Big Garden Views

Newer readers of this blog who want to know about the structure of my garden would probably be interested in this post, where I describe (with photos) the evolution of the garden.

The difficulty with taking photos of those same views now is that the backyard is (quite intentionally) all trees and shrubs. We are literally overlooked by our neighbours, whose houses are "walkouts" that sit atop a slope.

Photo 1 (See Explanation Below)



When we bought our home new from the builder, we were told we would have a row of townhouses behind. However, by some magic of city politics the developers were allowed to build high-end homes on thirty-foot lots instead. How do you fit a 2000-square-foot home on a thirty-foot lot, you may ask? Well, you build up from a small footprint. (Keep in mind these homes are already above ours because they sit on a slope, and now they have three finished stories.)

Photo 2




Anyway, grumbling aside, that is why our yard is full of trees. For privacy -- but also because we happen to like trees. But what this means, gardenwise, is that most of the garden beds are planted under or around trees. The rest of the slope consists mainly of mulched paths (some of which are becoming difficult to maintain as plants and shrubs increase in size).

Photo 3



I'm not sure if these photos successfully convey the sense of "levels" that are an integral part of this garden. I think it is a testament to the art of the landscaper (who is now retired, unfortunately) that many people are not aware from the photos just how much of a slope we were dealing with.

Photo 4


Photos belong to kbgardenblog.blogspot.com and may not be used without permission.

Most of the transitions between levels are subtle. You do not use the mulched paths to walk flat most of the time, but to climb or descend. The transition from the patio to the garden is marked by a set of stone steps that create an entrance to the sloped area.

Photos:

1. This is the view looking roughly northwest. The photo is taken with a wide-angle fish-eye lens, so there is some distortion in the outer corners. The grass you see in the foreground is "eco-grass". We planted it late because we had some difficulty obtaining the seed (I ordered it in time from a web site that promised to ship within two days, but it took them several weeks to ship it), so it has not germinated evenly. We will overseed again in the fall. It's very nice stuff! You can see how green it is when all the other grass has gone dormant. We don't water it!


2. This is the view looking roughly northeast. In the lower left of the photo you can see a "climbing" path that moves from one level of the garden to another. This view pretty much illustrates that most of the backyard is trees and shrubs.


3. Looking east from the base level. This view shows how natural stone defines the structure and transitions. Also from this view you can see that we had bark-splitting problem on the Deborah maple this year. Luckily, maples can survive this sort of thing and the tree is still doing well (touch wood).


4. The final view shows the stone steps close up, and the main path through the garden that we have defined with flagstone stepping stones. Again, I'm not sure if the change in levels is obvious the way the photo is taken, but the flagstone path is a climbing path.