Walking Path - Then and Now

One of my favorite photographs is this one, which I just entered in a Gardening Gone Wild photography contest.

I took this photograph one evening.in the fall of 2009 just before sunset  I was walking through each of the beds, taking my weekly photographs of our garden. Up until now, these photographs have served a utilitarian purpose - keeping track of what is blooming and when - a short cut to writing a gardening diary which I rarely get a chance to do these days.

This is an area that serves as a walkway to get to the backyard and to our storage and compost areas.

As I was scrolling through pictures this evening, organizing and labeling them, I came across this photograph taken last year in June from almost the same position as the photograph taken the previous fall.
We added a walkway of large flat patio pavers both to define the walking path and to make it easier for my wheelchair to navigate the slope. Having gone back end over teakettle on more than one sorry occasion, I had my husband widen the pathway and even it out just a bit.

The pavers are set into black mulch on a bed of clay - a lot of the clay that was removed from our flower beds found it's way to this area, and when the ground is dry, it is as hard and immovable as concrete.

At the bottom of the hill on the right, you can see the beginnings of our shade foliage garden. While a few of the plants we've included here do bloom, the blooms are far less significant than the foliage. This particular garden and the area beyond is one of our main focuses for 2011. We plan to add several more ferns, a few more hostas, and some other shade perennials in this area that is shaded by a large weeping willow.

And the area beyond it, which is in full sun and packed full of cockleburrs, thistles, ragweed, and assorted other nasties, will be the new home of all of the mounds of lemon balm that have sprouted through my herb garden this spring.