't, where the shade is in the afternoon for the best place to sit a spell, where I'm still trying to stop erosion.  I"ll never get finished, but this land has been a great friend and comfort to me when life isn't going so good.  It's kept my mind busy and this old body agile.  It's such a part of me, I can't imagine being without it.  I am forever grateful.