Garden thoughts
I just finished reading The New American Landscape. It's a collection of essays on sustainable gardening, which I enjoyed. I'm starting to think seriously about how I'll design my next yard, and want to continue my trend of improving each time I do. This time, I'm hoping to do measurements and maybe remove the existing large shrubs before winter, then do hardscaping in the spring. The existing large shrubs are fine things, but take up a lot of space in a not very large yard, and will be out of scale with the other plants I plan to put in (if you have a desire for some well grown shrubs let me know, I might be able to set you up soon.)
I'm also hoping to do more research into specific plant species. I feel like this is an area I'm not as good in as I want to be, in part because I didn't grow up in this area, so the plants I grew up with aren't all right for this climate. I also just don't know in enough detail which plants encourage things like butterfly larvae and beneficial insects, and I'd like to get better at that because encouraging insects to help the garden makes any work I have to do easier and the garden healthier.
I'm also hoping to do more research into specific plant species. I feel like this is an area I'm not as good in as I want to be, in part because I didn't grow up in this area, so the plants I grew up with aren't all right for this climate. I also just don't know in enough detail which plants encourage things like butterfly larvae and beneficial insects, and I'd like to get better at that because encouraging insects to help the garden makes any work I have to do easier and the garden healthier.