That's so beautiful Ingrid!! I have never seen it. You can tell their's alot of years and hard work dedicated ti your beautiful yard :)

Wow! Your before pictures inspire us with new suburban gardens.
My backyard was a barren plot, no sod. I redesigned the front yard.
I created and expanded flower beds/hedges.

Can you tell us what inspired you when designing your garden? It has a beautiful & graceful flow. It should be featured in a magazine or blog like Gardenista!

It's always the progress isn't it? To look back and see how you have beautified something is always rewarding!
Do you appreciate how far it has come?
Thanks so much for sharing with us your beautiful garden. I just love the setting.
Susan

Stunning! I love how the beds are big enough for a nice variety of things (which you planted), yet small enough that you can walk around them and see everything up-close. And I love the "spilling over the edges" look. I hope that what I put together will look half as good in a couple years.

:-)

~Christopher

Lovely, lovely transformation, Ingrid!

Kate

wow. breathtaking!

An amazing piece of creativity! I wish I had the vision to produce results a fraction as lovely.

I'm glad that you did this again. It is inspiring and helpful to others starting their gardens. it's a wonderful accomplishment Ingrid.

Ingrid - I really can't find the words! What a beautiful change, you are very gifted and I can only imagine all the hard work! May the beauty of it bring you enjoyment for many years to come!

I always enjoy your pictures because they convey a feel of a whole garden and not just plants that live near each other! ;-) How old are the "before" pictures, how long has it taken you to get your garden where it is today?

Beautiful. I hope my garden turns out half as good.

subk3, we began planting about seven years ago. I just counted how many roses I've discarded or given away and to my horror it's 104. I'm afraid that's why my garden doesn't look more mature or have larger roses. Our property is carved out of the side of a rather steep hill, with a steep hillside still above us, literally in our yard, and lots of boulders and hardscape, which makes the solar radiation very intense. Many of the roses that I'd grown easily elsewhere decided to commit suicide here, either slowly or rather quickly. I'm hoping that what's left now will decide to stay with us.

Ingrid

Ingrid, those pictures are absolutely gorgeous, and you have created such a harmonious symphony of color throughout your garden. I love the way the roses and other plants intermingle, and you've certainly met your goal of an exquisite example of Mediterranean gardening! It's even more inspiring that you've had the courage to take out roses that simply weren't working for you, and that's a tribute to your gardener's heart and eye.

Thanks so much for posting these!

Cynthia

Ingrid, I followed along your process of making a garden, but it's good to see the beginning and the current garden again. It looks beauriful: what a success! Thanks for posting the photos.
Melissa

It's a really beautiful transformation, Ingrid. The plants look harmonious with the surrounding landscape, wonderful.

Motivation ++++++++++++++++

Lee

Nothing short of amazing!!!

Just...astonishing! What an artist you are. Such an oasis of beauty. A wonderful display of how a thoughtful & creative gardener improves nature, providing a superior habitat & a lovely landscape. Those snibbies look cheerful.

Clapclapclapclapclap!!! Please keep posting your photos. They are so inspiring. I want to be buried there :P

Cynthia, Melissa, Krista, Lee and Sidos House, I appreciate your kind words of approval so much. There's much joy in sharing what we've done in the garden with people who can truly understand the happiness and the work, the triumphs and the setbacks of such an undertaking. Melissa, I know full well everything you've achieved in your much larger garden has been through backbreaking work on the part of you and your husband, and indeed none of you here have done it by sitting back on a garden bench with a drink in your hands. But then there are those moments on a perfect evening when in the dusk the garden becomes a place of beauty and wonder, and we know that we've created it....

Ingrid

Your garden looks awesome, so much more in tune now with the surrounding landscape.

Here's what I started with, pieced together from multiple photos so it looks jumbled. The cement mixer would have made a great garden ornament, no?
{{gwi:197365}}

Oh Ingrid, these are wonderful pictures. You have created a beautiful garden that I would love to walk thru. I know you have experienced frustration in finding those roses that thrive in your climate. Bravo!!! You have succeeded! I agree with blue girl,,,,,more photos! Lesley

Ingrid, I will probably say a hundred times how unbelievable I find it that you can grow such a lush garden in such dry dry dry conditions! It's beautiful and I have always been so impressed.

Hoovb, I am glad you posted your "this is what I started with" picture. I've often wondered when I look at your garden pictures. Maybe you have some such postings on your blog, but perhaps you'd consider doing a similar post to what Ingrid has done.

Yes, hoovb! I didn't know that you had begun your garden from scratch, but it doesn't surprise me considering how new your beautiful home looks. Please, please can you put together a series of pictures of how your garden came about? You have one of the most beautiful gardens I've ever seen and we could all learn from what you've done, not to mention seeing gorgeous pictures of your garden, of which we usually see just tantalizing glimpses here and there.

Ingrid

A hauntingly beautiful garden.
Ingrid, you are the first person I know who can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear!
Do you know that ancient saying?
Daisy

So so lovely, Ingrid. I have the same taste in roses and seeing your garden always fills me with excitement for my future garden! You have done an amazing job.

Ingrid,

Can you come design the rest of my gardens? Thanks. :-)

Josh

Daisy, I do indeed know that saying, and am immensely flattered that you should say so, since your garden in Cornwall was superb, and you've created a most spectacular garden out of nothing in Crete.

Melody, thank you so much. My greatest excitement and satisfaction comes from comments such as yours, where I can feel that I've inspired someone to create something wonderful of their own. Without the help of rose books and most especially the inspiration of beautiful gardens on this forum, I don't think I would have known where to start. Being able to pass on this knowledge in some way is a great honor.

Josh, I think you're well on the way to becoming a superb rose person and gardener. Any time that you would like to post pics of your ongoing efforts, I'd be more than happy to throw in a suggestion or two if you would like. You're in that early, exciting stage of acquisition where you want as many roses as possible, and it may be some time before you can stand back and really look at the overall plan. I wouldn't even want to spoil this giddy phase, and from what I can see your choices have been great.

Ingrid

I did a before & after post, back on the 9th, though the after pix being from December are not great. When the weather gets bad we all have a chance to look back at old photos. The "before" pix determined the "after" pix, so are not the prettiest bits.

Ingrid your elegant garden reflects your personality.

Here is a link that might be useful: before & after shots

Thoroughly enjoyable! Thanks hoovb.

Wow, hoovb! What a beautiful home. Your landscaping is gorgeous. To turn that bald lot into such a garden wonderland--lovely.
And your doggies are cute, too :-)

Ingrid and Hoovb, what I see in both your gardens - besides the obvious beauty - is perseverance. You had a vision and knew what you liked and continued to work for it no matter how many years it took, revising when necessary. And Ingrid, I must disagree, you certainly do have a special design talent. Lou

I'm with Josh. I need to hire Ingrid and hoovb to be my landscapers. (Let's play Rosemary and Thyme! Maybe without the dead body?)

(And I see a telescope. Someone's a stargazer. I love stargazing, though it's been ages since I've done it.)

Thanks for sharing the link to your before and after, hoovb. You and Ingrid both have created little pieces of Eden. It's amazing and inspiring.

And, hoovb, I wonder if perhaps your beloved and your Hoover don't have a little bit of North Carolina in them... we are the tarheel state and it sounds like they would fit right in ;)

Love the Spanish architecture of your California homes, Las Vegas too.
It is uncommon in Houston. Mostly older homes or mansions in the museum district have this style. Some custom built homes & new gated upscale townhomes have the stucco and the tiled roofs.

Hardiplank siding and some brick are the norm.

hoovb, I never realized how steep and hilly your property is. Even more credit to you for having made it such a showplace. The succulents on the slope are gorgeous, and the house as you've styled it now is even more beautiful. My past included a similar custom-built house on five acres in the hills, and I now live in a ranchburger on a much smaller property, but I love it more here. The many roses that flourished there (much more easily than they do here) were all allowed to die soon after I left.

bellegallica, the telescope is my husband's. He has a phenomenal knowledge of astronomy while I struggle to understand the basics. Of course he can't differentiate a banksia from a gallica....

Ingrid