garden
LOVE long weekends! Gave me a chance to focus on the backyard, which I've been neglecting horribly the last couple years. Seems like I can do the front or I can work the back garden in any given year, but not both. I just run out of steam. But since we stopped at "the Mount" http://www.edithwharton.org/events.php on the way home from the Cape, I was inspired by the beautiful walled shade garden there. Not that I have any stone walls or arches in my yard, but it was nearly all in shade in the afternoon much like mine. Lots of ferns interspersed with hundreds of hosta and manicured evergreens around neat and tidy sections of grass divided by walking paths.
Of course my yard is not at all neat and tidy. I have more creeping weed this year than grass! Yesterday I measured and drew up a plan on graph paper - mind you, my back yard only has 1 true right angle which makes planning a formal sort of English garden tricky! Fortunettly my father was very clever and installed 16" stepping stone in a straightline beginning at that right angle. I've now started defining the edge of the garden just behind the fence perpendicular to the path with edging bricks, like I put in the front yard a few years ago. Makes mowing and keeping weeds under control much easier! Next year I'll start installing more step stones along that edge and continue around the yard, leaving a 12'+ by 16'+ rectagle of lawn in the middle.
I'm just about ready to give up trying to grow any thing other than shade loving plants back there. In the one really sunny spot I tried tulips, daffodils and Blackeyed Susan, but they all got shaded out by the Kerria and the Lilac bushes. Sun hogs. One peony in that spot has done well, but the one on the other side of the yard just doesn't get enough sun. I should move it next to the first. I've also tried Crocus' in the lawn but the squirrels eat the purple and white ones. Hosta do pretty well. My oldest one needs to be divided and spread out next year. I have a couple lungwart that are not unhappy. I'd like more of those, plus more Sweet Wooduff, more daffodils... always more daffodils!
Of course my yard is not at all neat and tidy. I have more creeping weed this year than grass! Yesterday I measured and drew up a plan on graph paper - mind you, my back yard only has 1 true right angle which makes planning a formal sort of English garden tricky! Fortunettly my father was very clever and installed 16" stepping stone in a straightline beginning at that right angle. I've now started defining the edge of the garden just behind the fence perpendicular to the path with edging bricks, like I put in the front yard a few years ago. Makes mowing and keeping weeds under control much easier! Next year I'll start installing more step stones along that edge and continue around the yard, leaving a 12'+ by 16'+ rectagle of lawn in the middle.
I'm just about ready to give up trying to grow any thing other than shade loving plants back there. In the one really sunny spot I tried tulips, daffodils and Blackeyed Susan, but they all got shaded out by the Kerria and the Lilac bushes. Sun hogs. One peony in that spot has done well, but the one on the other side of the yard just doesn't get enough sun. I should move it next to the first. I've also tried Crocus' in the lawn but the squirrels eat the purple and white ones. Hosta do pretty well. My oldest one needs to be divided and spread out next year. I have a couple lungwart that are not unhappy. I'd like more of those, plus more Sweet Wooduff, more daffodils... always more daffodils!