Progress on the Garden

As promised, to continue my discussion on the progress we've made on our yard, here's some of the progress we've made on the gardens.  Basically, the previous owners of our house did nothing to keep up with the landscaping of the property, and we've been fighting quite the battle with overgrown gardens filled with weeds, shrubs, and other plants that I can't identify, and therefore, don't really want even if they might actually be something nice. 

I'd like to start by refreshing your memory with a picture of the back of our house as we saw it when we went to view the house for the first time.  Take note of the garden behind the garage and in the corner of the house.

They look a little better now.  I've pruned the shrubs behind the garage significantly, and they look much better.  There was also a plant at the front left corner that I moved to a garden at the side of the house. 

And I completely removed the euonymus bush that was in the corner of the house as well as another plant that was growing there, but I don't remember what it was.  I have no idea what I'm going to do with this little corner yet, but the rocks are kind of fun.

The garden along the fence in the backyard still requires much work. I've cleared out about half of it and put in some tomato plants for a friend that is moving soon and has no place to put them.  We also picked up a bunch of annuals, and I've put two of them at the end of the space I cleared out.  There are three sections of peonies, but I think I might cut that down to one.  They are huge plants, and I'm learning that I'm not into huge plants.  Also, the one set is blocking my rose bush, which has actually done rather well, but I haven't been able to enjoy it because of the peonies standing in the way.  I also have a small lilac bush/tree that I'll keep, but there are a few other miscellaneous shrubs and plants that I think I'll just get rid of because everything is just such a mess.  I think it might be easiest to start from scratch.

Also, the one set is blocking my rose bush (seen below), which has actually done rather well, but I haven't been able to enjoy it because of the peonies standing in the way.  I also have a small lilac bush/tree that I'll keep, but there are a few other miscellaneous shrubs and plants that I'll probably get rid of because everything is just such a mess.  I think it might be easiest to start from scratch.

Here's a close up of my barrels.  I've planted herbs in them, and I'm pretty excited to have fresh herbs to use in my cooking.  In the barrel on the left, I have cilantro (aka coriander, which I didn't know), lavender, aloe, and chives.  In the barrel on the right, I planted two kinds of rosemary, parsley, and basil.  I already used some of the basil to make bruschetta on the weekend, and it was lovely.

The last garden I'm going to show you is the one around the big tree in our front yard.  This tree was surrounded by massively overgrown euonymus bushes, which I cleared out with the help of Tim and my dad.  THAT was a chore, let me tell you.  I will never plant euonymus.  Ever.  The rest of the annuals we picked up went in this garden, as well as a hosta that I had in a pot from our old house.  I'm hoping to get more hostas to put in between all the annuals.

And that's the progress we've made on our gardens so far this year.  I haven't shown you the garden along the front or side of the house because we haven't really done anything with those yet.  I'm hoping to do some planning over the winter to figure out what I actually want to put in them.  It's a bit exciting to be able to plan my own gardens, but I can definitely see why the previous owners let it all go so much.  The amount of foliage we have to keep in line is crazy!

Well, I hope you all are having a good week so far...