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Packrat's yard pics 2014

packrat

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Changes to the front from the last few years--the tub bed is getting rearranged, so it's all crazy messed up right now. We took out three rows of barberries. On both sides of the driveway and along the front of the street. Replaced by the street with daylilies. One side of the driveway is hostas, the other is russian sage. So, it looks kinda bare now since everything is so new and little. Will fill in next year a lot nicer.

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packrat

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Changes to the back-the triangle bed used to be daylilies/barberries/knockout roses. Now it's hostas.

The stock tank in the corner catches rain water from the gutter, and we use it to water in the back. Of course, now we have about 500 times what we started with, so plans are to add a couple of the long thin ones up front, a long thin one in the back and a huuuuge one back by the back garage. At that point we will be catching all of the rain water from the house and garage.

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azstonie

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Your front and backyard look fantastic. So green and lush, you need a good book and a beverage! I think landscaping is really hard to do well and then there's all the work that goes into maintaining it. It works well on its own and dressed up the house really nicely. Good going!
 

packrat

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Along the back fence where the wheels are, there used to be daylilies there, and they are out front now. Heucheras replaced most of them, and we will add more hostas.

Hostas are our favorite, case you couldn't tell.

JD forgot to take pics from the roof of the back garage again so will do that tomorrow.

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packrat

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oops, front yard pic out of order.

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azstonie

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OMG, THE SIDE YARDS? Fab.

I would buy your house just for the yards alone! I could make the inside work if I could have those yards :appl:
 

packrat

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.

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packrat

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almost done.

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packrat

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packrat

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last set for now. forgot to put the pic of the backyard from when we bought it, so that's in this set too.

ETA oopps hahah then I forgot to put the backyard before pic in .

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lambskin

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We have spent YEARS doing our gardening and it noway looks as good as yours. The use of different hardscape materials coupled with the varied flora is just beautiful congrats. Your hard work and great design really shows. :appl: :love:
 

AprilBaby

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Wow! I wish I had your eye for gardening! Fantastic!
 

sarahb

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Wow, that is really gorgeous! What is the plant that is on the telephone pole, I'd love something like that on our pole. I especially love how you've set pavers in the back, it is simply gorgeous, every bit of it! Your sweat equity will pay off big time when you move, & now when you enjoy it, well done! :appl: :appl:
 

packrat

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Thanks azstonie, lambskin, Aprilbaby and sarahb! It actually isn't as much work as it looks...tho maybe I shouldn't tell anyone that. I should do like the rice krispie treats and be the one slaving and toiling away, toss some flour on my face and whew!

Doing it up like this takes a little extra, b/c we hose off the decks, and we had to woodchip the beds.

lambskin, that's one of the things I like about the yards-we have landscape timbers, railroad ties, the red blocks, cement, and the bigger blocks for the front patio, then the tiered block planters in the back, it makes different textures and looks.
 

packrat

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sarahb, the plant on the pole is the neighbors trumpet vine! It's sprouted up about 40 babies so far...we've put a few in the back along the fence behind the tank to see if they will climb up the fence back there, green up that corner. I like that they put it there b/c it looks like it's in our yard haha!
 

lulu

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I can't believe how much you've accomplished. It's beautiful!
 

Gypsy

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Packrat, every time I see your yard I have the same wacky thought:

Our PSers are such a talented bunch. And If we could set up an Angie's List for PSers and all of us could advertise as vendors for whatever it is we do well... we'd all be rich, and we'd all have the best of everything.

I would hire you to do my yard if I lived by you. You have such a great eye.
 

Bonfire

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Just beautiful Packrat! And I have a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel that looks just like yours!
 

azstonie

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Love that Cavvie in the last group, what a handsome dog!

Yes, us PSers, think of the bartering we could do with each other. Packrat would be booked for decades!
 

sarahb

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packrat|1405728612|3716254 said:
sarahb, the plant on the pole is the neighbors trumpet vine! It's sprouted up about 40 babies so far...we've put a few in the back along the fence behind the tank to see if they will climb up the fence back there, green up that corner. I like that they put it there b/c it looks like it's in our yard haha!

PR: I shared your pics w/ hubby over dinner, he loved all your landscaping! We'll have to give that trumpet vine serious consideration for the telephone pole, he also said the trumpet vine can be quite aggressive, be careful! But by the looks of it, you're the green thumb!!
 

monarch64

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Midwest gardening at its best! You should submit your pics to Midwest Living magazine and I bet they'd feature you!

I could talk your ear off for days on end (over party pizzas and wine of course) about all your gardens, the plants themselves, how you came up with certain configurations, etc. And then you'd get sick of me and send me packing with some antacids and ibuprofen. :lol:

Thanks for the annual sharing of your wonderful yard/progress. Does your town do a Garden Walk? If so you should consider participating--sharing is caring!
 

monarch64

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sarahb|1405738151|3716340 said:
packrat|1405728612|3716254 said:
sarahb, the plant on the pole is the neighbors trumpet vine! It's sprouted up about 40 babies so far...we've put a few in the back along the fence behind the tank to see if they will climb up the fence back there, green up that corner. I like that they put it there b/c it looks like it's in our yard haha!

PR: I shared your pics w/ hubby over dinner, he loved all your landscaping! We'll have to give that trumpet vine serious consideration for the telephone pole, he also said the trumpet vine can be quite aggressive, be careful! But by the looks of it, you're the green thumb!!

Trumpet vines are considered invasive in many areas--hmmph! I think they're beautiful, and Packie's neighbor's looks well-contained growing up that utility pole. Multiflora is another invasive species that is absolutely gorgeous, but man it is a bear to get rid of and thorny to boot. Much like barberries.

Sorry, took a class on invasive plants this spring and it ruined me. Gah!
 

NOYFB

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It looks awesome! So awesome, in fact, that I think the next GTG needs to be at your house. :wink2:
 

packrat

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Shoot, I was going to mention, in the front tub bed, the old metal pump and tub are actually a working water feature. The water collects under the rocks next to the flowers in the tub and cycles back up and out the pump. And in the back, that honeysuckle stump bed right off the back deck-the galvanized tub there is also a working water feature. There is a faucet on a pipe inside the honeysuckle vines and the water collects in the galvanized tub, cycles back up and out the faucet. I have better pictures from a couple years ago, will post them too.

Gosh Gypsy, thank you! That's really nice of you to say!

Thanks lulu and Bonfire! Chicken's getting up there and not so healthy seeming, but she loves to be in pictures! She manages to be in a few every year haha!

Thanks again, azstonie!

It's such a labor of love. A little background, in case nobody's looked at the other threads-my parents live on just over three acres, and my mom worked at the greenhouse in town for many years. They'd always had a garden-garden about as big as our house, and we just had tons of trees. Dad started to get a flower/plant gardening bug. And little by little, every year it expanded...(and I lived at home until I was 27 and JD and I got married, so I got to "help") until suddenly we had 5000 tulips. And 5000 daffodils. And narcissus, lilies, iris, daylilies, mums and this and that and specimen roses and specimen lilacs and then a wildflower bed with 8 foot sunflowers, and there were so many beds we had to name them all. And people would hear about our place in town and make the 10 mile drive out to see it, and it wasn't an unusual thing to have someone ring the doorbell and ask for a tour. Or go outside in my grubby clothes to do my chores and find people out wandering around the yard, checking things out.

So before JD and I got married he said we absolutely were NOT going ape shit crazy like my parents. Well shoot, I was spending almost 40 hours a week just between the house and yard, plus my full time job so heck no we weren't going to go ape shit crazy, I said. So we just did along the front and east side of the house and the back directly behind the house. Then we thought well dangit, the grass is so gross and ugly under the trees...maybe we'll just put beds around them. Theeeeen the neighbors grandkids were in our front yard all the time, so we thought we'd plant thorny barberries down the sides of the driveway. Then maybe we should do the front too bc the dog across the street kept coming and pooping in the yard. Well huh, Gramma has this old tub that was outside in a flower bed on their farm place...maybe we could do a centerpiece bed with it? Hm...

Soooo yeah, 12.5 years later.....and we're not done. More ideas that didn't get done this year as planned b/c of turning our front attached garage into an attached shop. Next year should really be interesting!

Sometimes I catch Dad outside drinking his pepsi or coffee and just nodding his head and smiling. It's probably the only thing I ever do or will brag about or show off.
 

packrat

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sarahb, yeah the trumpet vine is a bit bossy-there's currently about 5 little babies sprouting up in our yard that got mowed down for the pics. We took about 4 or 5 babies last year and planted them behind the tank-boy if it ends up looking like Al's on the pole, wow wow will it be cool behind the tank! We've dug up several for my dad too...so we have a bunch of divets/holes in the ground! Thinking we could sell those suckers.

Ugggghhhhh here's a story. The tub bed? We wanted something to plant behind it, that would stand up tall so you could see it from the front. Dad says oh yeah, plant pompus grass. I said wait, that's the stuff in the ditches isn't it, with the fuzzy white plumes? Yep. Um...doesn't it spread? Nope, not bad. Umm..but how does it get to fill miles and miles of ditches then? Meh you're FIIIIINE. (here's a hint, if my dad says meh you're fiiiiiine, that means do the opposite) We planted it. It looked cool. Suddenly we had it all over our yard. That was ohhh 11 years ago? We dug that crap out and used round up. We STILL are pulling that crap out. We have dubbed it "the shit that don't spread". And Malva's. (melva, not sure how it's spelled) So pretty but holy baloney, *again* 12 years later....thankfully there's not much left of it.

LM, thank you! Heck yeah, I'd be all for that! Sparklies and relaxing out in the gardens!

Monnie, thank you! Does that magazine really do that? Hmm....our town used to have a Yard of the Month/Week or whatever, but it's a bit of a....who you know typea club. I'm not sure if they still do a garden tour...they did years ago, b/c we were on it out at my parents one year. I'll look into it and see...would be kinda fun! Haha party pizzas and wine, yes!! Oh my word, no way, we never get sick of talking about our yard so could never get sick of you talking about it with us!

We tour our own place almost daily from the time the snow is gone until we cut everything down for winter, and in the spring, you'll see me jumping up and down and clapping when the hostas start coming up.
 

minousbijoux

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Dayum! Come to California and you're hired. Unbelievable and beautiful :appl:
 

monarch64

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Packie, don't you worry 'bout the magazine. Maybe old Monnie will just submit you from a guest point-of-view someday. :naughty: No really, where do you think they find their content? It's gotta happen somehow.

The whole story behind all of this is the best part. Obviously you have a beautiful place that you've worked hard on for years. But the details you provide just flesh it out into this place that makes the reader want to walk into, find a soft place to sit, have a glass of lemonade, and chat with you guys. I imagine that's maybe what your goal was? If so, mission accomplished. If not? That's why JD's a cop: "get off my lawn! 'che che, boom!'"
 

Jennifer W

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Once again, I bow down to you as pretty much the Chief Gardener. If I know someone with more of a knack for this, I'm not aware of it.

I love what you've done, and the love you've put into doing it. I could gush about it for hours (think I have on previous threads) but for now, it's probably enough to say that it's wonderful. :appl: :clap: :appl:
 

rosetta

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What a green thumb you have paxkrat! If I had a garden, I'd fly you over to redesign it! :appl:
 
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