One of my side gardening projects this summer has been to help my sister-in-law makeover her front garden. Many moons ago when she and my brother bought their house, they planted some dogwoods, junipers, lilies, thyme, euonymous, bleeding hearts, and tulips in the front bed. Over the course of the past 15 years or so, some of the items placed in that front bed got a little out of control - the juniper mostly. Early this spring, my brother (D) and my sister-in-law (J) removed the crazy, overgrown juniper with the intention of doing a garden makeover. Then came summer. A zillion other events and activities stole their attention and the front garden sank to the bottom of their priority list.
Here is a photo of what the front bed looked like after they removed the crazy juniper. Sorry, no before shot with the juniper.
Enter me (Cathy). All the dirt that had been worked up when they removed the crazy juniper became a perfect breeding ground for spring and summer weed seeds. The crazy juniper was gone, but the wild weeds had taken over and were flourishing! Weeds are my nemesis (along with maple keys). While visiting one weekend at D & J’s house, I decided to take action. In one long day I pulled the weeds (and maple keys which had sprouted into little trees), dug out tulip bulbs and lilies and re-planted them in a temporary area, edged the front garden bed and trimmed the dogwoods. The following day, J and I put down landscape fabric and spread mulch around the remaining plants. It was a whole lot cleaner and the mulch and landscape fabric would hold the weeds at bay until D and J had time to do more work on it. Finding work time aside, there were several other issues surrounding this project that had to be addressed before we could proceed any further:
- Maintenance - J wants a maintenance-free garden. She wants the front of her house to look good, but doesn’t have extra time to spend tending to needy plants and shrubs.
- Drought - We have been experiencing very dry summers in Ontario for the past few years, so any potential plantings will have to be drought-tolerant.
- Exposure - This garden has a south-eastern exposure and all plants must be sun-loving.
Personally, I don’t believe there is such a thing as a maintenance-free garden. Even the hardiest perennials and slowest growing shrubs and trees will need some type of maintenance throughout the growing season. If she chose to cover the area over with grass, that too would require maintenance.
Stay tuned for the continuing saga of J’s maintenance-free garden dreams!
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