"Before / After and Everchanging" seems a fitting phrase to describe a garden. What has come before always influences the now, and the future. Here's a timeline of my garden, so far.

When describing my garden plot I always start out by saying, "We live on a flat, sunny corner." Here it is on an early fall morning, before the sun has hit the front of the property. That sidewalk is 8-ft wide and surrounds a 1000-sq-ft strip of land that was actually roadway when we first moved here. Nothing like city improvements in our favor!

In 2008 our little house received a roof-lift and a new addition. 

THE GARDEN 

It's 1986, and this is my first attempt at gardening- that Queen Elizabeth climber wouldn't quit.

The shuttered window (same one in the shot above) has witnessed many changes- this was taken probably 10 years ago- those pittosporums are long gone, but the pink roses are still there. The bed is 8-ft deep and surrounds the house.

This is our newly planted garden in winter (so naked). That deodora cedar eventually succumbed to old age, opening the space up to even more sun. The split rail fence inspired the rose plantings, however deer soon discovered the roses and after much angst, and too many do-it-myself repellants, the split rails were replaced with a 6-ft high lattice fence.

Here's a considerable transformation. To the left is the corner of the pink rose bed. The other beds are grouped by color- white to red to peach. The deer fence is a year old here.

This shot, taken this past spring, shows the pink bed in the foreground with the peach section behind. The roses really love that fence, and deer never eat (off the fence) from the other side- why I don't know. 

SIDE GARDEN

Here's the other side of the deer fence. In the mid-upper left, you can see the lattice. Yes there are roses on the outside as well, some they eat some they don't. This picture is not as tightly planted as it looks- you can walk around in there, and there is a pathway.

This fence extends beyond the area shown in the photo above this one. I love this shot- it brings back memories of a rose order I placed for climbers to cover that fence, sight unseen. With only one year's growth they made lots of progress! The foreground shows an old asphalt sidewalk and dirt wayside that edged the roadway.

This shot was taken a few months later. That's lovely Renae on the arch (which doesn't show in the image above). In the early days I edged the beds with catmint. It did very well, but I got tired of it and added a more varied plant palette. Good view here of that long gone asphalt. The weedy area is now like a little forest with a big persimmon tree and huge roses.

BACK GARDEN

The silver maple canopy keeps the back garden shady. A lovely filtered sun pattern moves through the days of spring and summer. The little arch grew into the image below.

Climbing Cecile Brunner has been an endless source of delight. I love it when large roses are allowed to make a statement.

The blue garden is behind the Cecile Brunner, caught here in the early morning.

The Renae rose gateway looks in on the blue garden and a blooming Cecile Brunner.

Phew! That's the garden for the moment- always more changes to come . . .

Back at the first color post - purple - I told you that all these images come from the folder I compiled during my first blog experience, many moons, pixels and aps ago - woooooooo! Green has been my favorite color for my whole life and the images in this post run a grand sweep of experience. The Alba rugosa's first bloom - brave enough to bypass tight roots of that flourishing grass (and I don't mean lawn). The frog - Christmas ornament turned treasured bauble. Hand blown glass flower visiting nature for the photographer only. Hellebore in the little agate bowl that broke (nice to have its image). Charming Louisianna fence (how green and lovely it was there). Our new street sign. Porcelain Vine - (how enchanted I was by those turquoise and purple berries). Queen Anne's Lace (memories of childhood). Rose leaf extravaganza - it looks like a simple picture but took hours to create so you could see how diverse, once again, the rose world is. Thorns - too scary not to photograph! A machine part with super-glued mirror, hanging on our back fence.

Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its lovliness arises.

~ Pedro Calderon de la Barca