Wall to Wall #5

[renaldo75]

This is the last wall I built before the winter. It is around an existing bed which was expanded approximately a foot on the north & south sides, and about 2 feet to the west. There is a bed on the east end of this one which has limestone walls & it was widened to the north & south to align with the walls of this bed afterward.

In building these walls, I re-discovered something that I've always known: It's hard for me to keep to the 'straight & narrow' - whether that is the proverbial path or a long row of concrete blocks..... 'Slightly askew & narrow' would be more accurate in this case. I'd be going along building my wall & think I was right in line with where I wanted it to be, but.....then I'd take a look from the east looking west & see that I'd gone off course. Happened more than once on all 3 sides with this one. LOL But it's done & I'm pleased with the results.

[renaldo75]

A few more looks at this last set of walls.

[renaldo75]

A few more.

[renaldo75]

The 1st pic is looking NE toward the house.

[maidofshade]

All those pictures are making me tired I can't wait until you post the ones this spring. Good job, Did you plan this all out on paper or just work from your head? I always have a hard time picturing the beds completed and it seems once you start planting they could be twice the size you made them.
Cheryl

[thy]

Gave me a better idea of the overall garden

LOOKING GOOD, BUT WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH THE LEFT OVER SLOPES ?

[renaldo75]

Cheryl - I had to laugh - cuz nothing is ever planned out on paper. I kind of visualize in my mind & then when it actually starts happening it changes - usually for the better - but often due to little things that my mind wasn't able to visualize until I was actually doing it.

Pia - you lost me.....'left over slopes'??

[maidofshade]

I am glad you are laughing--I even tried to do a landscape program on the computer but gave up. I am a digger and mover myself. I just fire up the tiller and kill more lawn then wonder how I will fill in all that dirt and once I make a couple of trips to the garden centers then get home and wonder where I am going to put everything. I enjoy looking at pictures of everyone's great plantings with contrasting plant colors--sizes that are "right" but I am just a dig and plop kind a girl
Then I sit with a frosty beverage and wonder what I was thinking when I put things in place. I am going to try to not dig too much up this year and just move a couple around so they can grow up a little. Maybe I should do the beverage thing first and then go get the shovel???????
Cheryl

[renaldo75]

Have another beverage after the 1st & let the shovel lean against the shed.

For the next couple of years after I planted my 1st hosta bed under the crab apple tree, I looked at the combinations I came up with & wondered just what the he(( I was thinking. My excuse - and I'm sticking to it - is that I bought way too many hostas in 2002 [the 1st year of addiction] & just needed to get them in the ground before winter. At the time I thought I was doing a nice design - and in some places it doesn't look too bad so I've kept it that way. But as for the rest.......apparently I wanted them grouped together by both appearance & size for future reference so I could easily decide which of the edge variegated hostas I wanted to move elsewhere, etc. Planting the minis together made sense, but what else would have explained planting Abba Dabba Do, Sagae, & Sum and Substance in a triangle with less than 3 feet separating them in any direction??

There were already hostas on the move by early that next spring - after I'd realized some of my most grievous errors. And over the winter I'd had a chance to read The Hosta Handbook. But I did some of the same sort of mistakes that year in a new bed with lance-shaped leaves. Spritzer, Elvis Lives, & Permanent Wave all ended up too close together. But for the most part, I did a better job contrasting color & texture & size. I thought.

Last year after having 2 more years to look at the 2003 beds, I began to better know what I wanted and did a couple of major overhauls. But there was a lot of staring at a spot on the ground visualizing what an area would look like if I took out that plant & maybe that one & left that one, but..... You get the idea. It took a lot of intense visualization staring trancelike at the ground. My neighbors probly thought my battery had run down & needed to be recharged... And they were right. My body was OK - but there was serious overload and brain~drain.

There will be lots more overhauls this year. And I'll get to see if I can apply the lessons I think I've learned to the new & expanded beds I've created with my walls. I'll let ya know how I did in a couple of years.

[maidofshade]

You would die laughing if you knew all the hours I spend paging through Hosta Books and plotting! It's all good right???? Then I see some of the pictures on this and the other web site and wonder how the heck they knew what to plant where. I think I will do better this year. cause you guys are my inspiration and the more I look at all of your gardens the more I think I can
and if you knew that I ordered almost 50 you new hostas coming in may then you would know that I better come up with some sort of ideas in the next couple months right

[renaldo75]

Well I know you'll need at least 50 pots to start with.

And what in the world would make you think that I or anybody on here would laugh at how many hours you spend looking up hostas & plotting. What else is there to do anyway??

One thing I know for sure - you're gonna need at least 50 pots to start with.