Tom's Flower Garden

History and Some Notes

In 2008, my wife decided she would really like to have a flower garden in the front yard.


We took out the grass, made some terrain using unwanted rocks from the back yard.


We planted lots of seed, bulbs and a couple of trees and then sat back and watched it grow.


These pages will take you through the project and show the results.
You can see the beginnings  at  the link at the bottom of this page.

A couple of factors prompted the decision to make the change.
  • The city had made us cut back our juniper hedge, because it was growing over the edge of the sidewalk.  
  • We were  forced to cut it back in December. 
  • After a couple years it had still not recovered from the trauma looked terrible. 
  • Our water pressure had dropped over the years and the sprinkler system was no longer reaching the center of the lawn.
  • We wanted to reduce our water consumption. 
  • We really like flowers and they would be easiier to maintain than a lawn.
The results have been amazing, far better than we expected.
It's like a private botanical garden.
It is fun to go out during most of the season and see what new blooms are popping out.
Many years there have been over 200 species.
Many months there may be 40 species blooming at a time.
There are seldom any weeds, though there are some species I wish I had not planted.
It is easier to maintain, uses less water than the lawn. It definitely looks better.
Watering is done by soaker hoses and drip system automaticaly controlled by a  micro computer.

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