Fu Dog guards the passage...

Great shot of your garden. Now i can see where it's all at.... Shed, pnd, shade house etc :)

This looks nice and lush Lori : )

Thankyou gentlemen! It makes me wish I had a picture I could post of the difference between now and when we moved in...no fencing, no shrubs, no decking, no pond...just two inches of "topsoil" bulldozed over stoney fill...and planted with the urban curse! Just try and grow something on this!..this Sept. 2nd. will be ten years...don't know where the time went...but at least I can see the difference when I walk out my back door!

Wow, you really had your back against the proverbial wall, didn't you ! I admire your fortitude and determination to create something so beautiful on such a difficult site. That artistic blood you have running through your veins was going to do it or die trying, wasn't it...lol. Great job !

Hahaha... Flcrazy... I guess I made it sound like the seven labours of Hercules...but started out in the best way...with little or no budget for plants... so had to buy the very basics and add one or two new things a year as I went along...Often said that the round mouth shovel I've used should be bronzed... it has been a faithful companion and only tool in digging out boulders andmoving great amounts of earth...(I exaggerate) I don't remember who said it...but baby steps are also progress! thanks!

Nothing that beautiful happens overnight, Lori. I remember starting my garden on a shoe string budget too, and all I can say is thank God for family and friends with pass-along plants...lol. Come to think of it, that might be another reason I have so many plants in my yard that alot of people consider invasive or agressive, they're the plants people have extra to give away, and I took them gladly. Like my mom always said, "beggars can't be choosy"..lol. Funny thing is, they happen to be most of my favorites to grow, you don't have to pet and pamper them along.! Go figure !

Quite true! I've always said...it grows or it goes! Not that I'd go out of my way to get rid of something...simply that if it isn't going to thrive on it's own I'm not going to create an artificial environ for it.

Yes Marguerite...I step out on to my deck each summer morning and breathe in the smell of photosynthesis...mmmmm... like the aroma of a greenhouse...it's good to be able to do the digging and the sweating because the results are food for the soul.