Hey Friends! I wanted to share an epiphany I had that may change the trajectory of my landscaping!! I have some crazy and exciting plans for my back yard/garden and I can’t wait to share them with you!
Garden moxie video → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL1WmkC9iJg&t=9s
Hey there! My name is Abby and over the last few years I have renovated a MAJOR fixer upper house!! With the help of amazing friends and family, we have successfully fixed up this old house and turned it into my dream home. I hope you will enjoy seeing this renovation from start to finish. It was an incredible learning experience, as I had ZERO construction skills or knowledge when I started this process. Now we continue the journey of landscaping, gardening, construction projects, home design & decor, organization, and just life!! It is a grand adventure and there is always something to do in the life of a homeowner! I am just a girl with a drill and a dream.
Check out my Dad’s channel (Working Horses With Jim) → https://www.youtube.com/c/WorkingHorsesWithJim
Contact Me
Email → adrillandadream@gmail.com
Mailing Address → P.O. Box 299, Moira NY 12957
Paypal → https://paypal.me/abbyGGG
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BUSINESS INQUIRIES → adrillandadream@thestation.io
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#fixerupper #homerenovation #diyhome
47 Comments
Love your dream!😊❤
Distilled Water has a Ph of 7.0 , Tap water can be acid or alkaline depending un the rock subsoil. Limestone is alkaline, granite is acid.
Love your idea – as always!!!
❤😊if you could get all the metal cleaned out and all the fallen limbs and branches picked up it would help a lot. Getting rid of everything that’s not supposed to be there. Oh make sure you and Jay build swings and benches and picnic tables etc 😊
Just be careful to check if a plant is invasive! A couple blocks over from me the neighbors planted this beautiful Trumpet Vine – it has these gorgeous orange trumpet looking flowers. Well, now their entire back yard is 100% Trumpet Vines & there's not even bare ground to walk! Always investigate this – and find a way to section off invasive plants. Lavendar is beautiful and so are Iris & Daisy's but again – their roots go everywhere! I've heard the same about mint – but there's a good result from mint (especially if containerized) … skunks & a lot of wild animals hate the smell. Go figure! 😂
You always have the best ideas ❤
Pay some money to a master gardener or Landscape Architect to plot out ur garden … they are worth their weight in gold & have blueprint type designs they can draw up. For what u get, u won't regret the cost.
I’m so excited and it’s not even my yard lol. Love your vision 😊
I think it's a good plan and helpful to think ahead.
Suggestion = instead of a fence from the shed to the house – why not plant the boxwood bushes across there and can still have a gate. I agree with others, the gate needs to be wide enough to access with your lawn gear. I also like the suggestion of a small bridge across the creek and the area planted with ferns, which will multiply. Use all the large rocks you have as part of your landscape design, you're very fortunate to have all of them.
The patio will be a nice addition to your yard this year. Another thing you could do – to the right of your house, toward the property with the old shed/barn – you could plant some evergreen type trees on the property line to block the view of the shed.
You have SOOOO much natural items to work with! Stay with that! Don’t let it rob you blind with all kinds of $$$$ here and there… KEEP IT WOODS! So it doesn’t over take you and this beautiful spot. Therefore anything you place, WILL fit in! Like make a natural fire pit, rounded off by LOTS of great chairs or benches, that can either be all season, or chairs put away… very little money, use rock and wood there. And once that is established it’s instant place to gather and entertain/rest/build upon! Of course you must have flooding concerns best figured out and eliminated… cause you have lots of levels. Another? Get those bird things you got that are supposed to keep snakes away, you had at your parents, they also EAT BUGS! And get a BUG ZAPPER, cause I lived in Vermont, and those crazy mosquitoes up there NEVER DIE, even after a blizzard… here they come! Start saving the nice FLAT ROCKS now, there will be a
Millions uses , from foot paths, to top off a fence, etc. remember bring in the pollinators to tend to the flowers… 💐 so plant some to they will start getting established! Like a butterfly 🦋 bush, etc. plant you some berries, get FREE starts from neighbors that have plenty growing wild! You’re building a foundation… start with free and things that will give you BACK in ways to help you also feed yourself and save, LIKE A HERB GARDEN! Herbs keep pests away, plant on your deck/patio, by the seating , where you can pick it up and bring it in during winter. Rosemary is really good for that. I think this is a FANTASTIC and vital for the amount of land you have… let the land work for you, as your work and take care of it. Which is how you were raised. I think a great start would also be a wonderful FLAG 🇺🇸 pole!!! Not expensive for the flag and might even get one donated and your dad has all those tall beam things and you have all that wood! Pour some concrete, set it and up it goes, could even have a light on at night?
Start with the front yard & do a little in front & back simultaneously. U will love coming home & driving up ur drive when the front yard is finished first. But do we ever finish when gardening?!!
Yes save the money, for the garage… use the free and available things to build the outside and create! So much is already right there! Step by step! Don’t get caught up in the HYPE, of RICH gardening… cause it can be never ending and loads of $$$$
Remember before moving things around… flooding. You move a bunch a of rock stuff, you may have a whole different route in that water.
HAMMOCK/BUG ZAPPER/telescope… START HERE! 🤩🤩✨❤️
Get trash out NOW!! Before more vegetation grows and makes it harder!! Scrap that and get $$$$$. Have BURN pile party while things are still wet! Pass the “brainstorming jar” while doing these things for everyone to drop their best tips and best concerns in!
Is your land only the part marked in red? Would love to see an aerial with your whole land perimeter on it in conjunction to the garden. If the land on the other side of the creek is yours too. It would be cool to build a little foot bridge across. I’ve seen that a lot in homes the surround our local woods. Looks like you need to get the garbage out of the creek area as well. Looked like an old appliance and fencing or something. Would be nice to include different areas and incorporate those fantastic stone walls. Maybe you could rebuild some with the stones. You area is so rich in stone. That’s so awesome.
A realy great thing is to plant Helleborus bulbs in the woods. Just randomly some patches with different Helleborus. Then you have some colour early in the yeat in the barren woods.
Greetz, Rob, Utrecht in the Netherlands (follower both of you Gordons)
Hi there. I would recommend "the quarry garden" its in northern England and has different levels and woodland planting and paths
Design your garden as a series of little rooms with different sorts of plants and different uses. It may be worth paying a landscape architect to design something that you can do the work on yourself as a when you can afford to do the work. They could integrate all your ideas, In the long run it would be worth the money spent. They could advise you more on the type of plants you require for your dreams. That is their job and would save you more money and heartache along the way.
Most important of all is to draw up a plan, understanding your landscape, blending and realising that it’s a long term objective. Great gardens are years in the making and don’t be afraid to make mistakes and start over. Great job hon.
Oh, also think about any future additions to the house!
How exciting
What you can do now, is: decide the foundation or infrastructure like water piping to plants or sprinklers etc. Terraces placements. Zone off into small spaces until they all connect and hide each other. Simply TALK to a professional. Be ready to get used to having t"plant and move it around and replant it else where" . Get a SUN-SHADE area idea per hour by hour of your spaces & plant accordingly.
Garden Answer is opposite north of you & has a beautiful 12 acre garden home, started & styled from P. Allen Smiths' garden home.
Also boxwoods, many types, can be planted this year in front yard between neighbors barn & you , also across the front ditch, is exactly where Id start planting this year. See green out front this winter.
Fence ROCK WALL! OLD TIMEY GATE
I'd like it if you do something beautiful with water stream in your back yard the peaceful sounds of water, just so relaxing.
Aussie here – Paul Bangay has created some phenomonal gardens in his long career. He has certainly made a name for himself!
You need to build a bridge over the creek
Go watch Jess the signing gardener. She did her gardens by herself and they are wonderfull. She has great ideas for forest garden. 👋🏻👋🏻👋🏻
That a great idea start with the patio area and cut the yard in zones will make it manageable
Abby, sounds lovely. Just make sure you are ready for all the maintenance needed to have your vision look beautiful all year. Lots and lots of weeding and fall cleanup and trimming and pest control, just to name a little of the work needed. People with your vision have a gardener to do this kind of work.
Then you have to keep it trimmed, don't forget the hedge trimmers!
What if you added a split rail fence instead of a privacy fence? Then you could grow climbing roses along it or some small evergreens or both. Your view is so beautiful I’m not sure a privacy fence is needed? Just a thought.
So much old heavy electrical stuff in the wood area? I suppose it will take time to get rid of it?
So excited to see the progress, the only thing I would recommend is that you put a gate in big enough to fit a tractor, or at least an entrance big enough for one somewhere. Also if your septic is behind the fence they will have to have access to it.
No matter what u do it won’t look finished till you fix the shed! It looks terrible… get barn doors or something
I love your vision for the garden Abbey. It's going to be great
Plan for your rock walls and where. Go into the back with the mini excavator and clear and clean up. During that process the excavator can make your walls and place your rocks where you need them. The operator who did your side door would make quick work of that with his talent. He probably could excavate a front walk in a half of a hour while he’s there.
You should watch the British TV gardener Alan Titchmarsh; his youtube channel has videos of his own garden and it sounds like that's the kind of garden you're looking for.
Sounds like a great plan.❤
I wish you would of combined the vinegar dirt with the baking soda dirt 😢😢😢😢😢
Well you did use the same spoon in both so you could have contaminated the vinegar one.
Happy for your enthusiasm for the work ahead, but that's how dreams come true! Good luck girl, I'll be watching!
Looking forward and loving it 😍 😊 😀
perhaps put in some stone steps off of the larger patio down to the basement entrance and put in another patio area down there
Sounds wonderful and peaceful😊. I don’t know if you have done it before, but to show an outline exactly of your property. ‘ Live your Dream’!😇
Nice to have a drone to see your yard.
Oh Abby, I love your ambition. While waiting for the complete vision to come in focus, even putting a bench, arbor, trellis or birdhouse throughout the forest journey will add interest on a path. A fairy garden vignette or even an interesting planter or birdbath along the path will create a focal point. Have fun creating and take your time because sometimes going down the rabbit hole actually pans out for better results.