Looks great! Can't wait to see it all planted out. Very nice design, like a secret garden filled with nooks.

Wow! I thought it was beautiful before I saw the after photo. Very nice work.

That looks beautiful! For some reason I didn't realize you had Ariadne. My mom has the same statue. I adore her.

schoolhouse, will you come to MY house? I have so many areas that look like your Before pic that I will never have the whole yard looking like the After!

Love your forget-me-nots. I have them spring up all over this time of year and just love that beautiful blue.

Thanks, you guys always make me feel good after all the work. :)

Ariadne? Really? I did not know that. She's been standing pouring that jug for so many years I can't imagine her not being there. Once my friend laughed as she pointed out there is a sea shell in the middle of her forehead. I never realized it until then. Does that make a difference?

I love the Forget-me-nots too. Funny how you never know where they will appear from year to year. They drop oodles of seed.

Lookin' good, gives you a great deal of satisfaction when it's done, then.... it's moving on to the next spot, at least it is around here. I love seeing pictures of your lovely garden, as you must know by now I'm very fond of flag stones, rock walls and rock used to make a statement.

Annette

My brother is thinking of selling the cabin in the woods, the one that has the ravine where I have gotten most if not all of my rocks over the last 30yrs! And just when I have my new battery operated cart (I keep calling it electric by mistake). Now I can wheel that sucker right down inside the ravine and back out with rocks instead of lugging or rolling them up the side one by one.
Maybe I should hire a dump truck and spend a couple days down there taking as many rocks out as I can before the property is sold. lol

LOL! I've never noticed the seashell on her forehead! I just scanned through some pics of my mom's garden and sure enough, there's the shell on Ariadne. Hmmmmmm......she's the mistress if the labyrinth, so what the heck does water and seashells have to do with it? My mom's statue was definitely sold as Ariadne, and online the same statue is shown as Ariadne. In any event, she's very beautiful.

That's funny thyme. Well, my statue was meant to be a fountain but I never could rig tubing up through her for water, otherwise the water just ran out the bottom of the statue. For some reason her maker made a mistake and some concrete and fibers cause a blockage so far up.

This is an old story and I've probably told it here before but: she sits over a pipe that was originally plumbing for a bathroom sink in an old vintage mobile home that sat where my sunken gardens are now. The mobile home was pulled out but the pipe remained and was capped off - sort of - I stuffed a stick down in it. If not, when the water was turned on in the cellar, a huge jet of water would shoot up in the air. Then I set the statue over it hoping someday to create a fountain. (My friend used to joke that one of these days the statue's head was going to fly off).

Anyway, she sat there like that for many years. One day I was in the garden and happened to glance over. There was water dripping from Ariadne's urn. It was a miracle! But it only lasted a week or so.

Sadly, she can not be removed from the pipe anymore. Another friend and I attempted again to force this statue into a fountain. Well, he had the bright idea to wad up a bunch of duct tape and sit her on it (forget why). Yep, the statue fell down over the wad of duct tape and hard as we tried, we could not pull her free.

Really nestles nicely into the surrounding landscape. But all those rocks make my back hurt.

Really beautiful work. I love seeing all that stone and tucked in beds, like a secret garden.

love the rock work, the statue, and everything else about this area. my garden needs an Ariadne too! thank you for giving me some ideas for my garden! just beautiful!

Thought I share an update of the reconfigured rock beds. I planted Purple Palace coral bells at either end of the bed on the right, and decided on three scented geraniums for the one on the left. I kind of like the look of just a few and not solidly planted. I know the coral bells will spread out more eventually. The English Ivy I removed from both is slowly creeping back around the bottom half through the rocks. I will try to keep it out entirely or at least under control so it doesn't consume the beds again.

{{gwi:682178}}

Oh and some might be wondering why there is this ugly chunk of wood propped up against the Service Berry in the middle. Well, it's doing just that - propping the shrub up. During high winds the old shrub has toppled on at least three occasions over the years. Surprisingly that piece of wood plus a large stone has kept it upright for a long time. Even tho it has new growth on the one side which I purposely encouraged, I don't trust the main trunk to support itself. Maybe some severe pruning on the left will help but I haven't decided yet.

Oh schoolhouse ! There seems to be no end to your beautiful gardens ! What a great story about the duct tape. when the need for something becomes imperative, we are forced to come up with clever ideas to achieve it.. And achieved, you certainly have !!!!