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Here is a photo of the front of our house 7 years ago and today.

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Here is a fountain I am adding to a side yard.
I'm 3 years into this project! Year 1 bought pot. Year 2 bought pump. Year 3 bought fountain base. Year 4 I will install outdoor power, hook it all up, get different rocks (DH doesn't like these), and place flagstone border.

Here it is in relationship to house. This is along the driveway and outside of our bedroom windows.

Here is the front bed to the right with Taunton Yews. I will put short rudbeckia in front of them soon. The side bed to the left is Russian Sage. I plan to put Goldstrum rudbeckia on that side. This concrete planter is from DH's grandma.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: daciab,

A variety of sedum around an old bird bath.

I caught this monarch on the sedum.

This mum is super bright this year! The dark bush on the left is a Black Lace Elderberry. The purple behind the mum is perennial salvia.

Here is a fancy geranium sitting on an old milk stool. That's all the photos I have time to post for now. Enjoy!

You have done a lot and it shows. Great pics. tfs.

Very Nice! You can't go wrong with sedum~~very hardy & dependable. Is that Black Lace I see? Love the Urn! A garden is a work in progress & it doesn't happen over night if you are working at it yourself & its the most fun & rewarding that way!

thanks for the tour, i enjoyed it. what a difference with that tree behind your house gone. or was it in front? either way, it was huge. did you take it out because you had to.. or because you wanted to? that would have been a lot of firewood.

also, it looks like you added a little wing on the left side of the house as pictured. 7 years can bring big changes.

you must be a very patient person to do your fountain in yearly stages like that. that is going to be one magnificent fountain when you are done.

oooooh, thank you for the tour. I did enjoy it. You've done a lot. I really like that urn water feature!! Flower bed is pretty too. I can never get my Russian Sage to look like that. It simply must get too hot here for it.

ve

Sorie10-Thanks. It is a lot of work. But I enjoy it.

Muccyshoes- Thanks. Yes, the blacklace is finally filling out. I had a car accident almost 2 years ago and have learned that I can only do 1-2 hours a time now. So my progress has slowed a little. It is very rewarding.

Bana - that was 2 trees. One was diseased. The other was on a retaining wall we removed to get rid of a curved wall in the driveway and to make it so pickup with a horse trailer could turn around. I should find the photo of that. That was a HUGE project with tree removers and a bull dozer here to do the work.

vera ellen - Thanks! I don't do much to my Russian Sage. Just give it a lot of room to grow and cut it down to 6" in early spring/ late winter.

bana. Oh, and No we didn't add a wing to the house. That is a breezeway/laundry room/ on one end of the garage that was there before. You can see it more clearly now because we took out several over grown bushes.

I forgot a photo! Here is my square foot kitchen garden.

Very nice pictures--the tour was fun. I really like the urn, I thought about doing that but I am still in the thinking stage--you obviously have made progress and are actually going to get it done! Is the urn weatherproof or do you have to bring it inside during the winter? The only ones that I found are questionable in the cold and I don't want to purchase one and have it get ruined in the winter. Love your plants, you have done a great job!

16paws - mine is a Mexican terra cotta pot. I had the same concern as you. The man I bought it from painted it himself with old world techniques. He also used water-proofing paint on the inside. He said it is the same stuff as what you use in a basement. He said this kind of pot is fine outside. I live in zone 4 with huge amounts of snow. He showed me some that he'd had outside for years. I know it won't last forever, but I am OK with it lasting for awhile. The biggest threat is hitting it while it is frozen. I think the area mine is in is safe from that.

Your veggie garden looks great! So does all the rest! I agree with everyone else, love that urn! I never see any like that around here. Love that mum...and it is REALLY blooming! Most of mine are just now starting to bloom.
What a difference on the front of the house. You can see it now instead of the other stuff that was there!

ga.karen - Thanks. The front of the house has a new hip roof on that 1-story addition, painted shutters, new gutters, removed metal awnings on the side, and removed a lot of overgrown bushes.
Most of my mums are just budding out too. Except this one! It didn't want to wait for the show. When looking for the urn, I wanted one that would go along with the cattle baron style we have going on inside of the house and one that would look good in the country on a gravel road. I didn't think a highly polished one would fit the bill. I did NOT seal the paint job so it will flake off over the years and look even better. Very rustic. :-)

Very nice! I love to see before and afters. Love the urn water feature and the fenced-in garden area. That bed with the sedums is gorgeous.

Thanks, zone9alady!

Here are more photos:

http://daciab.shutterfly.com/

Some from this spring are on there too.

gorgeous. You are one busy lady.

Enjoyed the tour! Grandma's concrete planter at the corner of your house is a keepsake! Always like it when folks post pictures. Thanks!

owie, Thanks! I wish I had more time to spend in the yard.

SSTR - Thanks! I was glad we got the planter. It is a nice memory for us of DH's grandma who raised him.

Was it you who posted pictures in the spring about building the square foot garden, or someone else. That is an interesting concept to me. So what kind of yield did you get?

Thanks

ve

Vera Ellen, I did post about my square foot garden. I got good yields! Better than I would have doing rows in the same area.

I have 5 4X4 boxes. 1 box is strawberries and rhubarb. 1 box is asparagus. 1 box was used to root some bushes this year.

In the other 2 boxes I had banana peppers, green peppers, lettuce, spinach, radishes, thyme, chives, my turnips didn't sprout (old seeds), tomatoes, zucchini, carrots, onions, and probably more things I can't remember right now.

I have tomatoes coming out my ears! I have 4 plants and have tomato soup, tomato sauce, frozen whole tomatoes, and slicers. PLUS I let 100+ freeze on the vine last week.

I planted 1 zucchini plant in 1 square foot. I got 5 zucchinis before the racoons decided it was their plant! I have since finished the fence around the garden. DH and I are dreaming up a teepee style trellis for them to grow up next year. If that doesn't work, I will install electric fence along the top of the fence!