A year ago, we decided that we had played/planted/messed with the yard of our house long enough (I would think that 20 years is long enough!) and we hired a garden designer to revamp the gardens both front and back. She came, asked questions, took pictures and presto, a couple of weeks later, she had a plan that should have kept us busy for roughly three years. Her plan included before and after pictures designed on her computer, an elevation plan, a planting guide as well as a shopping list.

We were all set except for the manual labour. Before we could get started on any type of bed creation or planting in the back yard, we had several chores ahead of us such as pull up our existing patio and re-level it (we made it much smaller in the process as we didn't need such a huge patio), remove 3 trees as well as an old lilac bush, have the remaining trees pruned by a professional, move and save existing perennials, spread 20 yards of topsoil and lay sod. That kept us busy for the remainder of the summer of 2003. In the spring of 2004, we dug and prepared the beds by adding manure and peatmoss. We then got the shrubs and perennials needed for the beds and planted those. We had now completed year one of the plan.

The pond was built several years ago and was left untouched. It is placed next to the patio so we can enjoy the fish.

Here is the pond a little later in the season.

The reduced patio is just big enough to fit a table and a few chairs.

The planters along the fence have been there for years. I have tried a number of plants in them but have never been happy. I am now trying hostas in there.

I put some of my existing hostas in the planter along the fence. This one is Fortunei Aureomarginata.

This one is August Moon.

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