In which I garden....the whole long story
Many moons ago I started working on the gardens. Gardens are tricky, really to be done properly they are a looooooooooong effort - years. I know there's all these silly shows on TV... Desperate Landscapes, Yard Crashers, Yard Wars.... they all make it look like it can be done in 24 hours, and given an army of helpers and an almost unlimited budget, there's a LOT you can do in 24 hours, but you can't grow a plant in a weekend.
Oh sure, you CAN buy mature plants, if you have the source and the cash, and don't mind a lot of annuals that'll be gone next year and have to be replanted.
When we moved in here, I wasn't thrilled with what gardening had been done. The bushes in the front beds weren't attractive in my mind, some of the plantings were very nice, but didn't seem to make much sense; things just dropped down in a place with no rhyme or reason. However, it was fall when we moved in, I had NO clue what I was doing, and I wanted to have a plan before we started.
I never did really find a plan..
That fall (2008) I put in a pile of bulbs, thought about it lots, took tons of pictures of everything and waited for the spring. Of course come spring (2009) time we were wrapped up in prep to go to Australia for a month. When we got back, work was knocking me 6 ways of Sunday, but I did manage to call a landscaper, hoping we could at least start looking at some direction... that was August. He wanted a layout, map, site plan - which was easy enough to DO, but took us a long while to get around to. Deep into fall (2009 - wow, we've been here a year!), and once again too late in the season to accomplish much but take out a pile of trees at the end of the garden, we settled in for another winter.
Ain't it funny how whole years can slip by.
Ok.. so now it's the spring of 2010, and I'm not working. I got time. What I don't have is any money. However, I manage to get the daylily bed started (inspired by Freeman Patterson's The Garden.
Mostly I start moving stuff OUT. Got rid of the two hideous bushes, dug up all the pea gravel, pulled out the hostas and the little yellow flowering bushes. Come the fall (2010 - two years now!), late fall, November now, we got around to renting the excavator to pull out all the stumps from the trees we took out last year. While we're at it we dig up all the flower beds in preparation for proper top soil.
Only to discover it's too late in the year to get a load of topsoil brought in.
Settle in for another winter.
So... having torn everything out, dug everything up, made a right bloody mess of what was at one time an acceptable looking garden.... I was facing spring and hoping to have the house on the market soon. I sent out a call for help.
I got a lot of emails and suggestions and some lovely conversations with my sister, and my friend the landscaper, and some really inspiring Canadian magazines. But what I didn't really have was a plan.
To be continued in ... "Proceeding without a plan... in which I garden pt2"
Cross posted from 'The Plan®' on Dreamwidth. Comment here or there.
Oh sure, you CAN buy mature plants, if you have the source and the cash, and don't mind a lot of annuals that'll be gone next year and have to be replanted.
When we moved in here, I wasn't thrilled with what gardening had been done. The bushes in the front beds weren't attractive in my mind, some of the plantings were very nice, but didn't seem to make much sense; things just dropped down in a place with no rhyme or reason. However, it was fall when we moved in, I had NO clue what I was doing, and I wanted to have a plan before we started.
I never did really find a plan..
That fall (2008) I put in a pile of bulbs, thought about it lots, took tons of pictures of everything and waited for the spring. Of course come spring (2009) time we were wrapped up in prep to go to Australia for a month. When we got back, work was knocking me 6 ways of Sunday, but I did manage to call a landscaper, hoping we could at least start looking at some direction... that was August. He wanted a layout, map, site plan - which was easy enough to DO, but took us a long while to get around to. Deep into fall (2009 - wow, we've been here a year!), and once again too late in the season to accomplish much but take out a pile of trees at the end of the garden, we settled in for another winter.
Ain't it funny how whole years can slip by.
Ok.. so now it's the spring of 2010, and I'm not working. I got time. What I don't have is any money. However, I manage to get the daylily bed started (inspired by Freeman Patterson's The Garden.
Mostly I start moving stuff OUT. Got rid of the two hideous bushes, dug up all the pea gravel, pulled out the hostas and the little yellow flowering bushes. Come the fall (2010 - two years now!), late fall, November now, we got around to renting the excavator to pull out all the stumps from the trees we took out last year. While we're at it we dig up all the flower beds in preparation for proper top soil.
Only to discover it's too late in the year to get a load of topsoil brought in.
Settle in for another winter.
So... having torn everything out, dug everything up, made a right bloody mess of what was at one time an acceptable looking garden.... I was facing spring and hoping to have the house on the market soon. I sent out a call for help.
I got a lot of emails and suggestions and some lovely conversations with my sister, and my friend the landscaper, and some really inspiring Canadian magazines. But what I didn't really have was a plan.
To be continued in ... "Proceeding without a plan... in which I garden pt2"
Cross posted from 'The Plan®' on Dreamwidth. Comment here or there.