Garden Photo of the Day

Best of the GPOD: Before and After

Making beauty out of nothing

long garden border bed full of flowers

We love a good before-and-after on the GPOD. Getting to see what a gardener started with really shows the work, talent, and time that goes into creating every garden we feature on the GPOD. So today we’re going to share some of our favorite glow-ups.

stone courtyard before plantings and lanscapingHere’s the “before” of Amy Kirschbaum’s San Diego garden—a lot of walls, a lot of stone, not a lot of garden.

stone courtyard with flower beds in bloomAnd here’s the “after.” Pretty magical! There are more shots of the full garden here: Courtyard Makeover.

man cutting down overgrown shrubs in treesKim Herman’s home in Williams Lake, British Columbia, started with a basic lawn and a lot of overgrown trees and weedy shrubs.

garden planted with tulips of many different colorsAnd now it is filled to the brim with incredible flowers like these tulips. See more: Before and After in British Columbia.

sloped backyard with few plantsLarry Rogers was faced with a boring backyard when he moved into his Oregon home. It was dotted with a few random shrubs, and the ground sloped the wrong way, so the water was getting into the crawl space and turning the backyard into a muggy bog half the year.

sloped backyard after landscapingThe “after” shot here is hardly recognizable. Drainage problems were fixed, and the boring yard has become a spectacular garden. Check it out here: Before and After in Oregon.

backyard space with one narrow garden bedIt took years of hard work and a lot of trial and error for Shelley Haefner to transform this boring space . . .

long garden border bed full of flowers. . . into this flower-filled dream garden. See more here: Before and After in Shelley’s Garden.

garden bed along a fence with a few ornamental grassesMaxine Mitchell started with this dull little bit of earth next to a fence in her garden in Edmonds, Washington.

garden bed along a fence planted densely with foliage plants and flowersBut she did not leave it that way! Now it is absolutely amazing, with tons of details to enjoy. And be sure to click through to the original post here and the many great photos of this garden: Maxine’s Dramatic Before and After in Washington.

 

Have a garden you’d like to share?

Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!

To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.

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Comments

  1. user-7821942 04/17/2024

    Love these Before and After pictures this morning! Gardeners can be so creative, and these transformations are inspiring. Patience and persistence are at work here and each of these gardens produce joy and peace.

  2. janetsydoruk 04/17/2024

    Just fantastic results. Thx for sharing. I know it took a lot of hard work but so worth it. .

  3. MohawkValley 04/17/2024

    Just beautiful transformations . From a vision to a visual . Excellento !

  4. btucker9675 04/17/2024

    Love seeing these - very inspiring!!! Gardeners are SO creative and I believe we all make the world a better place...

  5. User avater
    simplesue 04/18/2024

    Always enjoyable to see a good garden make over!

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