gardening partial shade

Wow! The moon garden changed a lot in one year.

moon garden redesign one year later

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.

moon garden before
woodland spot selected for moon garden

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!

Swing bench moon garden pebble/stone mosaic
Moon garden after first huge redesign

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!)

Moon Garden: One year later
moon garden before Moon Garden with swings and new shed

Moon Garden Transformation

The side yard was a neglected mess overrun by weeds, virginia creeper and sumac. After clearing the area, I noticed the perfect branch for a swing. That, my friends, was the spark that set the journey to the beautiful moon garden.

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!

Some of the new changes include a shed with a trellis and planters, banana shrubs, six azaleas, elephant ears, a crinum lily, snake plants, creeping fig, two banana shrubs, an oakleaf hydrangea, several camelias and more. In addition, a pond and fountain were added to the left, jasmine, firecracker plants, a gazebo and hot tub, and a grave driveway and pad for the shed.

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