My combination garden diary, plant list & photo page... because I've got to keep track of it all somewhere.
No More Extending!
Posted 05-01-2012 at 12:20 AM by CanadaSue
Even if I wanted to & I don't much, I've run out of useable land. I went halfdown down the final section of fence towards the front & then the 'soil' turned to builders' fill & what I swear is titanium. That & tree roots. And did I mention rocks? I had mixed feelings. The gardener cursed - no more expansion room, (there's always width & vertically!) but the small bit of sensible me almost wept with relief - no more backbreaking digging.
I'm left with a border of about 80 feet, varying in depth but averaging about 4 feet. That's a LOT of weeding, watering, fertilzing, etc. I've also got 50 or so feet of a plain border, about 2 feet wide, right along the building - not exactly sure what I'm going to end up doing with that.
Today I dug over what I fug our yesterday. I ended up taking out about 1.5 trash bags of litter - nothing interesting save for one spoon & an old quarter, tree roots & rock as well as bits of sheet metal from when the place was built. I was left with mostly clay with some pockets of sand. I turned in 3 brim full trash bags of leaf mould & finely chopped, aged grass clippings. I mixed in blood meal which adds a fair bit of nitrogen to replace what decomposition of the organic matter uses up.
I watered the resulting mess with some extra strength fertilizer, then tromped the whole thing down. I don't think I'd ever have a career as a grape stomper. I placed some stepping stones, then planted it up with several transplants & all the babies I bought & brought home yesterday.
Poor little garden! If sections of my garden are like neighbourhoods, the most developed section is almost at the gated community level. The next area developed is solidly lower middle class with ambition & this newest section looks like an envious trailer park. The plants won't put on a great showing this year but I'd prefer they build a good root system & I'll spend the summer building up the soil. I'll anything remotely resembling soil I can find, more organic matter & worms - lots of worms. It's msiting right now & tomorrow morning, I'm going worm hunting in the parking lot. Anything I find will get tossed in to the new part & they'll help a great deal dragging more of the leaf mould underground.
The newest section is done in reds, oranges & yellows. It transitions, (rather badly at this point), into the rest of the border which is mainly pinks, purples & whites. Luckily blue works with everything & by liberally using blues all through, it more or less connects. I suspect I'll be moving some palnts in the fall to improve cohesion.
The only thing blooming in the new section right now is some stronger coloured primroses I moved from the back of my more established border. Putting them towards the back was a mistake - you can't really see them. I moved a pretty yellow, wild violet clump in there too & may put in another one tomorrow. I just remembered - I have several small clumps of Jack in the Pilpit & 3 trilliums, (which I'll plant in a bunch), to go in there tomrrow & another singleton trillim to move there.
Now, I can primp & play with the garden the rest of the summer - the big work is all done & it's a matter of enjoying it, weeding, deadheading & continuing to improve the soil - a never ending job. Funny thing - I edged it about 2 weeks ago & think I may have to do it again now that it's warming up. All that messing around as well as grass growing has blurred the boundaries a bit. I've got to get into the nearby sumac thickets soon too & cut myself several dozen varying length 'stakes' for delphiniums & other flowering plants that will soon need some support. But all this is the fun part.
I'm thinking through the best was to use the fence to display some colourful hanging annuals. Think I've figured that out but I'll have to do a little experimentation first.
I'm left with a border of about 80 feet, varying in depth but averaging about 4 feet. That's a LOT of weeding, watering, fertilzing, etc. I've also got 50 or so feet of a plain border, about 2 feet wide, right along the building - not exactly sure what I'm going to end up doing with that.
Today I dug over what I fug our yesterday. I ended up taking out about 1.5 trash bags of litter - nothing interesting save for one spoon & an old quarter, tree roots & rock as well as bits of sheet metal from when the place was built. I was left with mostly clay with some pockets of sand. I turned in 3 brim full trash bags of leaf mould & finely chopped, aged grass clippings. I mixed in blood meal which adds a fair bit of nitrogen to replace what decomposition of the organic matter uses up.
I watered the resulting mess with some extra strength fertilizer, then tromped the whole thing down. I don't think I'd ever have a career as a grape stomper. I placed some stepping stones, then planted it up with several transplants & all the babies I bought & brought home yesterday.
Poor little garden! If sections of my garden are like neighbourhoods, the most developed section is almost at the gated community level. The next area developed is solidly lower middle class with ambition & this newest section looks like an envious trailer park. The plants won't put on a great showing this year but I'd prefer they build a good root system & I'll spend the summer building up the soil. I'll anything remotely resembling soil I can find, more organic matter & worms - lots of worms. It's msiting right now & tomorrow morning, I'm going worm hunting in the parking lot. Anything I find will get tossed in to the new part & they'll help a great deal dragging more of the leaf mould underground.
The newest section is done in reds, oranges & yellows. It transitions, (rather badly at this point), into the rest of the border which is mainly pinks, purples & whites. Luckily blue works with everything & by liberally using blues all through, it more or less connects. I suspect I'll be moving some palnts in the fall to improve cohesion.
The only thing blooming in the new section right now is some stronger coloured primroses I moved from the back of my more established border. Putting them towards the back was a mistake - you can't really see them. I moved a pretty yellow, wild violet clump in there too & may put in another one tomorrow. I just remembered - I have several small clumps of Jack in the Pilpit & 3 trilliums, (which I'll plant in a bunch), to go in there tomrrow & another singleton trillim to move there.
Now, I can primp & play with the garden the rest of the summer - the big work is all done & it's a matter of enjoying it, weeding, deadheading & continuing to improve the soil - a never ending job. Funny thing - I edged it about 2 weeks ago & think I may have to do it again now that it's warming up. All that messing around as well as grass growing has blurred the boundaries a bit. I've got to get into the nearby sumac thickets soon too & cut myself several dozen varying length 'stakes' for delphiniums & other flowering plants that will soon need some support. But all this is the fun part.
I'm thinking through the best was to use the fence to display some colourful hanging annuals. Think I've figured that out but I'll have to do a little experimentation first.
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