Tag: retaining walls

Rose Garden

Rose garden, first spring

I have always wanted a rose garden, ever since I was a child.  I remember seeing a rose garden in front of a big building.  I don’t even remember what the building was, or where it was – I think I was 10?  I’m just not sure.  But I can still see that rose garden in my mind’s eye.

Champlain shrub rose

I found baby roses in 4″ pots, online from Heirloom  Roses https://www.heirloomroses.com/  and Edmond’s  Roses https://www.edmundsroses.com/ roses.  I bought only “shrub” roses.  No wimpy hybrid teas are going to make it out here in Brighton.  We have winds out here that roll hot tubs down the street.  Really.  That happened last year.

Tequila Sunrise shrub rose

So I bought 36 small roses in sunrise colors, yellow-orange-red-whites, spaced them out and planted them in the U shape garden between the privet hedges.   (Add in: amend the soil, install irrigation to water the roses . . .)  They grew so well the first year that they were taller than the baby hedges.

We built a retaining wall with mixed granite stones to hold the garden in place and delineate the border of the garden from the ditch in front.

New granite retaining wall for the rose garden
Finishing the culvert with granite

 

 

 

 

 

You can see the little privet hedges growing behind the roses, circling around the 1/2 moon shape of the driveway.  I can’t wait for them to get bigger.  I really want a formal look for the front yard.

Starting to look like something

Stinky, (the cat) enjoying the verbenas.  After we put in this retaining wall last fall, I finally felt like this front porch bed could be finished.  A few colorful annuals did the trick, oh, and a kitty.

Stinky, enjoying the verbena
Adding color

Front porch garden:  Dwarf Korean lilac in the back, Carol Mackie Daphne, and mixed verbena in front.  The bright pop of yellow to the left/rear are the Maximilian sunflowers; they’re about 6 feet tall.  And the little T fan shaped shrubs in the foreground are my little hedges; they greened up nicely after a heavy snow last winter, and they have their first branch sets on them.  Fingers still crossed.

In the picture below, you can see the stone steps we put in to lead down from the front porch to the lower willow garden.  Wish I had taken a better picture.  Also in this

Starting to look like something

picture, you can see the front south rock berm, in the upper right corner.  There is a berm like this on each side of the front of the property.  Eventually they will be covered in stone.  But for now, I was able to afford 25 tons of large boulders, 3-6 tons each boulder, to put on the berms.  These boulders are the anchor stones for these two berms.  I know, it looks weird right now, it looks undone – and it is.  But these things take time, and money $$$.

Starting to look like something

On the north, front side of the property is the other large berm.  I don’t think you can see the boulders from this view, but you can appreciate the second year’s growth of Aunt Judy’s daylilies.   They’re right out front behind a row of pink mums.  Appreciate them!  They came all the way from Missouri and are working really hard in this nasty soil.

All in all, I feel good about this progress.  It’s finally starting to look like something, at least out front.