To give you some background, I never planted (successfully) anything before January 2012. So I was a complete beginner. After my husband and I married in October of 2011, I found the property to be a diamond in the rough, so I got very ambitious. To date, I have planted thousands of plants...either by seed or otherwise. We live on 15 acres. About six acres have garden areas. So over the last few years I have been creating huge gardens. All that being said, I'm also a CPA and it's tax season. In other words, I have zero time. The one thing I have learned over these few years is that fight weeds before they get here. However, they had gotten terrible. So this year I opted to call in the professionals. I hired Mirascapes, Inc out of Daphne, AL. I hired them to do two of the main gardens...there are several that will have to be addressed but these were the big ones. One area was a 3000 sq foot rose garden. I have over 100 roses all over the place but I have stopped counting. The other was a huge peacock topiary in the front field. The following pictures are before and after (some during).
As you can see it was a weedy mess....I needed help or it would be more of an eyesore than a beauty. The rose garden is on a slope, screened and auto irrigated with drip irrigation. I attempted to offset future labor but the weeds used the mulch as a medium to grow. Philip, the owner, was sensitive to gardening styles and asked if I was okay with chemicals....I am not an organic gardener, I would use a flame thrower if I thought it would help (not really,,,,,unless it would..lol) So he put a preemergent...he mentioned he used a post emergent, not sure what that is aside from a herbicide so we will see how that does because the weeds can be very aggressive.
I am taking these pictures from a previous post. Click HERE to see it.
Now grant you things have greened up more because of spring but oh the difference. I had hundreds of plants and so to distinguish between weed and plant he used flags and orange tags. Below is the after of this shot.
Now there is much still left to be done, as you can see the pool needs to be cleaned. As a female in a remote location, it is also important to feel comfortable being alone with people on the property. It is, also, important to feel that you are getting a fair deal. I felt very comfortable in dealing with Philip and his staff (who were fantastic and worked well unsupervised.) In the past, I have had help by a wonderful young man, Cody but unfortunately he took a job in another field.
But I have also had experiences that were negative from other companies so it is important to feel that you are treated fairly and at ease with working with a contractor, in any field.
Before picture of above.
As you can see much more needs to be done. For instance, the pool but that will have to hold for a couple of more weeks until tax season is over.
The pictures do not do justice, because most of what you are seeing are roses who are just starting to bloom and this was winter cleanup.
Before shot of above
Actually this picture was done in progress..
After picture, should have taken from an angle that did not have the skypencil
Before picture
He used pinestraw. The only thing I ponder is how it will react when I put a hose in place over the irrigation system. The rose garden is a huge L shape on a slope. Better to let the irrigation systems underneath do most of the work and hopefully more rain this year.
He and his staff working. They were very fast.
This is the second leg of the gardens. In the back is a greenhouse where I am certain the plants are cooking. I suspect we are out of fear of frost so time to vacate.
The back area was really bad. Even with laying thousands of square feet of screen. It looks nice now.
The gardens are on a slope. As you can see the back of the house is a lot of glass so you can see it from many areas of the house...paintings can't beat a garden.
I will definitely use them again for winter clean up. The gardens are huge and can't wait for full blooms.
This is the view from where I generally sit. Will need to replace the outdoor curtains, they last about two years...this is year three, I think. But still a lovely view.
The peacock.
This is what the peacock looked like last November.
And then last January, my request on this area was simply to weed it and rescreen it. So what you see here is a bit of maintenance. He partners with a company called fathernaturelandscapes.com. I have not planted the tail yet but I may opt for a quote to see what they suggest for perennials.
This what has looklike in years past, and I have a pipe dream of huge personal gardens called the "The Gardens of October." who knows maybe one day but I bet it will be more beautiful than it ever has been.
Today is my day off and I'm still tired but instead of feeling guilt and dread...I can sit back and enjoy a beautiful garden. I'm still tired and much to be done but I am so glad I opted to do this. And in the future, I will opt for it again. I'm a CPA and yes you can do your own tax return, my job is to give advice while you are doing you own return but sometimes it works out better to have someone else do it. Now, I know that everyone would love to get a landscaper but of course price is an issue. Make a budget and determine what is the one thing you want done, and express that. You may find a happy medium and it doesn't hurt to ask. If it is a matter of pride, I planted those plants so nothing is taken away. Even if I didn't, I don't think I would care. I want to sit on my back porch and look at flowers, it is my favorite place on Earth and now instead of guilt I have happiness. I am not taking away from those who work hard in their gardens, but this definitely worked for me!
