Before/After Blog Hop 8/19/10

I spent some time in the garden last weekend. Quite a bit of time actually. My fingers are still sore from pulling out ground cover. For this week's Before and After, I've got two sets of photos.

The first shows my existing hosta garden, which had some weeds and shadows and crud in the bird bath (can't seem to keep up with the crud!).

So I took to Photoshop and brightened, added some saturation and weeded! Love that virtual weeding!The second set of Before and After is not a virtual one. I neglected to take a before shot so the first shot is from last fall. The ground cover has dramatically taken over since it was taken so it's not a real comparison. You get the basic idea anyway.

In the after shot, it sure doesn't seem like much but that whole hill was covered in green until I started pulling. It took a few hours and six bags of mulch but I carved out the beginnings of my reclamation of the hill for planting. Whew. I've long been a hater of hosta, knowing only the sad, overgrown, plain versions lining the sidewalks of neglected houses nearby. Lately I've discovered they are pretty cool! So many interesting varieties to choose from that I think eventually that hill will be a good showcase for them.

Here's a close up of the new and old hostas in the new plantings. I picked up Ivory Coast, Francee, Paradise Power and one other I can't remember now at Savory's Gardens which is a local place that I discovered recently. It's not the cheapest place to buy a hosta but WOW do they have a cool selection! And be sure to check out the garden in the back. Amazing.

Check out the other Before and After photos at Pixel Perfect!