1980s addendum

     Here is the photo from 1980 digging the fire pit, which was left out of the previous post.

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.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

The start--the 1970s

     My gardens are like the earth--little is left of the beginning quarter or so of its history.  Only two trees I planted in the 1970s exist today--and one is on its last leg.  And only a handful of shrubs planted then exist today.  I really screwed up at the start.  My diligence in gardening leads me to say that, "I am somewhat embarrassed by last year's gardens--and I don't want to be associated with the gardens of five years ago."  That has been hard to do lately, so maybe I'll change it to, "I don't want to be associated with the gardens of a decade ago."
     The first photo shows me seeding the lawn in May 1970.  Our now-classic cars were a 1949 Plymouth (inherited from Dorothy's father) and a 1969 Dodge Charger (how I wish we kept it).
     The next photo shows me planting a "Greenspire" little leaf linden (Tilia cordata) in Spring 1970.  It still lives, nearing Sequoia size.  It had two near-death experiences: almost complete stripping of leaves by June bugs in May 1971 and linden borer attacks about 15 years ago.
     The first photo of the house and front lawn is from Summer 1970.  The second photo is from Summer 1972.  Only the linden on the right corner of the house survives. 
     Following is a photo taken of the north lot line.  Again, the linden is the only survivor.  To the north of the house and extending to the lot line is now the Japanese garden.  Who knew what would become of my original plans?  I certainly didn't.
     Finally, the back yard takes shape next by 1974, with the patio started.  The tree, a Norway maple, died of Verticillum wilt, a fungal disease, in the mid-1980s.  My friend, Chris Schmitt, told me there were a lot of antique bricks available along Forest Home Avenue and 32nd Street in Milwaukee, as the street was being repaved.  So I collected about 3000 of them free of charge.  Over the years, I collected 2000 more.  The patio was their first use.  I originally placed them tight together as they were in the street.  But during a trip to Toronto in 1981 I saw similar bricks set a half-inch apart with the sand between them recessed somewhat, adding an important third dimension to the surface.  In addition to looking better, it also increased the space I could cover.  Many people credit me with gardening "genius," but truth be told, lots of that comes from my copying others.  Never bothered me.
     The photo with the terraces and walls of RR ties is in what I call the Sunken Garden, as it is about four feet below the level of the house (thus, the reason for buying a sloping lot).  The ties and steps still look the same, though all the ties were replaced since the 1970s.  And there is now so much shade that grass would never grow there, so all has been changed in the base of the garden.
     The final photo shows the front yard in 1975.  Again, the linden is the only plant remaining from this original planting scheme.  The split rail fence is also gone, long since rotted out.
     I refused to buy leisure suits and bell bottom pants popular in the 1970s, as I didn't like them--nor fads.  Neither do I like most of my landscapes of the 1970s, so good riddance to both!
    

Before the start

     Here is our property in August 1969, just after we bought it for $4000 (the equivalent of $25,800 in 2015 dollars).  It is a one-acre lot, 150 feet wide by 300 feet deep (with the back left corner cut off a bit).  In addition, from the edge of the road to where our property actually begins is about 20 feet of road ditch.  The photo was taken facing the west.
     The property rises about 25 feet from the front to the back right.  The hill in the back angles to the southwest.  It is a glacial drumlin, an elongated deposit formed under a continental glacier parallel to the flow of ice.  Thus, the last glacier that covered this area, the Lake Michigan Lobe of The Wisconsin Glacier, traveled in a southwest direction.  The last ice melted here about 9000 years ago.
     The lot was selected among several in the subdivision because of this hill.  I knew I could do a lot more interesting things in the gardens with elevation changes.  I didn't have any plans for the gardens when I began them in the next year, 1970.  Something would just have to come to mind.  It did.
     This was a farm field until 1966, and the hedgerow on the left was the southern

boundary of the field.  Behind the lot was a 20-acre woods, which is still there, but now filled with 11 houses.  The soil is Hocheim silt loam, formed over bedrock dolomite limestone.  Thus, the soil is mildly alkaline, ranging from pH 7.1 to 7.3.
     The photo includes Peter Lappen, my wife's father, my wife, Dorothy, and me.  Sadly, this was the last photo taken of him, as he died three months later.
  

It's here!!  Spring, that is.

   Spring began at 7:30 last night, so some photos of crocuses seem in order.  It won't be long before the other ephemerals began to bloom.
   Last Monday, I visited the Denver Botanic Garden on my way back from a trip to my favorite state, Utah.  I particularly w

anted to visit their Japanese garden, which was impressive.