Our Yard Is On A Garden Tour
- On July 12, 2012
- By Meleah
- In Annuals, Container Gardening, Organic Gardening, Perennials, Soil
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Two days from now, on Saturday, somewhere around 300 people will be coming to check out our gardens as part of the Hennepin County Master Gardener Learning Garden Tour. Our house is one of 11 stops on the one-day tour, and we have been working like maniacs for three solid months to get the place in shape.
Front Yard “After”
Front Yard “Before”
Truthfully, as you’ll see from the photos I’m posting, we’ve been working on our yard for six summers in a way that would probably seem nutty to most people. But when I volunteered us for the tour, we really had to kick things into high gear and we have now completed EVERY project that we had on our to-do list for the yard. Had it not been for the tour, we probably would have stretched those projects out over three years or more. So while we’re exhausted, we’re also really glad to have little more than weeding and watering to do next summer.
I have to say that our urban lot looked pretty small when we bought this house. But after ripping out all of the ugly, weed-infested grass and replacing everything with perennials, shrubs and trees, our yard feels much bigger. And through the magical trickery of garden photography, here are some pictures that make it look bigger still.
Our friend Sher Stoneman is a professional photographer and she was kind enough to take some of these recent photos for us. Thanks, Sher!
New path and bench in the front yard.
And here’s the backyard “before” photo taken in 2005. (Oh, and, yes, the house was the same color of purple that you see on the garage when we bought it. Oh boy.)
And here’s the backyard today.
Annie
… enchanting! Hope the Tour goes well!!!
Clea
It’s just Gorgeous! Nice work you guys! Ripping out the weed infested grass sounds like such a lovely idea, too bad Tom and the kids would have a hissy fit if I overturned their soccer yard! Hope the tour goes well!
Meleah
Ha! People kept asking us on the tour whether we had kids, and I know they were thinking there was NO WAY we did by the looks of the yard. Lucky for us the dog sort of tiptoes around the plants unless there’s a chipmunk to chase.
Karan
Time spent at your place during the garden tour was one of the most enjoyable volunteer opportunities I have had as a HCMG. Thanks again. Hope to see you at the convention.
Meleah
Karan, we are the ones who lucked out and got you as a volunteer at our house on Saturday. Thank you so much for everything!
Cindy Sacher
Beautiful pictures! Looks like something out of a story book and I just love the little windmill, so cute!
Meleah
Hi Cindy,
Thank you! We’ve had that windmill for 12 years and besides being squeaky, it works just great.