The ever changing garden.

Hosta, or Plantain lilies are best suited to shade gardens

I can speak first hand, on the changes a garden goes through during its lifespan. Nine years ago when we purchased this property, there was nothing here but a few trees, mostly in the back yard and only two in the front yard. Of those two, one fell during a hurricane. We essentially started with the proverbial blank slate.

Year after year, we added, subtracted, moved, expanded, smiled, cried, hated and loved our yard. True gardeners. Frustrated at times, but we are always chomping at the bit late in the winter season, for the warmer days of spring to arrive and life to once again resume in our little oasis.

A garden is an ever changing organism. Starting with our blank slate, we had a few trees cut from the back yard right when we moved in, a house warming gift from my parents. My next task was to aerate and over seed the lawn the first autumn, giving us an incredible lush lawn the following spring.

From there it started with a small tree here and there, adding a planting bed, then expanding it the next year. We've expanded the beds so much, and added new specimens so frequently, that there is very little "lawn" left in the front and the work is beginning now in the back yard.

The strip of grass has since been removed, growing the small island of mulch into the larger one on the right. The Japanese Maple has grown considerably to fill in the space.

We've learned that you can't always plant something and expect it to live there the rest of its life or yours. Gardens evolve, plants grow, things need to be moved. All of the sun loving plants we planted early on, have either died out, diminished or have been moved. We move plants and trees around often. Not the large stuff mind you, I don't have the strength, money or access to large moving equipment.

The first few years we had lots of sun in the front yard and my wife chose some very nice roses to plant and for the first few years we had fantastic colors and varieties. This year, there aren't many left and of those they just don't bloom like they once did since they get more shade than anything else. Now it is time to move the roses if we can find a properly sunny spot. That is getting harder to come by, after all the specimens we have planted.

We had some hostas planted on the side of the house at first and they got fried the first year, literally cooking in the intense Virginia afternoon heat. We moved those under the only tree in the front yard at the time, a Black Locust, where they still thrive today. In fact, they are loving life so much, not only have we divided them, they are propagating on their own and this year we have massive amounts of babies. The blossoms are already starting to emerge, even on the babies and on two we just purchased and planted just a few weeks ago. I broke a leaf off of one when dividing them last year and stuck just the leaf/stem in the ground, no roots at all, and they have taken off and have blossomed! Incredible!

Colors, textures, and different sizes give you plenty of options with Hostas

Newly purchased, planted and now blooming!

The back yard is in its changing phase now. We don't have much room left in the front yard, so we are concentrating on designing and planting the back yard. Designing is our word for changing things as you go as we don't really draw things out or plan ahead. My wife chooses the plants, I plant the plants and then after they are established, I proceed to remove the grass between them, add mulch and bingo. Planting beds. This has given our beds a very flowing, curvy feel, completely informal, which my wife jokingly refers to as the J-Lo beds. To me, in the future, grass will be just a means to get from growing bed to growing bed, pathways through the vegetation. I'm shooting for 15 minute mow times.

The JM we nearly lost last week. Almost 70% of it is now gone.

The point is, a garden is not just a plant and forget endeavor. It is ever evolving. Get used to things living and dying, even if not by your not so green thumb, get used to moving things around to suit the environment that is changing also. It's not that we planned on going from a sunny type yard to a shade yard. It just happened that way. We fall in love with a new plant , tree or shrub, buy it, take it home and plant it. We are the reason our garden has changed. We are greedy. Greedy for all things beautiful and living.