A FORMAL GARDEN

             When we first purchased 822 one of the things that attracted me to it was the flora

even though it was certainly too much

Our plan was to create a formal English (or French) herb garden on the north side of the house because we love to cook with fresh herbs.  As you can see...this took some vision!

you could barely walk through to the backyard it was so overgrown... but you can imagine how lovely it was in the fall when all this was shades of red and gold

this was the view from the street...a hidden gem that will soon have a peekaboo gate

the first thing was to remove the wall and support it with the huge cedar beams that are everywhere on the house.  The tree in the center will be removed by next week..along with several others.  There will be a half rock wall here with a gated entrance.

In our cleaning, we uncovered several rows of flower beds created with the rock from the house...we will certainly use these.  It has come a long way since we moved in.  Winter helped!  This will be where the front gate will be..an arch with at gate and a rock wall.  So it will have some privacy.

The plan is to have crushed granite paths that sort of have a casual old world feel

I love garden art and will put to use this lovely old bench that was hidden in the vines

we will have rock lined beds using what is there, it will just be more formal and geometric

Sadly, this aged old vine may have to be shipped out unless it can be shaped up...I have hope

so...in just a few short months and a few worn gloves later this will look like...

remember the story of finding the gold ring in the button box and that it will purchase the center feature of this garden?  Our angel will sit in a water feature.

Of course this is a very mature garden and we don't have the exact same space, but this is the idea

mostly greens but certainly some lavender

This is the crushed stone look and don't forget...the statue will be placed in a reflecting pool to attract the birds

definitely lots of fragrant artemesia, rosemary, thyme and well..you get the idea

we plan on using the four season ladies, but probably in the backyard instead of the side yard

Exciting...hard work ahead...but those are the most fun projects of all!