Last year, I decided to fix up an area of my side yard that was left natural and appeared to me to be unkempt. At one point fifteen years earlier, I had tried to make this a vegetable garden. However, it was just too shady underneath the oaks.
Without regular maintenance, the ground filled with vines like virginia creeper and smilax and many weeds… the worst being a sumac that reproduced everywhere with runners (and still does). Plants that I kept in the moon garden were the yellow flowering thryallis momma and all of her babies, a bunch of beautyberries, the moringa tree, and all of the kava kava plants. I also kept all of the trees though I did trim some of the branches that were very low hanging, nearly touching the ground. One other large branch had to be removed to make clearance for the shed.
This is how the barely maintained wooded area looked prior to me redesigning it.
I found the perfect branch for a swing and decided to design a stone mosaic for underneath. I then started planting shade plants and hung some baskets, added a table and some pillows and voila!
Well, a year has gone by, and a few new changes have transformed the space further. I wrote about this in earlier blogs so I will keep this short. I added a circular path, a lily pond, more and more plants, and a gravel drive and pad. Then, the biggest change is a 16′ x 20′ shed. (Don’t worry, no trees were harmed in this redesign!)
Everything has grown so beautifully, and the space is very lush. I’m still working on having white blooms permeate the space all throughout the year. The yellow was already there before this project began so it is still there. I also added a little bit of lavender in the form of agapanthus bulbs that you can’t see from this angle. Oh, and the extra swing for better conversations!
