That looks amazing Kate! In a couple of years when things grow in it'll be spectacular! I really love the boulder retaining wall. Even in the winter it'll look great and it'll also make the back yard so much more enjoyable for you.
It must have been a ton of work. How long did the transformation take?
Laurie

Wow it sure does look great! LOVE the big rock retaining wall!

Wow, good job Kate!

I really need to buy a new car in a couple of years, but I would rather buy a Bobcat. Is that yours or did you rent it? Also did you hunt and lift those boulders or did you buy them at a rock quarry?

Sharon

(I'm picturing Sharon driving to work in her bobcat, LOL)

Kate, that looks fabulous. Was the slope in the back yard leveled?

I adore bobcats. I love bobcats. They are the most wonderful machines. I had to dig up the grass by the mountain ash in front by hand. In the time I'd done a little 3' circumference a bobcat had dug out half my backyard. I had three different sizes in here over the course of this transformation which took place in May and early June. The boulders and their placement was done by The Rock Placement Company last fall. There was some controversy (a murder I think) but two totally new guys own the business now and they were fabulous to work with. Their quarry I believe is by Nelson B.C. so that's where these rocks and a couple of pretty cool pieces of deadwood (you'll probably see them in later pics) came from. Yes we took out most of the slope and leveled it so the kids had somewhere to play. We've been having great badminton tournaments since. I got a lot of my plant material from The Saskatoon Farm so yes in a few years it will be lovely. We want the back fence to disappear behind all the greenery. Now all I have to do is add a couple of things (ya right!) each year and sit back and watch it grow. Well, there is that perennial bed that's languishing...
Kate

Kate
Sorry, I meant to post to this and didn't. Great improvement and I'm sure the girls love being able to play on a more level surface. Good picture of Cameron. You should send it to him. I especially like the rock retaining wall. Nice to be able to plant and garden at that level. What plants have you put in? Curious as to why you went to Okotoks for your stock? Did you order it or go down there and pick it up?

Shauna

Hey Shauna. Could you actually see Cameron in there? I've got better ones. Anyway I ordered through Saskatoon Farm because I was looking for seedlings rather than more mature plants because I spent so much on the wall and the soil & mulch that's all I could afford LOL. If you know of other places I'd love to hear about them. I'd also like to know where you order annual and perennial seeds. At the back where I'm wanting the fence to disappear I've got two existing Crapapples, and two immense Griffin Poplars and last year added a good sized Thunderchild Crabapple and a Mayday. My sticks this year are Pincherry, Dogwood, Sandcherry - not purple leaf, Highbush cranberry, Alpine currant, Cotoneaster, Lodgepole pine (at the side with the spruce), Amur maple, Sugar maple for trees & shrubs and I still desperately want a 'Toba' Hawthorn and a Scotch Pine plus I added some Dropwort and Meadowsweet I grew from seed. I'd really like to get my hands on some Goatsbeard. In amongst the boulders themselves a few nesting spruce, blue star juniper, horizontal juniper and mugo pine, and for perennials some 'Waterfall' campunula, cranesbill geranium, yarrow, coral bells, rockcress, shepherds scabiosa, lamium, Gentiana 'Nikita Blue', penstemon and bergenia for now. I'll want to start some creeping phlox and haven't thought about anything else yet as I'm thinking I still need a few smaller rocks - about a couple of feet to hold parts of that slope and to plant around. Whew! I did all that?
Kate

Did I forget that flanking the stone stairs I have my Double Flowering Plum and a spanking new 'Red Prince' Weigela? and I've also got some Cliffgreen in amongst the boulders and a Goldflame Spirea I rescued from the red shale.
Kate

I'd also like to know where you order annual and perennial seeds

Kate, many of us here from the FN forum seed trade, I'd suggest you wait closer to Fall/Winter and check the Canadian Exchange forum, many generous gardeners also will do SASE.

For perennials, I like ordering from Gardens North and JL Hudson, for annuals, Veseys, William Dam and Stokes.

You're garden is going to look awesome when all your trees/shrubs mature. Way to Grow!

Sharon

Thanks for the information Sharon. I need to sit down and think about what it is I want now and am happy to think I may be able to achieve it with the help of my fellow gardeners. Any suggestions for that wall will be read with interest. I feel the Master Gardener course I took in Spring 2004 was just the beginning. I can hardly wait to try things like seed collecting, propagating shrubs etc. Now that I've got the building blocks in my garden I can truly begin my education.
Kate