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May 7, 2008
Garden of the Day: PLG Make-Over
The first submission for Garden of the Day comes straight outta PLG. When the owners bought the house four years ago, the back yard was nothing more than concrete and chain-link fencing. (Check out the last photo in the slideshow for that "before" shot along with a view of the deck mid-construction.) "The rocks for the wall we got from a neighbor renovating their basement," writes the owner. "The ground in the center has crushed bluestone and the borders have our perennials and some ornamental trees. We are starting some roses and honeysuckle on the arbor." Sweet!
Submit Your Garden for 'Garden of the Day' [Brownstoner]
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Comments
Honeysuckle smells great in the evening. Will be nice climbing round the pergola.
I like the crushed bluestone idea.
Posted by: guest at May 7, 2008 11:21 AM
I don't think its an arbor until the stuff has grown on it! (see mirriam webster).
Nice retreat.
Posted by: guest at May 7, 2008 11:23 AM
I would like to install a pergola in my back yard. Does anyone know who I can contact for the job and have any idea as to the cost? (about 10ft x 10ft). Thanks
Posted by: guest at May 7, 2008 11:25 AM
11:23 -- it's merriam-webster.
and all you had to say was "nice retreat."
Posted by: guest at May 7, 2008 11:28 AM
Very nice garden to start off a great new series! It would be an even nicer feature of this series if the owners would be willing to disclose whether their project was DIY or done with the help of a garden design professional designer. If the latter, who? And, in any case, how much?
Posted by: guest at May 7, 2008 11:34 AM
So pretty! Congratulations! Beware of the honeysuckle - it can be very sensitive.
Can you say who did your deck - and do you have any more photos of it? And would you tell us how much it cost? I would like to build a deck like that off my house...
Posted by: guest at May 7, 2008 11:46 AM
11.28 - why so touchy - there was an exclamation mark, clearly light-hearted.
Posted by: guest at May 7, 2008 12:14 PM
Did you leave the existing concrete and put the crushed bluestone on top of it or did you jack hammer it out and then just add the bluestone after?
From your perrenial borders it looks like your a reasonably skilled gardener. Why did you choose so much hardscape?
Posted by: guest at May 7, 2008 12:29 PM
Love it!
Can you get a Q&A with the owner somehow? Seems others have questions that I was thinking and would love to get their feedback.
Great new addition to this site. Thank you.
Posted by: guest at May 7, 2008 12:59 PM
12:14
I used to work with a someone who came over from Germany who used exclamation points all over their emails do denote a light hearted tone. They were very grateful when I told them that it actually denotes a strident tone rather than a light hearted one.
Posted by: guest at May 7, 2008 1:07 PM
GREAT GARDEN! GREAT NEIGHBORHOOD!
Posted by: guest at May 7, 2008 1:08 PM
OOooooh, so beautifull! I want!!!!
Posted by: Mamacita at May 7, 2008 1:35 PM
Nice retreat!
Mr. B, please suggest guidelines for submissions.
Posted by: Hal at May 7, 2008 1:44 PM
What good is a garden like this if you're doomed to living in the craptacular neighborhood of PLG? A methodone clinic in your backyard would be more practical.
Posted by: guest at May 7, 2008 1:54 PM
1:54 people like you are why so many here use words like ^%*^ and #$#$%^. Do you check into that clinic often??
I bet if you had a yard like that you wouldn't be such a bitter %$%^ &*^^%
Posted by: daveinbedstuy at May 7, 2008 2:02 PM
LOL
Posted by: guest at May 7, 2008 2:10 PM
Was it obvious to everyone else that there would be dooooshbags like 1:54 & 11:39 chiming in and undercutting the convo?
STFU and enjoy the garden tours!
One of the main reasons we moved to an 'undesirable' neighborhood (besides the fact I couldn't afford brownstone living) was that we wanted to enjoy a backyard.
This backyard looks very pleasant. Good use of space. And once the pergola get's filled in with greenery, it will be even more pleasant.
Enjoy your summer PLG'ers!
Posted by: guest at May 7, 2008 2:12 PM
Strident? - dude you are way off. You might want to take an email etiquette course and become more contemporary with your understanding.
Posted by: guest at May 7, 2008 2:19 PM
2.12 - I object to your strident tone...
Posted by: guest at May 7, 2008 2:22 PM
1.07 - so you're ok correcting a German about incorrect use of an exclamation mark but you take offense at someone correcting you on incorrect use of the word arbor?
Sounds like you got a trellis up your
Posted by: guest at May 7, 2008 2:37 PM
13:54 you are a pathetic person really a sad sample of how low we humans can get. Date more and improve your life. The owners of this great garden are enjoying themselves and i thank them for sharing this beautiful space.
Posted by: guest at May 7, 2008 2:44 PM
What a great backyard space in such a wonderful part of Brooklyn--is this in Lefferts Manor? I love that area.
Posted by: guest at May 7, 2008 3:14 PM
Can anyone explain to me why someone would post about a neighborhood being "craptacular," or "lousy???" This kind of posting behavior is borderline pathological. The number of mental illnesses displayed here every day is astonishing.
Darn nice garden, by the way. Congratulations.
Posted by: roberto at May 7, 2008 4:13 PM
If someone doesn't like a neighborhood, why shouldn't they be able to voice this opinion? I'm inclined to agree that Lefferts is a pretty miserable place. I harbor no ill will toward its residents and I don't mean to offend anyone. I just think Lefferts stinks. Is that so wrong?
Posted by: guest at May 7, 2008 4:39 PM
Wow, super-nice job. I bet all your neighbors love looking out on it, too. These kinds of transformations really help strengthen the civic fabric of a neighborhood and buoy everyone's living experience.
Enjoy a beautiful summer.
Posted by: guest at May 7, 2008 4:42 PM
beautiful
Posted by: Pragonetti at May 7, 2008 4:43 PM
Ah oh, 4:39. Get ready: the PLG Nazis are on their way!
Posted by: guest at May 7, 2008 4:47 PM
Love the green space--love PLG. A beautiful garden in a wonderful neighborhood.
Posted by: guest at May 7, 2008 5:16 PM
I agree 4:39. It's ok to say something is amazing (even when it's not) but god for bid someone actually say something honest.
The garden looks nice. I agree. It's not blowing me away, but it's nice. A huge improvement over what it was for sure and looks like a good place to hang out.
The neighborhood...you couldn't pay me to live there. It's obviously great for some, but I don't like it.
Does that make me a bad person? No.
The reason we have a lot of entitled kids (and adults) running around these days is because people have become completely terrified of speaking the truth or what they believe.
Everything is sugar-coated these days.
You came in last in your spelling bee little Timmy!! Well that's great! Here's a trophy which says your number one anyway!!
And you think I'm kidding, but it happens every day. And we see it playing out here on this blog every day.
I can like PLG and you can.
See how that works?
No one is right. And no one is wrong.
It's called a difference of opinion.
Posted by: guest at May 7, 2008 5:36 PM
haha...just noticed that in my spellling bee comment i say your instead of you're.
Serves me right for speaking so fervently!
Posted by: guest at May 7, 2008 5:39 PM
be careful with the honeysuckle it is INVASIVE and a bitch to get rid of.
Posted by: guest at May 7, 2008 5:44 PM
"roberto"=4:39=1:54. This troll still plays the same old tired game.
Step One: Assert that p.
Step Two: Assume new identity and assert that not-p.
Step Three: Argue with self and make it appear as nasty as possible.
Grow up, troll.
Posted by: guest at May 7, 2008 5:59 PM
Certainly a huge improvment over what was there, but my personal opinion is that there is a little too much hardscaping. I would have liked a nice specimen tree or something large and green breaking up that main section of gravel.
Posted by: guest at May 7, 2008 6:03 PM
"The reason we have a lot of entitled kids (and adults) running around these days is because people have become completely terrified of speaking the truth or what they believe.
Everything is sugar-coated these days."
What the hell are you talking about? I think there's more "acting out" and free speech these days then there has been in my lifetime! I hear things on the streets, in the subway, and in line at the store that I would never have heard 10-15 years ago, from people of all sizes, shapes, ages and races. Hell, look at BROWNSTONER! Do you really believe people who post here are "terrified" of "speaking what they believe"?? Quite the contrary!
Posted by: guest at May 7, 2008 6:29 PM
I'd love to see this again when the vines have grown up and over the arbor.
Btw, walking through PLG today with everything in bloom was heavenly. The Manor is so peaceful.
Posted by: dt at May 7, 2008 9:42 PM
i don't get it. i can't see any pictures or slideshow. where are the pictures of this garden??
Posted by: guest at May 7, 2008 11:28 PM
4:39, 5:36, et al,
Nothing wrong, in a moral sense, with stating your opinion, but these gratuitous negative statements offered as comments to an item about a garden, certainly say far more about the commenters than the neighborhood.
Posted by: Bob Marvin at May 8, 2008 8:29 AM
Sorry to post so late...this is my garden. The reason for so much hardscape is a maintenance issue. When you are inside the yard you are surrounded by plants, flowers and greenery. There are some trees (Dogwoods, cedar, lilac and hemlock) and we will be adding magnolia and japanese maple in the fall... As summer progresses everything grows real big with variety and it feels lush. Its also nice to walk and sit about an area where you don't get mud on your feet. Its much neater this way and the surrounding plants and weeding require enough work. On a side note, we will be expanding our yard this year, as the lot behind the back fence became available to us..there will be less hardscape there.
Honeysuckle is invasive and we are trying to be careful with it. We have roses and clematis that will climb the pergola/arbor actually. It is still an organic work in progress.
We broke up whatever concrete we needed to first (a jackhammer is not always necessary..its about 4 inches thick and a sledge will work), laid down weed blocking matting, then a layer of pea gravel and then the crushed bluestone. Much of this project was DIY, the cost for labor, crushed stone and arbor was about $5000. The deck on the house was an ordeal with 3 contractors and me building it over a couple of years. Expect something like that in the 10K range.
Posted by: tomgee at May 8, 2008 11:53 AM
5:59:
You are quite wrong. I post as Roberto, and as no one else. I'm still not sure how childish commentary about a neighborhood has anything at all to do with a critique of someone's garden.
Posted by: roberto at May 8, 2008 12:25 PM
tomgee--
Thanx for the information.
The garden is beautiful. The neighborhood--a wonderfully well kept secret. We love PLG, and especially Lefferts Manor.
Posted by: guest at May 8, 2008 2:36 PM
What is the orientation? Is this a south garden? It appears to be at the end of the block--which one?
I was in China last summer and many of the courtyards of the houses are all paved, and they arrange their large plants and trees in big pots often placed in a symmetrical arrangement, perhaps this could work well here.
Great job!
Long live PLG!
Posted by: guest at May 8, 2008 10:31 PM
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