Cori Ann - thank you so much! Do the dogs track in the dust?

By the way, I too much prefer the blue/gray tones to the other colors which seem more popular these days. I had to get a few additional pieces of flagstone and couldn’t find the blue I had purchased a few years back.

I envy you your wide pathways. My garden is small and much against my better judgement I had to go as narrow as 24 inches for some paths. The plants don’t remain on their side either so it further narrows the path.

I also love how you have your roses so narrow against the fence. Mine bulk out too much. Yours are so beautifully grown! I would love to know how you are training them.

Jo

It’s called “dust” but it really isn’t dust so the dogs don’t track it. It’s more like gravel. It pretty much stays were it should stay, even when my hubby blows it doesn’t move much.

I got a lot of ideas on how to train things from other people here, but I don’t think the way I train roses would work for a lot of other areas because I do keep them tight to the fence or wall, but it’s very dry here so it doesn’t seem to be a bother for disease. I set up espalier wires across the entire fence line. I tie things into that. I also have some cheap cattle panels I use like trellises against the fence so I can tie things in. I am not delicate about pruning off anything that grows in an area I think it shouldn’t. That’s about it!

There are MUCH better ways and better materials to use to do this. My way is not the best way at all, but I’m fine with it.

The best way would be to have it about a foot from the fence, use galvanized wire, etc., etc. in some spots I used higher quality materials, but in others I used simple rebar wire we already had (see it tied haphazardly to the eyehooks) and even found some super cheap wire panels like cattle panels that are used for stabilizing concrete when it’s poured. So many of mine look like this:

In some areas I used better materials, but in ones like these I didn’t. These will rust through in time and need to be replaced. I’m not worried about it. When that happens I can decide what I want to do next. So if you really want to do it right, there are lots of tutorials on “setting up espalier wires” and “using cattle panels as trellises” that can help you if you just google that. :-)

I love that photo of your grandmother too, Cori Ann. Gardening in full makeup, tough as all get out and with style. I hope you have a photo taken of yourself with your tool belt, looking just as beautiful and hang it on a wall right next to hers.

I remember being impressed with your planters a couple of years back, but I couldn't have imagined the paradise it is now. You have great vision and determination. I don't know how you managed to design your garden, go to school and still take the time to share it all with us on the gardenweb. I have a feeling that you and your grandmother must be very much alike.

Thanks for sharing Cori Ann! All I can say is WOW WOW WOW! You've done a great job!

Ann

Ha! That’s my secret Jasmine. I have a few bodies of my own fertilizing the roses out there... ;-)

Thank you all. It honestly looks the way it does now because all of you are so generous with your knowledge and experiences. This forum is so valuable, priceless really. One of a kind.

Cori Ann, thank you so much for this fantastic tour! A huge WOW from me too. The transformation is incredible and my jaws dropped when I read that you envisioned it all by yourself, without a professional designer. Also, a lovely tribute to your family. Not just that you have a great taste and super-talented eye for design, but also the love for gardening passed down to you from your amazing grandmas.

BTW, ever since I saw that photo of your grandma back last year, whenever I have to do some harder yardwork that I frankly don't look forward doing, I now put red lipstick on and it makes a huge difference. It suddenly feels chic to dig and break our tough clay or do the fall cleanup! So thanks to your grandma from me too for her inspirational photo. :-)

Vesfl, I like that idea. I think I'm going to start a lipstick tradition for myself when I garden.

Wow!! absolutely a tremendous transformation! Excellent work!

Absolutely fantastic! What a transformation and honestly it looks 100 times better than what it did before! I really like the variety of textures and heights you created in your garden. It is a very well thought through design. You have used garden structures to their best advantage. You should be a garden designer!

Thank you all.

We should all have photos of ourselves doing muddy, tough yard work with stylish hair and dark red lipstick! Men too! ;-) I love it.

Fragrancenutter your posts about which roses handled your heat, how you trained your climbers, etc., helped me immensely when picking out the roses for here. So thank you!

Congratulations on your glorious garden, Cori Ann. You've done a fantastic job. It looks so interesting now. I love your rebar support art pieces and your wonderful Grandma. I'm sure the other one is great too, but you know the one I mean.

@cori Ann It’s very interesting what you did with your garden. Dividing your garden into separate sections the way you did, is beautiful. It looks as though you have several different gardens in one. What do you do to water so many different areas with so many different plants? Do you have irrigation systems, or do you water them manually?

Cori, your garden is everything I love about owner-planned gardens. It fits with your life and use of property. It includes plantings that are meaningful and enjoyable to you. It is something that you can care for without a crew. Most importantly, it's beautiful. So beautiful!

Ya' done real good.

A true labour of love! Well done... it’s breathtakingly beautiful.

Love, D xx

Make that sculpture a fountain so she can bathe in the blood of her enemies!!!!! HAHA! I love that the potential grave was in the front yard too. No shame in her game!!! Just a warning to others!!

i am sure your foremothers and MIL are so proud of you and thrilled with your creation!

Can’t you just see a wedding taking place with the Bride walking down the paths under the arbors to meet her fiancé at the top of the rise in the lawn. Of course Cori that will require more arbors down those pathways. The arbors will have to be your welded creations.

Love your designs!!!!!!!!

Cori Ann....I have enjoyed reading this thread and seeing all your pictures! It's very inspiring! You have beautiful hardscaping as well as plantings. It's unbelievable that this is your garden's first year...your plants are huge and lush. I look forward to seeing it progress!

Do you have any other landscaping plans for your property?

Thank you everyone. For the compliments, as well as the parts you all played in helping me to create this!

Rosylady the before/afters of the front yard can be seen at the project link (above). There are side yards we redid too, but I didn’t take ‘before’ photos of them because they were so thick with blackberry brambles, nasty old junipers and blackwidow spiders. It was too dangerous! So although the transformation of those areas is also substantial, they just aren’t documented photographically.

Toolbelt we do have 3 kids in their 20s so weddings here are a total possibility!

Suncoast I think I’m going to take your idea, but instead make a statue of her with cascading blood-red plants all around! Ha! I love it!!!

Ben thank you for looking at the project links and for the compliments on the hand written plans. For me, it’s totally crazy to look at the plans and to look at the garden as it is now. It’s amazing how we didn’t deviate from my colored pencil and graph paper plans at all and they worked out so well!

Janaina, everything is on drip irrigation that I installed myself except for the area under my neighbors oak tree. Those are the only ones hand watered (for now) and are mostly natives that need very little water (mixed in with a few magnolias and rhodies that need just a little more).

Thank you all!

Cori Ann - thank you!!! thank you!!! That was wonderful!!! You are a GENIUS!!! I love how you documented everything! What a difference!!! You really could earn money by renting it out for wedding pictures! People are always looking for beautiful places to take pictures....and there's such a variety of hardstone for them to use. Gorgeous!!!

Carol

Brilliant! I can't wait to see it!

I was wondering about the roses you planted on the side kinda - in the yard but not - too.

@cori Ann Do you mind tell me which drip irrigation system do you use? I have 100 rose bushes all over the place in my propriety and I do water with a hose. And it’s is a huge stress and overwhelms me specially in the summer time. There are so many drip system irrigation in the market I don’t know which one to get. I’m sure the one you have is amazing just looking at your plants. Thank you so much

Sure Janaina. I should disclose I have a few decades of experience installing drip, since I grew up on a ranch and have had a few other gardens, so if it’s new to you it might be better to have a pro install it just so you’re not overwhelmed and stressed by watering in addition to the installation process...or maybe try starting with a small area on your own? There’s a learning curve and it can be achy for your hands and frustrating your first time trying it. That said, I recently updated all my drip to this type of hose with the emitters built in (soooo much easier than attaching every little darn emitter)

And around a lot of plants I install my drip as pictured below, with the main hose running the main line and smaller hoses attached to the main hose in a circle around the base. It takes longer to set up that way, but I have noticed it’s less prone to mistakes and problems later.

Awesome!!! Thank you SO MUCH! You are a life saver

@cori Ann you are very generous and kind sharing all the details of your drip irrigation and everything else! You are a sweetheart! Thank you a million

Cori-Ann, I've enjoyed seeing all the pictures of your yard remodel and the beautiful results. Must be very satisfying, you've done a wonderful job. Also, thanks for sharing pictures of all your beautiful roses, and also about your family.

WoW!!!! Your yard is stunning! Everything is just exquisite. Can you come to my house?

sharon

Cori Ann - thanks for answering my questions on your technique to espalier your roses. I think what I really lack is the discipline to stay on top of the pruning and cutting off and training.

Hey, I really do need to join the brigade of gals who will be going out to garden with lipstick on! <sigh> My spring gardening gear consists of face mask because of all the tree pollen, ear muffs because of the cold brisk wind and faded jeans and jacket...fasionable I am not...

Jo

Oh, I replaced some of my drip emitters last year with the tubing with built in emitters - exactly the kind you have, Cori Ann - and I am really liking them. I did two concentric circles around the bigger plants. Worked great in pots too.

Love those blooms and lawn! What do you use for the lawn? Is that real lawn? What happened to the pool? I'd tell you to keep the pool in a hot zone back in 2016. :-) I don't remember your thread for some reason. Do you have 1 acre? You have room for more roses! Keep growing!

Cori Ann you are an artist! Your hard work and determination paid off. I like how you boldly experimented with your obelisks and espaliering of roses. It is mind boggling how narrow your beds by the walls and fences are. Thanks for sharing all the before and after photos and the details of how you did it. I may try your cattle panel idea.

Hey Cori Ann how about you come up to Oregon and help me design my new front yard ? If that whole medical thing doesn't work out you have a great talent to fall back on.

Thanks all.

Summers it is extremely expensive to maintain a pool here with the perma drought conditions and it was very old (over 50 years), needing to be completely repaired/replaced. We spent about the same amount of money it would have cost to replace just the pool and maintain it for only a year on redoing the entire back yard. It was a good decision. The putting green is synthetic. A lawn that green and lush isn’t possible here with the drought and heat. :-)

Although the weeds that pop up in the green are real! Persistent little guys! If anyone gets a synthetic green and you think you won’t have to pull weeds anymore.... not so!

Oh, I didn’t know it’s that expensive to have a pool in CA, it looked beautiful though. We have free water (well water) at the country property for pool, that would make a big difference. One of my neighbors (at suburb)filled a pool years ago, it was expensive. You have done a good job. You have room for a couple fruit trees. That’s a new thing I am doing this year. :-)

Thanks! Yup, already have lots of fruit trees, they are in the photos but kind of camoflauged by surrounding landscaping. I have different varieties of 2 peach trees, 3 lemon trees, 2 orange trees, 3 grapefruits, 2 avocado, and a pomegranate. I love persimmons too, but decided not to have one since I have some friends that have persimmons and like to trade/share. :-)

That’s great! I wish I could grow lemon and orange here. I planted Honey Jar Jujube, Li Jujube, Chinese Hawthorn, Asian Pear, 3 kinds of persimmons, cherry, Fuji Apple a couple weeks ago. Will find out what the previous owner had in the little orchard this year, I think there are apples, pears and peaches, plus 1 cherry. Will try to go orangic with fruits. Do you spray anything in the spring? Glad to know other rose gardeners are also fruit growers.

There’s quite a few of us that grow roses and fruit trees. :-) Summers of course our climates are totally different, but no I didn’t spray anything this past spring/winter. No horticultural oil, copper, sulfur, or anything else. I did spray my trees with each of those the previous year though. It’s not something I will do every year, or even every other year, but I will occasionally. In the past, at other gardens I have had in this same area, I never sprayed my fruit trees with anything and it was fine... not perfect, probably not the optimum, but totally healthy and fine. Way better than store bought. I would imagine growing fruit is very different in other climates/areas, but here it’s pretty easy living for most fruit trees! I bet your fruit will all be delicious!

Thanks for the info! We can have a fruit festival in the fall if I get any fruits......... :-)

cori ann- what rose is this pictured with the Walker's Low. It is so pretty.

sharon

I grow lots of fruit trees here. Fruit trees go good with roses as long as the trees dont get too big and shade the roses out too much. I just planted Mermaid rose yesterday several feet from a shrubby LSU purple fig. The LSU Purple figs dont get too dense of a canopy.

I also grow: Starfruit, figs, dwarf black mulberry, Longan, lots of citrus (several lemon varieties, 2 Buddah's Hand, 4 Red Fingerlimes, Blood Orange, Ray Ruby grapefruit, Thai Lime, Persian lime), Hass avocado, Then I have a Miracle fruit and 15 little Jackfruit seedlings that are a few feet high lol. Also have dragonfruit and some diff types of berries, grapes. Probably more that Im forgetting about right now lol.

Hi Enchantedrose. It’s Scentimental. It has a very pretty habit as a bush. Very graceful. It’s not a good cut flower because the blooms don’t last long, but it’s a wonderful rose in the garden.

Amazing how those weeds can get up through the synthetic putting green lol.

thanks Cori Ann. I had this rose in the past. Sadly she's a black spot magnet here and not hardy. But so pretty and nice scent.

sharon

My hat's off to you Cori Ann because of your lovely assortment of shrubs and roses and hard scape and oblisks I'm taking on just a section of our front yard and I have all the roses picked out but I'd need some great ideas for some small evergreens.

What have you used that you think is gonna be not huge but is gonna add some nice Evergreen interest in the Winter?

Evergreens? Azaleas, rhodies (all roses are evergreen here if you don’t defoliate them). Most my fruit trees. Fragrant tea olive. Sarcococca. The huge redwoods that I did not plant and would never ever recommend.

I thought about a dwarf spruce, there’s a really cool one that has platinum blonde new growth, but I didn’t end up getting it. Let me see if I can find a photo and the actual name.

Hi @cori Ann another question about drip irrigation if you don’t mind. I called few local contractors and the vast majority don’t work with Rain Bird. But I found a really nice company ( seems a nice company) that work with Toro Drip Irrigation. Is this junk? Have you heard about this Toro system before?. I am super scared to put a lot of money into this and ended up being a joke product. Any input would be welcome. All I know is that hosing my propriety manually is something I can not do anymore. It’s time consuming and more plants I add it’s becoming almost impossible. Thanks

Oh dear Janaina I don’t know about Toro controllers, I’m sorry. The hoses I recently updated to are Rainbird since they have the built in emitters (emitters built into the hose itself have been much easier to update/install/maintain), but the controller I have is Hunter Pro-C if that helps. I don’t know how it compares to other controllers though.... I think the controllers may all be fairly comparable? I really don’t know though. Sorry!

Oh it’s okay. They are a big company so I’m sure I can convince them to install Rain Bird in my propriety some how but thanks!!! I rather ask someone like you with a big experience before do it. I’m from Brazil and never did garden before and my husband is from Brooklyn, so he does not know either. But thank you SO much!!

You have done a lovely job with the hardscape & the gardens. It's amazing what 2 years of growth can accomplish for a yard. I really enjoy seeing the before & after comparisons. I'm trying to convince my husband that we need to lose half of our backyard grass and convert it into more useful spaces. I like the raised beds & divisions of the yard into different useable areas. Overall, a fantastic job. I'm also glad to see that you actually use & enjoy the space you have created!