As it was

Two years ago our house was moved out of the floodplain. We had to clear a 50-60 foot wide swath of woods in order to make a path for the house up the hill. Below are some "before" shots of the garden, most of which were taken in the spring of 2006.

The first shot shows Mermaid, the house, and the woods behind the house that were later cleared. This picture was taken in 2002; the rest were taken in 2006, with my old Pentax 35mm film camera and scanned in. I was glad to see those woods go, actually. Not only was there the matter of moving the house, which was a great relief, but those woods in reality were rather a mess: loggers had cleared the trees about 25 years before we bought the place, leaving huge mounds, and there was the typical lowland coastal plain tangle of greenbriar all through it. In addition, the pines blocked the sun in winter. (I love pine trees, but not when I am north of them in wintertime.) Now that the house has been moved all we have behind us are tulip poplars, which is wonderful.

Mermaid and the house before move, 2002

We had Florida azalea (Rhododendron austrinum) planted in raised beds in front of the house. I loved them there, because the fragrance would come in the open windows in the living room, but they were simply going to get too large. So I moved them to other areas of the garden before the house was moved. The Florida azaleas were underplanted with Southern lady fern from the farm, toothwort, and white wood aster.

The big perennial bed and Eva's White iris with Climbing Old Blush. House is in the background off to the left.

Jesse's Song and Eva's White

Jesse's Song and looking toward the woods behind the old house site.

Pink Confetti

Eva's Blue-Violet

Dusky Challenger

Looking up the hill, towards where the house currently sits. We now park our cars about where the horse stalls are situated in the picture. I believe the perennial bed is about 3 years old in this picture.

A noid iris, probably in the intermediate class and definitely of pallida descendant, that I found growing near the mailbox. It didn't bloom last year and I hope I didn't lose it, as I adore this iris.

To be continued...