Last updated on September 30th, 2014
It’s a curious thing. When we first design and plant our gardens, we suspect our efforts will never amount to anything. But patience is a virtue, my friends. As proof, walk with me down Memory Lane. You’ll see a few of my gardens in their ugly duckling years — and what they’ve grown into today:
Here’s the Serpentine Garden in May, 2009, exactly one year after I designed and “installed” it. For a point of reference, please note the cement bench.
The same garden two years later, in May, 2011.
The dwarf lilac hedge, in June, 2009.
The same hedge, underplanted with Phlox subulata, in May, 2014.
The rose garden, one year old in August 2006…
The pool, with its ghastly chain-link fence in August, 2006…
The pool garden, after we enlarged the space in 2011…
And gave it a background of hemlock and statuary, as pictured in June, 2014.
The arbor in the kitchen garden (and a blue-jeaned fool in the fore), in March, 2009…
The same arbor, with 3-year-old hardy kiwi vines in July, 2010…
And completely engulfed by those hardy kiwi vines in June, 2014!
I’ll cut those vines back next spring. You can bank on it.
Are you amazed at the progress your own garden has achieved over the years? You can let me know by leaving a comment. As always, I love hearing from you.
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Related Posts:
From Hellish Hill to Serpentine Garden
From Parking Lot to Rose Garden
My Easy Kitchen Garden
Kristin says
Beautiful & inspiring! Thank you for sharing.
Linda says
I love all of your pictures.. Your garden is something to be so proud of, since you did it all yourself. Congratulations on a job well done, but I know as a lover of gardening you will never be done.
Ann says
What? You don’t have a full time gardener?
Betty says
I am in Australia I love looking at your garden pictures an inspiration I have a good garden
( well I think it is good ) lots of vegetables , flowers also and I do it all myself and I am 76
so I feel proud of it. I love reading your recipes as well I am not as good at cooking as you though .
Jane Rutkowski says
I am always amazed how quickly plants can grow. I purposely plant shrubs and bushes further apart than the recommended planting distance. It will save you so much work in the end. I also want to say I love your blog!
badger gardener says
I love seeing the progression of your gardens. Reminds me to be patient yet hopeful.
Michelle says
Thanks for comparing the past to now. It gives me inspiration that my efforts wil one day look gorgeous too. Love your blog!
Sheri says
WOW!!!!!!! You have done an amazing job with this property Kevin! Way to go Ace!
Barb Gilligan says
thanks Kevin, your gardens are awesome. I wish our growing season was longer here in Minnesota, we do quite well with what we get for warm weather, we have to get right at it in the early Spring. I wish I could share with you our before & after pics of our garden. Keep sharing Kevin! It’s inspiring!
Edie says
Just BEAUTIFUL!!! Do you do your own designing? Hardscape as well as plants? It takes so much knowledge for season, climate, scale, slope…I need not go on. Would love to hear your top ten “to do” and “not to do” related to design. Thanks for a great blog.
Gae Gellman says
I look forward to your blog. Alas, I have no window in my bathroom,but I do admire yours.
I keep a file of printouts of your recipes in my antique baker’s rack in th kitchen. Best success with your cookbook.
The Glam
Lori G. says
I am excited to see your hardy kiwi vines are flourishing after a few years. I planted a pair last year and they did NOTHING all summer but sit there and look green. This year, the male plant took off and grew like mad. The female plant grew a little. Have you had flowers yet? Or dare I hope for fruit?
rust says
What fun wandering through your garden as it unfolds …..there’s just one thing missing though. I think you need a woodchuck somewhere in there. 😉
Jamie Shafer says
The dwarf lilac hedge – what is ithe lilac’s name? Is it Miss KIm?
Thanks for all the pics and recipes – I look forward to Sunday afternoon to read your blog and think about food!
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Hi Jamie – The dwarf lilac is Syringa meyeri ‘Palibin.’ It blooms a little later than the common lilac (Syringa vulgaris). Powerfully fragrant!
Anne in Vermont Zone 4/5 says
Hi Kevin,
Thank you for sharing the photographs of your progress. Isn’t it amazing what nature and time can do? (Although I know the amount of weeding that went on too.) When I moved here in autumn 2011 I was shocked to find that the 2010 autumn clean up that I thought had just been missed had never taken place. In fact come spring it was obvious that the garden lhad not been touched in several years. As any garden, it is still a work in progress, but this year the garden began to receive compliments from people who passed by in cars or on foot. Happily from that distance they cannot see what is lurking and just have the overall effect, but it makes all the work worthwhile.
Although I was unable to visit your garden on either of the open days this year, I hope to be able to seize a future opportunity.
Best wishes, Anne
Linda says
Kevin..You are so creative..in the designing of you house, your garden, your landscaping your blog and last but not least, your cooking. I should add photography; I swear I could eat your food right off the screen as well as smell the fragrance of the Palibin.
Hi Gae Gellman!! Try a kitchen, bedroom or any room so you can experience the joy it will bring.
Kevin, it’s too bad that woodchuck can’t read..I’m sure he would enjoy it too and stay away from you
Pam says
I agree with you that the gardens we plant undergo a quick transformation. When we put our gardens in, we had two landscapers with a backhoe and a dump truck moving back and forth for weeks. They put in a bluestone patio, a stone wall, a water garden, fences, everything. They destroyed all the grass, and I thought I’d never have a lawn again. It’s now lush and beautiful. As for the perennials, I have a yearly battle with some who like to encroach and crowd out the more tender varieties. And as I get older, I realize my eyes 10 years ago were bigger than my stomach. Perhaps I envisioned gardens that were just a TINY bit too big.
Kathy Massimi says
I your sense of humor. And inspiring beauty.
Blue says
It’s remarkable truly!
Thank you for sharing even this snippet of time in your gardens.
I too have taken pictures of before and after of those that thrived and those that died.
Moving this from here to there. Enlarging this Shrinking that. Adding statues. Flags mulch of every kind.
It’s an ever evolving child to me. I keep trying to help it be it’s own best friend.
I’ve cried over failures losses ; been angry over bullying and invasive ones. I’ve nurtured and babied coddled many some with success others to despair.
I walked a journey of thousands of special moments in the gardens of mine. I’ve been bitten scraped bloodied and bruised. My fingertips are raw and my blisters thick. People ask me Why, Why this gardening, this toil? I shrug mostly for it is my soul to keep~~ love
Barb Hulse says
I love your pictures, comments and recipies!! I planted raspberries two years ago and only got a few berries, but now they are going great guns and though not enough to make jam or pie, enough to have with yogurt for dessert several times.
David Lindberg says
How fun to see the before and after shots of your beloved garden spaces, keep up the great work and good luck with the woodchuck…
Mary Ellen says
Kevin,
You don’t have a green thumb….you have a gold thumb. Your gardens are fabulous and I love to see them over and over again especially when you show the before and after. It does give me inspiratopn but I have no artistic ability…..and so it goes.
Thanks for sharing.
Beverly, zone 6, eastern PA says
The before and after photos I took ages ago were fodder for those February evenings of planning, hoping and dreaming about the upcoming gardening season. Gardening never stops because it can always be improved upon.
These photos you’ve shared say “Pat yourself on the back” and it is much deserved, being concrete evidence of your hard work and creativity.
According to May Brawley Hill …..
GARDENING IS THE SLOWEST OF THE PERFORMING ARTS.
Bonnie Morgan says
ohhhhhh I absolutely love your website Kevin !!! I just read about using wood chips for making your land just amazing and wanted to share it with you .
Using wood chips as ground cover, not compost, is a highly cost-effective strategy that will help radically improve your ability to effortlessly grow nutrient-dense food
A few short months after putting down a deep layer of wood chips, you will end up with lush fertile soil beneath the chips that will support whatever you choose to grow
Using wood chips has many benefits, from promoting soil fertility and earthworms that create vermicompost, to eliminating the need for irrigation and the use of fertilizer
Most tree cutting companies will drop a truck load (or more) of wood chips right on your property, for free
It’s important to avoid tilling your soil, as 70 percent of the soil microbes responsible for plant health and plant communication are fungi, and tilling will disrupt these mycorrhizal fungal filaments
the reason this works so well is all the carbon !! wow !!
here is more
Why wood chips?
You can actually use virtually any organic material for mulch but wood chips seem to be one of the best, as they are concentrated sources of carbon that serve to feed the complex soil ecology. Typically, carbon is one of the nutrients that is far too low in the soil.
Additionally, by covering the soil around your plants and/or trees with mulch, you mimic what nature does naturally, and in so doing, you effortlessly maximize the health of the soil. And soil health, as I’ve discussed in many previous articles, is the key to growing nutritious food.
Actually, the effortlessness comes after you do the hard work of moving the chips to where you need them to be. But once there, over time they work their magic and virtually eliminate the most concerning garden tasks, which is weeding, watering, and fertilizing.
Ground Cover Reduces Water Needs
Covering the ground with wood chips dramatically reduces water evaporation, thereby minimizing the need for watering. The wood chips also tend to absorb moisture from the air at night and release it back into the soil during the day when the plants need it.
Water shortage was in fact part of what inspired Paul when he first began. He’d moved from Los Angeles to Washington State where he built a house and planned an orchard. The problem was, his well didn’t produce enough water for irrigation.
“It was August ‘79… It didn’t rain the whole summer… And I’m saying, ‘God, how am I going to grow fruit trees for my family without water?’”
His answer lay in the woods behind his house. Those trees were all lush and green, and when he poked around, he realized they were surrounded by deep, dark, lush, fertile soil—courtesy of all the fallen leaves and twigs that had never been cleared away.
“I started planting my trees and covering [them]. At that time, I had straw and sheep manure; now I’m doing the wood chips,” he says. “My orchard has not been watered or fertilized for 35 years, and it’s produced abundantly beyond what people can imagine…
Wherever you live, there’s something in nature that you can use to cover the ground with. If you have nothing but rocks, they make a great cover. You can grow wonderful gardens in rocks because rocks are minerals and they hold moisture…
Whatever you’re growing, put it back. It’s that simple. If you’re raising corn, chop the stalks and put them back. If you’re raising grain, put the straw back.
Whatever you use, put it back… Any organic material lying on the ground will decompose, return to the soil, and the plants work out. It’s so commonsense simple.”
Bonnie Morgan says
oops the author is Paul Gautschi… google him for more .. lots of love from Maui Hawaii!
janet g metzger says
Thanks for the memories, and for signs of hope!
Every time I start a garden, I move! It is LOVELY to see a place that has LOTS of stable, loving, care!
Enjoy the fall.
(It is marvelous here in Weatherford, OK: fabulous sunsets, moon light so bright you can read by it, cool mornings, warm days and evenings, lots of dust! I have planted kale and swiss chard. Your photos say, “it’s time to add something pretty!”
Janet
Chuck says
As always, your photos inspire and give joy. Thnx 4 your hard work, then thnx 4 posting the. Kevin. I look forward to Sunday mornings weekly because I can count on you to share these kinds of things. Chuck.
Carol says
My Sunday morning fix is seeing your home and trying your recipes. I just love your photos, old and current.
Behind our backyard is/was a field with wild flowers and small/medium size trees. The fall color was beautiful. The wonderful farmer who rents the land came through with a bulldozer and flattened everything. I was heartbroken to see the trees gone and so were the birds.
But now I am adding more trees and shrubs to my yard to block the site of his corn. I see you have had pretty good luck with hemlocks and gigantic? arborvitae. Any suggestions where to get these from for zone 5, Beloit WI or any other suggestions for good privacy barriers that may be fast growers. Thinking of the birds and love the natural nature look.
Second question, when will your cookbook be out?
Sue T says
Hi, Kevin,
Great photos, you were smart to take them at various stages. Reminds me of photos we took of my townhouse front yard back in 1995 when my Dad helped me double-dig the beds for planting. Wish he were here to see how they turned out.
Naomi Shelton says
Lovely, lovely, lovely! I love that picture of you sitting in front of the arbor. You look like such a kid!
Mary says
This is really inspiring! Thank you for sharing.
Christine D. says
Thanks so much for this post! As I begin designing and planting a garden at a new house with no prior landscaping, this provides inspiration that my sparse plantings will someday form a beautiful full garden!
Kathy C. says
Hi, Kevin–
Thanks for the reminder to take pictures of this year’s work. I’ve been working on my gardens for 35 years now, and I wish I had “before” shots. I once read this rhyme about planting perennials, and I’ve found it to be worth remembering, especially when you’ve finished landscaping a new area and are anxious to see some results. It’s really true:
Perennials—
The first year they weep,
The second year they creep,
The third year they LEAP!’
I delight in reading your blog every Sunday morning. Dare I say it–more satisfying than church!
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Hi Kathy C – What else can I say except…Amen!
Lynn says
Thank you. I’m having to move after 10 years lovingly tending my suburban New York garden. I feel so sad to be leaving all of my beautiful flowers and plants but your post reminded me that when I start again in my new location that nature and time will give me beautiful gardens once again – sooner rather than later. You are truly talented. I will always follow your posts.