An Iowa Garden

It happens every year; in the spring I tell Liz, 'You know, this year I'm just going to enjoy the garden as it is; I've got more plants now than I know what to do with." Then fall comes, with its bracing, energizing weather, and I start musing that maybe I do need a couple of more hydrangeas after all, and a cut-leaf Japanese maple would be just the thing to complement the new shrubs, and... well, you can see where this leads.
My particular downfall this year was inheriting a whole pile of eight foot long railroad ties which were ripped out from an embankment in front of the house and replaced by two long block walls. You haven't known real fun until you've spent a day hauling large, creosote-soaked railroad ties all over the hilly garden. The little ravine slope in the picture just cried out for terraced beds, using some of these ties. Now I'm digging up the lower part of the hillside to plant some rhododendrons. But, next year I'm just going to take it easy and loaf...

More...