how do you grow?
I've been finally really really for real writing out the plans for my garden. I have drafts of various beds taped to the wall of my pantry now, and a final plan for Bed A. Bed A is really two beds (plus a third, but the third does not count because it is very simple: it has a maple tree in it, and I'm underplanting that with blue hosta and that is all). These two beds run from the side of the porch to the side door of the house, from half-sun to mostly-shade.
When we moved in last fall, I brought with me divisions of some plants from the old house -- anything with sentimental value, like the phlox mecurtin gave me and the blazing star from our old kitty's grave -- plus things I loved and didn't want to let go. I just shoved it all in empty spots of the yard so it would live, and so I could watch the garden this year and see what was already there.
A lot of what's there is staying, but changing location. For example: there was a forest of peonies in Bed A, but they were too far back in the shade and didn't do well. There are lots of hosta all over, including in full-sun beds, where they get burnt up and washed out; they're all moving to at least half-shade. There are some quite nice roses, but not where I would have put roses at all -- they're lining a path, and I like roses more in the background. That kind of thing.
Bed A will be: irises, peonies, and perennial sage in the sunniest part; daylilies behind that, fading into astilbe, phlox, and hosta, with a Limelight hydrangea anchoring the bed.
Bed B is a half-sun to full-sun bed across a footpath from Bed A; it will be daylilies, bee balm, blazing star, roses, and clematis.
Bed C is a half-sun to full-sun bed across the main path from Bed B. It's much more up in the air, partly because more of the extant infrastructure (two small trees, the peonies, and a clump of decorative grass) is staying, and I haven't figured out quite what I want to work in around that yet. More daylilies, move the roses, blazing star, clematis? It's all tentative. The flag irises are going; I do not like flag irises but they are a good plant for streams, and we have one of those in the back -- so they're just shifting back there. I like them better in their natural place.
The last bit in the front of the house (look, we bought this place partially for the yard; you don't get a lot of double lots in the city but this has one) is the memorial garden for my aunt and grandmother. That one is dictated more by what my Aunt Pat and Grandma liked, and of course it's influenced the plans for the rest of the garden because I want it to be harmonious. I think it'll be lovely when it's done (probably the final pieces will go in next fall, and then it'll take a few years to grow in and fill out -- so by the time my toddler is in kindergarten, most likely). It runs from mostly-sun at the front to mostly-shade at the back.
Aunt Pat's corner: yellow rose, white rose, pink hydrangeas, clematis. (She was always trying to grow hydrangea, and planted roses for her children.)
Grandma: stone triskele, thyme path + triskele filling, white musk rose, clematis, possibly more hydrangea (the last gift I got from her, the Christmas five days after she died, was a gold triskele; my mom says she had a huge old musk rose out back and loved the New Jersey "hydrangea trail").
Unfilled areas: phlox (to tie into the shade part of Bed A).
My goal for this fall is just to get Bed A done. I need to pick up some more phlox, astilbe, and sage for it; everything else I have. I've already moved the irises and peonies, and made a start on the daylily arrangements; there's at least another two hours of work there. Getting the Limelight in place and moving all the hosta will probably take another three hours of work. If I keep my wits about me it'll be finished and mulched before October...
When we moved in last fall, I brought with me divisions of some plants from the old house -- anything with sentimental value, like the phlox mecurtin gave me and the blazing star from our old kitty's grave -- plus things I loved and didn't want to let go. I just shoved it all in empty spots of the yard so it would live, and so I could watch the garden this year and see what was already there.
A lot of what's there is staying, but changing location. For example: there was a forest of peonies in Bed A, but they were too far back in the shade and didn't do well. There are lots of hosta all over, including in full-sun beds, where they get burnt up and washed out; they're all moving to at least half-shade. There are some quite nice roses, but not where I would have put roses at all -- they're lining a path, and I like roses more in the background. That kind of thing.
Bed A will be: irises, peonies, and perennial sage in the sunniest part; daylilies behind that, fading into astilbe, phlox, and hosta, with a Limelight hydrangea anchoring the bed.
Bed B is a half-sun to full-sun bed across a footpath from Bed A; it will be daylilies, bee balm, blazing star, roses, and clematis.
Bed C is a half-sun to full-sun bed across the main path from Bed B. It's much more up in the air, partly because more of the extant infrastructure (two small trees, the peonies, and a clump of decorative grass) is staying, and I haven't figured out quite what I want to work in around that yet. More daylilies, move the roses, blazing star, clematis? It's all tentative. The flag irises are going; I do not like flag irises but they are a good plant for streams, and we have one of those in the back -- so they're just shifting back there. I like them better in their natural place.
The last bit in the front of the house (look, we bought this place partially for the yard; you don't get a lot of double lots in the city but this has one) is the memorial garden for my aunt and grandmother. That one is dictated more by what my Aunt Pat and Grandma liked, and of course it's influenced the plans for the rest of the garden because I want it to be harmonious. I think it'll be lovely when it's done (probably the final pieces will go in next fall, and then it'll take a few years to grow in and fill out -- so by the time my toddler is in kindergarten, most likely). It runs from mostly-sun at the front to mostly-shade at the back.
Aunt Pat's corner: yellow rose, white rose, pink hydrangeas, clematis. (She was always trying to grow hydrangea, and planted roses for her children.)
Grandma: stone triskele, thyme path + triskele filling, white musk rose, clematis, possibly more hydrangea (the last gift I got from her, the Christmas five days after she died, was a gold triskele; my mom says she had a huge old musk rose out back and loved the New Jersey "hydrangea trail").
Unfilled areas: phlox (to tie into the shade part of Bed A).
My goal for this fall is just to get Bed A done. I need to pick up some more phlox, astilbe, and sage for it; everything else I have. I've already moved the irises and peonies, and made a start on the daylily arrangements; there's at least another two hours of work there. Getting the Limelight in place and moving all the hosta will probably take another three hours of work. If I keep my wits about me it'll be finished and mulched before October...