When my mom came to live with us in September of 1998 we began to think about building an addition to our home.  With the aid of a computer design program, we drafted a plan for converting our existing garage into a suite of rooms for her with French doors opening out onto the garage's 24' x 20' cement driveway approach.  My mom thought it would be the perfect place to create a patio garden.  What a great idea!
      Spring 1999 brought the good weather needed to begin construction, and by September, mom's addition and our new garage was completed.  With winter just around the corner, the bulk of the patio garden plan would have to be put on hold, but we were able to erect the first sections of vinyl fencing.  The crisp white pickets made a charming backdrop for the existing flowers and gave us our first sense that this patio garden was going to be really special!     
      After designing a rough layout for the new flower beds, we kept busy during the winter months pouring over catalogs and ordering roses to fill the spaces.  It was our desire to choose varieties that were fragrant, disease-resistant, and hardy.
      Spring 2000 finally arrived, and with it came all the work of removing turf, amending the soil, and planting out the first phase of the patio garden plan-- a shrub/rose hedge spanning the gap between the north-facing fence sections and a large blue spruce.  Here we planted mock orange, Pee Gee hydrangea, Japanese snowball, plus hardy and antique roses such as "Martin Frobisher," "Jacques Cartier," "Maiden's Blush," "Mme Legras de St. Germain," "Astrid Lindgren," "Fritz Nobis," and "Chloris." The purpose of the hedge was to provide privacy from the street and lend a feeling of enclosure to the patio garden.  Just in front of the spruce we placed a garden bench and sundial.  Nearby we sank a post that holds a charming iron birdfeeder.  The climbing rose "Eden" and "Nelly Moser" clematis will entwine the post in due time.
      At the beginning of May, old driveway gravel was removed from in front of the cement approach and replaced with rich topsoil.  At the same time that a new driveway was being poured in front of the new three-car garage, new flower beds were being formed in front of the old driveway's approach.  Daylilies and iris were planted, two "John Davis" climbers were placed where we plan to erect an arbor, and the beds were mulched and lined with large rocks.
      By June we hope to have the fencing completed and have the rose arbor in place.  Following are some pictures that will detail some of the progress: 
     
     
     

September 1999
The finished project!

September 1999
Ready to plant grass seed

May 1999
Construction begins

February2000
Winter wonderland

November 1999
Planting "Chloris"

March 2000
"Will spring ever get here?"

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