wow. a PLAN? Never occurred to me--I just "get started"...usually by pulling weeds and whacking back invasives so I can see WHAT THE HECK is actually THERE.

So I guess that would be step one!

melanie

I'm not sure if this is what you're after; maybe it's assumed you already did all this. Anyway, before anything else happens, you have to sit and wait and observe the garden for at least a whole year's cycle. Besides the obvious taking inventory of the leafing, blooming, seeding, and fall color cycles, plus the times of shade and sun, etc., you look for any kinds of volunteers out of the ground, herbaceous or woody either one, especially those that grow in patterns. Are there any places of ground that are just different, or again, in patterns, possibly indicating the ghost of a structure and the need to do some archeological digging? Also, very green areas of grass could indicate a former vegetable garden, and round indentations might be where there used to grow large trees. Get acquainted with all the neighbors and former dwellers that you can who might have stories, insights, pictures, and/or memories. Research at the local libray. Check in storage places for structural pieces that might have been used in the garden.

EO

"Anyway, before anything else happens, you have to sit and wait and observe the garden for at least a whole year's cycle."

WOW !! ... you sure have time to kill ( LOL ) but I agree get into the garden ... look closely at everything you can ... and step away for a while ... get into the owners head a bit if it's not your landscape ....

Good Day ...

Joe-
Here is a bit from a thread on books and websites pertaining to garden restoration and redesign; was posted early in the life of this forum. It's about a favorite book of mine. What you have outlined above is of interset to me as it's what we do in my business about half of the time:

"Rejuvenating a Garden" by Stephen Anderton
"This is not a book about restoration or historical aspects of garden renewal. This is the nuts and bolts "how to do it" aspect of renewing or renovating any and all gardens -- takes you thru the whole process of re-designing, budgeting, formulating the steps to change and in what order, immediate "first aid" for plants, excellent chapter on pruning in the older, mature and/or overgrown garden, assessing and timing: when to wait and when to act -- I love this book. Very practical and well-written British gardening lore and practices. "

I don't have time to write much now but this is a topic well worth exploring. Wish it were January! Check out some of the earlier threads on the first pages of this forum.

Ginger

I agree with both MJ and Egyptian -- that is, yes, pull known weeds and invasives during that first year of observation, but otherwise leave the garden alone and watch to see what comes up. If you don't recognize something as a weed, leave it alone...

Look at patterns of plants, of sun and shade, but also imagine how much smaller the trees and shrubs were during the period to which you wish to restore the garden. Were they even there at all? Are any of them "volunteers" that originally grew as weeds that weren't pulled? (We had one Black Walnut that I'm certain was a volunteer. I cut it down because Black Walnuts kill most things that try to grow beneath them. There was no sense in letting that particular weed get any bigger!)

So the wait-n-see period is step one.

Step two, depending on whether the garden was large, formal, public, or in any way part of historical record, is to do research. You may be able to find photographs or descriptions of it.

If it was a small private garden, get to know the neighbors -- you may be able to find elderly people who remember what it looked like when they were younger. If the original owner was a sociable gardener, you may even be able to find stock of some of the original plants, shared as divisions with the neighbors.

Only after you've learned -- or "felt" -- what the garden once looked like can you decide how you want it to look now. So step three is the Plan... and then step four is The Hard Work to bring the Plan into reality.

There are professionals here who can advise you better than I can on all the working details... but I think most of them would agree with me that steps 1, 2, and 3 above are a good beginning.

Love,

Claudia

Besides, after you pull all those weeds, hack out the "tree of heaven" (who gave it THAT name BTW? Tree of HADES is more like it), deal witht he wisteria, the honeysuckle, the poison ivy, attempt to deal with the japanese stilt grass--you'll be SO TIRED all you CAN do is observe for awhile!

melanie/seven years--still recovering/still pulling that #%$!*&^ stilt grass!

Hello, lovely people!

I've copied and pasted this post from the "What's next?" thread, because the author was concerned that he might be disrupting the discussion there.

(No, not at all, RckyM21! It's wonderful to hear from you, and I hope you'll post here again and again!)

Anyway, it's such a wonderful post that I hope none of you mind reading it twice...

Posted by: RckyM21 z6NY on Fri, Apr 23, 04 at 6:00

INKognito-You would recognize my username.Always thinking about Japanese Styled Gardens.I never knew so much existed on gardening.Always thought what I learned on my own was enough.I was wrong.People are so dedicated on the subjects that I feel ready to learn agian.
I've only worked for a few people.They taught me what I know.Customers who had people like youreselves on this forum do work for thier parents in the 20's or 30's.Those few people passed away after a year or so from the time I met them.One lady a niegbor down the street asked me to come closer.Inspecting my teeth.She was in her 80's or more.Ms. T I'll call her today.Too make along story short she spent many hours having me move boxes all day.Showed me photos of her childhood and said simply.You have white teeth.Were going to restore the Gardens.She fell ill within a month.But she taught me about the Ginko tree by the carraige house was planted by her mother if I"m correct.To remind her of the Ginko only 100 yards away that belonged to the main home.She brought a story for each tree and its original purpose for design. How diseases killed of many and were replaced with substitutes.I went to the county records at the same time to do reserch on the sale records.Took weeks.We never gardened much and when she passed within that year the son had me just keep the place clean.I left when the now new owners arrived never asking about her once.

This was the first time I experienced Loyalties to the High Society Women who gave traditional principles of garden design a place with the life styles long gone.Old money.

I knew some names she mentioned that my great grandfather gardened for as she talked.Or people somehow connected.Met the children of women who came to her home to do public deeds over a cup of tea.I said nothing because these people have many skeletons in the closet.Best to stay silent and learn.I was thier for her to remember the glory of gardening clubs and frienships.Reserch is great.Find a person whose familly built the gardens as youre friend is rare.We were friends for the shortest period

The Ginko came off of the shipment from china.The one before more came for the Centrall Park plantings.The granite well is the only remnant of a formal garden.The chestnuts were of greek origen to replace the native.The granite came from the same quarry that recently just closed.The Designer was F. L. Omsted.The main house was Goergain but her father like the Mansard roof of Versailles so he removed one story and nobody noes the better today. The local historical center had all the visuals correct but none of the experiences.
The Linden was brought from Germany.One of the first from a half dozen brought to the country.But thats on the otherside and not hers.She taught me alot.
The best restorer of a garden must be one who gets to live,eat and sleep with such a woman on many occasions to gain thier trust.This makes for the best garden restorationTo find experienced cheap labor whose willing to spend fifteen yaers at least to do so is even more rare.In the end that mans child goes to the same as Mrs T did and somehow everythings balanced.People of wealth from old money keep alive the memories that new money cannot always buy.Just a simple hello by a person like her would be a feather in the cap for a man of new money.Many immigrants worked for such influencial people and became highly skilled and took to thier graves those experiences out of Loyalty to the person who taught them aesthetics and taste.If I were studying garden reconstruction and history I'd interview all the living men who built them.Find the old guild halls and look up thier names.Interview them and they might guide you to a familly member whose never talked.These elderly immigrants dont trust intitutions,professers and such becuase for those intellectuals to teach and publish books one must rob the experiences of many.Many authors do the same to proffesers getting the stories all mixed up without cross referncing back to the original source.Definately dont trust the costs analyses.I've heard one that made me laugh.My familly built the pillers of one home and the facts seemed a little blurry.This goes back only fifteen years.Maybe they built them to cheap.Alwats go to the original source.Everything gets inflated for the next person to eat off.Including the history.

The new owner of Mrs T carriage property bulldozed most everything.The Aesculus hippocastanum alee was too messy and so on down the list.The granite pillars without her eagle eye were damaged from carelesness.