The two green thumbs of 2greenthumbsup.com added a couple of new gardens and a few new items to their existing gardens in 2007. We (okay, I) have a weakness for garden plants on sale. My mom, the other green thumb, has a little more self control, but can be persuaded, cajoled, heckled, and pressured into making the odd purchase. She’s a planner and I’m a bit more spontaneous - together we make an awesome gardening team.
We moved into our current house in August 2006. There were existing gardens, but they were a little rough.
My first, and unfortunately only, order of gardening business after the move was to get all the perennials I brought from my old house into the ground - placement was secondary. There simply wasn’t time for playing in the gardens.
Play time arrived in the spring of 2007. Throughout this past spring, summer and fall we completed a large amount of garden clean up and plant rearranging. Then, because we had some energy leftover, we added two new gardens - an herb garden for my mom and a rock garden for me. New perennials, herbs, shrubs and trees were planted everywhere.
The Herb Garden
The herb garden was created in a sunny spot along the side of the house by the driveway.
It’s new inhabitants included:
Catmint - Walker’s Low
Purple Sage
Thyme - several varieties
Apple Mint
English Lavender
Feverfew
Garlic Chives
Lamb’s Ears
Oregano
(the occasional small person)
An existing area at the back of the garage also received some herbs and a few new perennials:
Lady’s Mantle
Yarrow
Cranesbill
Scabiosa
English Lavender
The Rock Garden
A naked corner in the back yard was calling out for something, so I decided to give it a rock garden.
It took many loads and car trips to collect enough rocks and stones, but I love these natural elements in a landscape. Planted among the rocks and stones are:
Sedum - several varieties
Pasque Flower
Anemone
Silverleaf Dogwood
Spiderwort
Moss
The tree limbs came from clean up in the large garden at the front of the house. I liked how they looked with the rocks and stones.
Garden Clean Up & New Plantings
The existing garden that runs along the back deck was one area that required some major clean up.
Three overgrown junipers were removed and three new Gold Coast Junipers were planted in their place. Two misshapen spireas were severely cut back early in the spring. By fall they had grown again and filled out quite nicely. An old euonymus which was also hacked back in the spring came along well, too. Existing hostas were divided. Ferns that were transplanted from the gardens at my old house came up beautifully. The entire garden was re-edged and new cedar mulch was heaped on. In addition to the new junipers, we also added:
Astilbe
Young’s Weeping Birch
The garden shown in the three photos at the beginning of this post was the largest area and also required the most work - redefining edges, cutting out volunteer lilacs and trimming back dead growth, pulling sweet woodruff that had gotten out of hand, and the application of a massive amount of mulch. There were few items actually planted in that bed, so it also needed some content. To that bed we added:
Shasta Daisies
Euonymus - Sarcoxie
Threadleaf Cypress
Mugho Pine
3 Black Cedars
3 Silverleaf Dogwoods
Pagoda Dogwood
Spiderwort
Ferns - several varieties
In the fall we relocated the existing bleeding hearts, planted some of the divided clumps of hostas and also planted a large quantity of spring-flowering bulbs.
Successes & Failures
Often gardening involves a certain amount of trial and error. We’ve tried some items in certain spots and we know we’ll have to relocate them next spring. The items planted behind the garage don’t receive enough light. Rather than cut down the trees, we’ll look for some new places to put those items in the spring. The weather, most notably the lack of rain in the summer of 2007, created some additional problems for us. Dogwoods are typically quite hardy in this part of the world, but the ones we planted in the large bed at the front seemed to suffer for most of the gardening season. If they make it through the winter, they too may need to be moved in the spring. Rabbits, squirrels, groundhogs, possums and skunks have wreaked havoc on many of the plants in both front and back gardens. We’ll keep trying different tactics to combat their destruction.
Most importantly though, we had lots of fun working in the gardens and as always we’re looking forward to seeing it all pop up so the work can begin again.
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