Then and now... my garden at 20

On July 1st we celebrated 20 years at this address. I still find it hard to believe that I’ve been in one place that long. In the 20 years prior to landing here I lived at 12 different addresses in 5 different cities (all in Washington and Oregon, and I tend to round them to Spokane, Seattle and Portland). A pictorial “then and now” seems like a good way to celebrate this milestone. I am so thankful I took these 11 photos the day of our home inspection (May 2005, before the house was even ours), they’ve served me well over the years.

Here’s the front of the house on inspection day, before the lawn was dug for a sewer scope that ended up making it look like we’d buried a few bodies out there.

Here’s the now image. I am reminded of a question I was asked by the editor of Fine Gardening magazine when I was writing a story for them on the garden, “why are you trying to hide your house?” it certainly looks that way doesn’t it? The thing is, I’m not trying to hide it, it just happened. Because the plants are always more important. And really, our house isn’t that interesting.
Plus, the only people who see the house from a straight on viewpoint are the neighbors across the street. The views most people have are from the sides, as they’re driving the street. I’ve always liked this angle, across our driveway, it’s much more interesting and inviting.
This next image has always been a bit of a head scratcher, why did I take this photo? I must have just been trying to record all sides of the house, although I completely skipped the north side. Anyway, here’s the backdoor and a bit of the driveway then…

And now…

The fact the pavement went right up to the house was a definite downside, that is until we brought the stock tanks in. Now it’s a great place for plants that like full sun and heat and the home of my annual veggie garden.

From the driveway there’s narrow entrance between the house (right) and garage (left) into the back garden. Straight ahead you can see our inherited wall-o-privet and a large rhododendron. The white/grey wall behind buddha is the neighbor’s garage (now known as the orange wall).

A now photo with the agavegate closed…

And open…

Stepping into the back garden, the side of the neighbor’s garage marks the north end of the upper garden. On the right is the back of our house. Then…

And now…

The side of our garage (which borders the south end of the upper garden), featured a ginormous blue-blooming hydrangea. I couldn’t figure out why anyone would paint their bedroom walls such an odd color of blue, that is until the flowers of the hydrangea began to open and I saw they’d gone for a color-echo.

The garage wall now…

Looking back through the opening between the house and garage then…

And now…And a gate closed version.

This next photo was taken standing in the upper garden looking to the southwest corner. Believe it or not that fern at the edge of the garage is still there, although I trim it back every spring so it’s a lot smaller. The chiminea went with the previous owners and that rose bush was ripped out our first weekend in the house.

Now…

Looking due west then…

And now…
Super blurry image but c’st la vie. This is looking to the northwest corner of the back garden, then…

And now…The back of our garage. Many years before we lived here there was an alleyway (no signs of it now) and you could drive into the garage from the front or the back. We’ve never tried the back door to see if it’s operable. You can also see that lawn ran all the way to the southside fence and there was no wall at that end of the property, just a slope down to the lower level where the patio is now.

Speaking of now…
And a little pulled back so you can see the wall we put in to border the patio…
Just one final photo, the back of our house, which I always thought would make a great outdoor movie screen.

Not any longer, as you can barely even see the back of the house now.So, 20 years… how long have you lived in your home? Have you moved after creating an “all in” garden? I never thought we’d live here this long, and while I don’t want to spend the rest of my life here I also can’t begin to imagine what it would be like to leave this garden.

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