Still a lot to learn about gardening--the 1980s

     After compiling these photos from the 1980s, it's clear that my gardens today are day and night from the gardens of the early and mid-1980s.  The late 1980s saw some major changes that are reflected in today's gardens.  I guess that means I was a slow learner, taking almost two decades to get it right (if, indeed, it is right today). 
     (Note: I could not load the first photo with this post.  I will try again immediately after posting this.)  Photo 1 shows me digging a fire pit in the sunken garden just south of the house in 1980.  I had a lot of friends who cried a lot when I had fires.  Or at least it looked that way because the smoke made their eyes water.  I soon stopped making fires.  Today I have large pots of Colocasia escuelenta or Taro growing up about two feet above the top of the pit.  Really cool, I think.
     Photo 2 shows me laying antique paving bricks in 1981.

     In Photo 3 I am replacing RR ties in the patio in 1982.  Since 1974, I have had two hernias, three operations on my right shoulder and two on my left, three operations on my right knee and two on my left--plus an operation on my right wrist to repair nerve damage.  I think it is silly to die without every one of my joints being completely used up. Besides, my orthopedic surgeon had three children to put through college--and he likes expensive cars.
     Photo 4 shows the patio in 1982.
     In Photo 5 the view is from the northwest looking southeast towards the house in 1983.
     Photo 6 shows me finishing the last side of the fence in the Williamsburg Garden in 1984.  Photos 7 & 8 show the same garden, the last view taken from the second story of the house.
     The front yard in 1985 appears in Photo 9. Also in 1985, Photo 10 shows the approach to the house, and Photo 11 shows the front sidewalk, made of New York Bluestone flagstones.
     Photos 12 & 13 show the Sunken Garden with impatiens on the bottom and salvias and marigolds near the house in 1985.  I have no idea what the gardener who lived there then was thinking!!
     Photos 14 & 15 show the patio in 1985.  One tree is all that is left of the plantings.  Photo 16 shows a major innovation for me, using only a single color (plus white) of a single species of an annual--impatiens.  It was just an experiment, but eventually I did it exclusively.
     Photo 17 shows the beginning of the steps and terraces in the gardens near the back in 1985.
     Photos 18 & 19 show the north side of the house in 1985, the former looking east, the latter back.  This area is now the Japanese Garden. 
     In Photos 20 and 21, the Williamsburg Garden in 1985 is shown.  Here, too, for the first time I used a single color plus white in a single species (begonia)--simpler, but more impactful.   
     Photos 22-26 show work just south of the patio in 1986.  I laid out a curving walk along an oval eventually planted with Pachysandra terminalis.  Just west of that, I hired a mason to build a wall with the 200 or so granite cobblestones I found in Milwaukee at someone's house.  The owner wanted two cases of Pabst Blue Ribbon for them (I would have given him a hundred).   I laid an underground plastic pipe under the walk for a water line to the back of the lot.
     In 1987, shown in Photo 27, I began using impatiens in the front, dropping salvias and marigolds.
     Photo 28 shows the Sunken Garden in 1987 looking west from the east end.
     Photos 29-32 show the patio in 1987 from the second story, moving from left to right (north to south).   Photos 33 & 34, also in 1987, show the patio and the Pachysandra oval to its south.
     Photo 35 shows the north of the house looking west (again, this is now the Japanese Garden).
     Photos 36 & 37 shows more RR tie work, now in 1988.
     The last photo shows the front yard in 1989.  A bit overdone.  No, a lot overdone.