Sunday, July 4, 2010

Garden Before and After

Thought you'd like to see some before and after photos of our garden.

First, the after photo  which was taken with a digital camera. I must have taken 50 photos to get this shot.



This photo was taken from our deck when we moved in (fall 2000). You can't really tell, but there are 2" thick vines hanging from several trees. 
We had to take them out by attaching them to our minivan & driving up the hill! They were too large to pull out even with our lawn tractor!
The following 5 photos were taken pre-digital and were scanned.

The next 4 photos are of the same spot in the garden - the area which will eventually become the patio in the woods.

Our first goal was to get the play set up. We had to remove several trees.

The bare dirt is where we removed a hill of dirt. Mr. Fanatic had so much fun renting a Bobcat and leveling out the ground! 
The girls didn't wait for the area to be finished ... as soon as it went up, they started playing on the play set. We brought it from California where it took up so much space in our little yard. 
We didn't realize that everyone in the Carolinas would have the really nice play sets! Oh well, it sufficed for a few years.

Here's the first project finished. The photo is dated August of 2001. At this point I already had a plan for the whole yard. The path and bed are still somewhat in the same place.
Here is what this same area looks like today. This is the left side of our yard as you look out from the deck.


This is the same area as you are down on the path.
Over the course of  4 years we landscaped the backyard to what it is today. Since the yard is so large it would have been too big of a project for us to do all at once, so we just did a section at a time. To make things easier to plant and less expensive, we bought smaller plants and divided many of them. 
Every time we'd work on a project we would say we were ready for a condo with a little patio! You can see more garden photos HERE



Pam


22 comments:

  1. Your yard is stunning. You can tell you did a ton of work. It turned out gorgeous. Hugs, Marty

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  2. This looks amazing!!! I really want a garden all over my yard like this! I will have to use this as inspiration! Hope yall have a great 4th of July weekend! ~Andrea

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  3. OH MY GOODNESS ! That looks like a magazine picture ! What a gorgeous space !!!

    Thank you for sharing !
    gena
    www.thehouseonlavenderhill.blogspot.com

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  4. What a HUGE yard... you guys have done an amazing job. I'm sure you guys enjoy it daily. :)

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  5. Hi Pam! Your yard is beautiful and you both have done so much work. The transformation is amazing.
    xo, Sherry

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  6. WOW ! You have done a lot of work ! Looks amazing !
    Eunice

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  7. I love your yard, it looks so nice too! I bet you and Mr. F really enjoy kicking back!!~ Hope you enjoyed the 4th too, beautiful weather we are having Pam!

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  8. Pam, your garden is AMAZING! Seriously -- you guys have SO much work! Your new garden is absolutely stunning!

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  9. Your garden is lovely and shows a lot of hard work and planning. Aren't you glad you have these images to show how your garden grew and changed along with the needs and wants of your family? Great post! Pam @ Sallygoodin

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  10. Your hard work has paid off. It is lovely and I often divide the plants because they grow so fast but also to save a few dollars too.
    Joyce

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  11. Hi Pam, so glad you joined the party....can you add my link so others know about it too:) Trying to get word out. This was a perfect post. Debbie

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  12. All your hard work really shows in the beautiful results. The landscape is stunning.

    ~olive

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  13. Wow. The landscaping is amazing. Looks like a lot of hard work, but worth it.

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  14. Love the yard. I think there is nothing as satisfying as designing a garden.

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  15. What a pretty and fun yard!!

    Love,
    Susan and Bentley
    xxoo

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  16. Your view is beautiful! I enjoyed my visit, hope you will come by sometime.
    Debbie

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  17. You've done a beautiful job! It looks wonderful :)

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  18. Stopping by from debbiedoos party! What a transformation! It is a lot of work, I know. You should be quite proud and enjoy it!!

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  19. Hi Pam,

    What a lovely transformation!! Lots of work but so worth it..thanks for sharing this inspiration.

    I'm visiting for Outdoor Wednesday....Have a wonderful day,

    Stephanie ♥

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  20. WOW! What a huge amount of work! But it's so lovely that I'm sure it's worth it! Just stunning!

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