In the beginning

I bought my small house in the suburbs of Chicago in late 2000. It was in poor condition, inside and out. Luckily, it did have a nice row of Peonies and a Magnolia in the front yard. The back was a chain link enclosure of scrubby grass and some ratty Arbor Vitae screening the alley.

The journal I have sporadically kept stated my goals as:

This journal will be the record of attempts to plan, grow and cultivate living green things, both inside and out while I live here.

Prior to the beginnning of this journal some changes were made to the proprty, most notably the removal 27 small tree, diseased scrub elm between my driveway and the neighbors.

The property is long and narrow with the best chance of success in the southfacing backyard. There are full sun to full shade locations of various sizes.

My hope is in time (measured in how many years?) to have a retreat with good color, interesting plants and once established, minimal effort. I plan to use rain barrel collection for water through the warm months. We'll See! ~12.27.01

I've done pretty well, though I admit I've not done the rain barrel collection yet, but I have one and this could be the year.

This blog will be a recap, bringing  you up to date with the various projects, and plantings  through the years.   For now I'll start with  "before and after" pictures.

Before

2005

2009