Location, location, location

So where is this garden I've been talking about? Well, it's in Virginia, about 75 miles south-west of the NOVA/DC cluster and about 40 miles north of Charlottesville. The USDA map puts me in a zone 6b, but my garden's micro climate is a little off, when compared to the neighboring yards. Our house is on an elevation and with the exception for the area that was cleared for the house, drive way and drainfield, most of the site is mixed, mature forest. All of this puts a few of my indicator plants (daffodils and forsythias for example) a week or so behind the same plants just a few hundred yards down the road. I don't know if that lag stays with me all year long, since I forget to keep track of it once the garden really gets going, but at least so far it still holds true for the bearded iris.

We are the second set of owners of the house. The POs, a couple with a small child, lived their for about years before we came along. They didn't make much of an impression on either the land or the house, so when we moved in we started with an almost blank slate. I have a few pictures of the "before" state of things and I thought I would share them, but I just realized that I don't have access to the garden portion of the picture right now, so it'll have to wait until tomorrow.