Good afternoon all! Thought I might show some others to get ideas on what I’m working with here. My fiancé and I recently bought this lovely little 1940s house perched above the Kanawha Valley here in my home state of West Virginia and would like to begin doing some high-yield sister planting in our garden. We’re both very much working class blue collar men and haven’t much in the way of money to afford to take charge of this place in a few days, much to my dismay, so this will be a long-term project. We also have been experiencing a drought in the area; I’m holding out hope we see rains soon so we may sow some seeds.
Pictures 1-3 show the Eastern garden and our kitchen porch. This part gets very little light, as our sister house next door and our own block a lot of the daylight from getting into here. I was thinking to plant an apple tree near where the bin corral is and move the bins under our front porch and then planting ferns and flowers all around the pathway stones. Our lovely neighbor in the sister house and I agree that we simply must plant a clematis on the fence we share, and I love that! When we last spoke, she said there had been one overtaking the entire fence in the 80s, and two owners ago, it was taken out during renovations to the house and the retaining wall.
Pictures 4-7 show some of the rear garden (north facing and under a very heavy tree canopy) and its terribly extensive undergrowth. I’m afraid I’ll have to rip out all the vines just to see how bad everything is underneath. There are many holes, as this area is slowly slipping into the holler below. There are three actual retaining walls: two on the upper level of the backyard, one of round stones that is absolutely buried by English Ivy and Virginia Creeper, otherwise I’d show you; one of wood that is being eaten away at on the pictured side but holding better than the stones; and another one which is actually masoned below that has been completely covered in English ivy, is bowing quite significantly, and is falling away from itself (pictured partially in 6) this area is covered in undergrowth. I’m afraid I’ll have to go scorched earth on this section, for there are strange pieces of concrete sticking out of the ground back here, for some reason. The weeds and vines have completely engulfed everything back here, and it upsets me so to see it that way. I’m hoping to turn all the yard that is under the tree canopy into a rhododendron grove, for it is awfully nice back here.
Pictures 8-10 show how aggressively the vines have taken over my trees. I’m obviously going to cut a full ring of the vines off, but I’m going to go for a foot in width as to ensure all above dies and hopefully weakens the lower vines.
Pictures 11-12 are shots of the lower section from the other side. I’d go down there to show you more, but all of my pants are on the clothesline, and without them, I’d need a shot in the butt just to not wish for death lol.
Picture 13 just shows the back area of the house. It’s so lovely back here. The trees keep it so cool and there’s always a breeze from the (unfortunately, currently dry) creek in the holler below. I intend to remove the upper level of the rear deck and tighten up the staircase leading off the rear porch so I can have more roots preventing the extensive erosion taking place. That HVAC unit is from 1984 and runs incredibly! I’m just as shocked as you might be, though we don’t run it often and keep the house at 80 during hot days.
Pictures 14-15 show off the insane amount of leaves I pulled from under the decks! I They were about four feet high under each; I’ve pulled a large volume from this pile and mulched them for my compost pile (not pictured). This side, despite my neighbor’s house being quite close, will likely be the most productive, as it’s western facing and has an opening to the south. There’s a large window on this side that’s at ground level in the basement (also not pictured) that I intend to add a wide swinging hinge to in order to use that area of the basement to replace the crumbling shed pictured, and so that I may replant the front yard’s crabapple tree in front of where the shed’s ramp is currently.
On picture 16: does anybody know this bush? I found vines growing in it. There are two more on this side of the yard. I’m tempted to pull them out, as this is a very potentially productive area of the yard on the property line.
Pictures 17-19 are of the front yard. The front yard gets great exposure from the south and west, and the car parked in front of the yard is not usually there; just had some big items in the hatch I needed to move in and didn’t want to have to move it yet, as this street gets quite busy in the middle of the day. That tree is the crabapple I want to replant towards the back so I may make room for a peach tree or two and more gardening space. I plan to remove all of the mulch in the flowerbeds and extend that flowerbed left of the front stairs and fill the space with tons of native flowers. I also want to put stone pavers like the eastern yard leading to the far gate. In the bed with the mailbox, I’d like to plant several varieties of phlox, simply because! There’s more lattice enclosing the area under the porch where the bin is sitting, which I intend to recess and attach to the concrete stairs that the wooden stairs were built over to hide the trash cans under.
I know that’s a lot of images and information, but I simply couldn’t help myself! I’m so excited to work on this garden, even if it’s going to be a lot of work to get it there. The previous owners owned this house for only two years and severely neglected it, so now I have quite the formidable task ahead of me, but this house is simply so lovely and adorable I can’t let it wither away like they did. Please let me know if you have any recommendations! I’d love any and all feedback y’all may have!
by Xxsex_talkxX
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Keep us posted on your progress