The 2000s were a busy time--the 2000s, Volume 1

     Looking at my photos, I realize I did a lot to begin the new millennium, so I will split it into several volumes.  It also explains why I had seven surgeries on one joint or another in eight years!
     The first photo shows the patio in 2001 with impatiens of a salmon color, which turned out to be my favorite for many years--until I stopped growing them after downy mildew attacked in 2013.  Also in 2001, Photo 2 shows the Sunken Garden looking west with red impatiens--not a good combination with salmon just beyond.
     Photos 3 & 4 show the real surge in my use of hostas in 2001 and 2002, the former in the new Terrace Garden and the latter at the back lot line, where I planted 60 hostas of three varieties.  Eventually I topped out at 730 hostas of 145 varieties. 
     Photo 5 shows me replacing RR in the upper patio in 2002.  I cut all ties with a 4-foot long cross cut saw (about 80 years old), with each cut taking about seven minutes.  I don't use a chain saw because the creosote in the ties dulls the chain after four cuts.
     Photo 6 shows me in 2002 lowering the Williamsburg Garden's northern side by a foot to make it more level.  That was to make it closer to symmetrical, important for a formal garden.  I originally made the west wall with RR ties, later changing to boulders, and finally building a brick wall about three years ago (photos to come show that).
     Photo 7 shows the terracing in 2003 of the slope on the north side of the lot, now the upper part of the Japanese Garden.
     The patio in 2003, which I finally declared "perfect," is shown in Photo 8.
     I decided I needed to tear my rotator cuff on my right shoulder (again), so I did so in 2003. I swung a pickaxe for three days digging out behind the driveway turnaround so I could make a RR tie wall in order for water to flow towards the front of the lot from the Sunken Garden.  Photos 9 & 10 show that work.  My surgeon was happy.
     Photo 11 shows the start of the Hedgerow Garden along the drive in 2005.
     Tulips and daffodils appear in the terraces in the northwest part of the garden in 2005 in Photo 12.
     Photo 13 shows the Hedgerow Garden planted with Lamiastrum galeobdolon (Yellow Archangel).
     Photo 14 shows the first use I made of hanging baskets in 2005 of Dragon Wing Begonias and of Colocasia escuelenta (Taro) in the Sunken Garden.  A similar plant, a bit larger and coarser, also in the aroid family but in the genus Alocasia, is elephant ear (though people mix them up a lot).
     Photo 15 shows the patio looking toward the back of the lot in 2005.
     Photo 16 shows both the patio, with salmon impatiens, and the Williamsburg Garden, with red begonias, in 2005.  Because the areas are separated by enough space, I can handle the differences.
     Photos 17 and 18 show the back south side of the property in 2005.  The low, mounded shrub is Stephanandra incisa 'crispa,' and the taller shrub is Viburnum dentatum (Arrowwood Viburnum).

 
     Photos 19 & 20 show the new southwest corner garden built in Fall 2005.  I brought in lots of big rocks to build two structures, one higher and one a circular sunken pit.  I built a horseshoe-shaped bench of bur oak, the pieces cut at a portable sawmill 30 miles west of here.  Ow!
     Photos 21 & 22 show the newly built terraces and the curving walk built in 2005 at the back of the property.
     Photo 23 shows a walkway near the north lot line towards the back of the property in 2005.
     Photos 24 & 25 show the beginning of the Japanese Garden, primarily in 2005. It is still unfinished.  The bench was made with leftover bur oak from the building of the bench in the SW corner.