Garden Journal, 2020: BEFORE

Since I traditionally forget to take pictures before I start any garden project, I decided to take one giant "before" photo shoot of the entire yard and garden right now.

And so, in all its neglected, messy glory, The Little Blue Murder House, BEFORE. (Click on pics to embiggen.)

Backyard

View from the back porch.

Patio bed. Montauk daisies budding but now cut down.
GOAL: Hide that dang drain pipe.

Divided highway to veg garden.

The current veg garden.
GOAL: Remove right-most bed and space out the remaining beds.

Next to veg garden.
GOAL: Create two new raised beds and further raise the herb bed.

Same area looking back towards porch.

New bed! Well, old empty weedy bed cleared of giant rock border
and covered with tarp for almost a year to kill weeds.
GOAL: Create stone-filled trench border and plant... something.

The final frontier.
GOAL: Dig up all the buried slabs, bricks, and stones.

Moving to the other side of the backyard.

Garage bed and corner bed.
GOAL: Redo the gravel-filled borders by digging deeper,
lining with landscape fabric, and refilling with river stone.

This corner never looks impressive.
GOAL: Change that.

The garage bed really came into its own last year, but the border
still needs some work. A late discovery last summer was the
presence of a buried brick walkway and bed border here.
GOAL: Uncover and remove bricks, redefine bed border.

Looking back to compost heap and last year's new beds.
GOAL: Redo the gravel-filled borders by digging deeper,
lining with landscape fabric, and refilling with river stone.

Closeup of new bed.

Another.

Another, with beagle.

Turning the corner, with beagle.

Looking back towards the house.

Front Yard

Stepping out the front door: Berryland. All the
strawberries and blueberries are now here, along
with the wild blackberries a garden club pal gifted.
There are also perennials, a single heather, and OH
YEAH new this year there will be tulips!
GOAL: Just keep weeded.

Side bed. I think there are new tulips here.

Side bed.

Side bed from the street. No new goals for this bed this year.

Same thing.

Looking from driveway to front lawn.

Berryland bed from the street, with Lester.

Little Blue House!

Little stone wall, one of last year's projects.

Front bed by driveway. My boxwoods are growing faster than I
expected (for boxwoods).

Moving along.

You can just see the border here under the leaves.

The new stone walls.

The other front bed, with fewer leaves. This new border still looks
awesome; it's what I want now in my backyard beds.

Not only did this bed get the new border, it also got expanded
outward, creating new flower real estate. Have the poor little
perennials I planted late last year survived?

Also, the bed expansion included coming 'round this corner...

...and expanding the bed all the way 'round to
join up with Rhodey...

...and go all the way to the fence.

Another weed-killing operation. The stone border goes all the
way to the fence.

Street corner bed, from the yard.

Another angle facing the main street.

Another angle from our street.

Why, it's alive! The succulents are alive!

More life.

The daisies are green, too!

Mulch Boy's beautiful stone wall and our
miserably ugly sidewalk.
GOAL: Clean up that sidewalk and find a way
to keep it from falling into this mess.

This wall, though.

Looking back at the house.

Our mess in the street.

Street corner bed, lower level. I forgot I added the brick border.

Tulips?????

Yes, tulips!!!

My single surviving poppy, come to life again!