We moved into our house in August 2006. We being my mom, dad, my son and myself. (Strange living situation I know, but that’s a story for another time.)

There were gardens here, but they had been pretty much ignored and the plants, shrubs and trees within those gardens had been left to fend for themselves. Mom and I spent much of last summer trying to shape things up. Through ruthless trimming, the removal of ancient shrubs, and new shrub and perennial additions, we are finally making some headway.

continue reading "Front Yard Makeover"

Visualizing a new landscape plan is easier than you thought. Anyone who has a digital camera and a Windows Operating System has what it takes to redesign his/her landscape without landscape design software.

I’ve taken a lot of pictures of the gardens at the farm (Neglected Garden Gone Wild and Garden Gone Wild - Back From the Edge) and in a burst of creativity, stitched some photos together to get a full view. Then, using the Windows Paint program I made modifications to the stitched photo - removing/erasing undesirable items from the picture and painting/drawing in a new landscape which includes plants, trees, rocks and architectural features.

These are my before and after pictures.

continue reading "How to Re-Design Your Landscape Without Landscape Design Software"

Most of the work last summer at the Garden Gone Wild was maintenance - trimming as required, pulling weeds when they popped up, watering, and periodic re-edging. I worked away at this maintenance while I
was at the farm. When I returned home, my mind would keep working. There are two large areas around the house that have basically been lying in wait. Waiting for what, I’m not exactly sure, but seeing their emptiness time after time sparked my imagination and started the creative juices flowing. Different landscaping ideas would float in and out of my head.

continue reading "Garden Gone Wild - Virtual Landscape Makeover"

For those looking to purchase a new garden shed, here are some modern shed pictures. It’s not hard to tell that my latest issue of Dwell has arrived! My mind is full of thoughts on how I could use a funky little modern shed in my backyard……a private sanctuary, a real office or studio, and of course for storing garden tools and other miscellaneous garden paraphernalia.

For the background on this project, please refer to:

Garden Makeover - Maintenance-Free & Drought Tolerant?
Part 2 - The Landscape Plan
and
Part 3 - The Planting.

After positioning and planting all of the plant items in D & J’s front bed and realizing that something was missing, I went back to the shrub search at Selecting Shrubs for Your Home by University of Illinois Extension. J wanted something different from what we’d already planted - something with a bit of color. Our soil conditions had improved with the addition of the mulch, so with that in mind, I entered our new specifications into the search fields.

continue reading "Garden Makeover - Maintenance-Free & Drought Tolerant? - The End Result"

Don’t forget to check out the first parts of this series, Garden Makeover - Maintenance-Free & Drought Tolerant? and Part 2 - The Landscape Plan.

They’re baaaack! The happy wanderers finally returned from vacation. It was about time because I was itching to go shopping I mean get moving on their front garden. I had checked stock and prices at my local garden center and both were looking good. They had pyramidal yews for $40. I called J to give her the good news and she gave me the go ahead to pick up the yew. Hooray! The day before my next trip to D & J’s, I went to the garden center to make my purchase. There was just one tiny problem…..I didn’t stop at the pyramidal yew. You know how hard it is to stop shopping at the garden center! When all was said and done, I went home with the following:

2 Yews (1 pyramidal, 1 low and mounded)
2 Threadleaf Cypress
2 Russian Sage
2 White Coneflowers
3 Euonymous
2 White Speedwells

Oops, a couple more than originally planned. You’ve heard of a bed-in-a-bag? Everything you need for making up your bed - sheets, pillow cases, comforter - comes in one bag. Well, this kind of follows the same logic. Everything J needed (and more) for her front garden bed was coming in one car! Rather than phone ahead with this interesting bit of news, I sent her an email, asked her if she was sitting down, then proceeded to give her a little advanced warning of what to expect and stressed that everything was low maintenance and drought-tolerant. Yes, I was too scared to call. But hey, anything she didn’t want, I figured I’d simply bring home again and plant in my own garden, somewhere. It was all on sale and I was gambling on the hope that after all this time, all J really wanted was to have it done. I could justify almost anything. Can you believe all of those items only came to $180. As I always say, I couldn’t afford not to buy it!

I arrived at D and J’s early the following afternoon with the garden bed-in-a-car. The parentals were there, so I knew I’d have help with the planting. We unloaded the car and started setting things in different places in the bed to get an idea of how they would look. After rearranging a few times we had it figured out. J went off to Humber Nurseries to pick up more mulch and my mom and I got to work on the garden bed. The dogwoods would stay put along with an emerald gaiety euonymous and the lilies. We dug up the bleeding hearts that J wanted to keep and replanted them in new spots, removed some ornamental grass that wouldn’t be staying, then began planting some of the new guys. In went the Yews, the Russian Sage, the Threadleaf Cypress, and the Speedwells. We made sure to leave room to put back some of the lilies that I had removed previously. While D and J were away on holidays, I had discovered another emerald gaiety euonymous hiding behind the house. It was brought around front and planted too. Repetition in the garden is a good thing. Ooooh, it was really taking shape!

The final step in this garden makeover was to top up the mulch. We all stood back to admire the results of our planting prowess. Something was missing. It wasn’t the white coneflowers or the sarcoxie euonymous - we’d planted them around the side in the temporary bed - no, what was needed was something more significant. Time to review the results of the shrub search that was discussed in Part 2 - The Landscape Plan. It was also time for me to leave and pick up my boy. Stay tuned - the final, final step is yet to come.

This is the continuing story of my sister-in-law, J, and her dream of a maintenance-free front garden. Just so you’re up to speed, you’ll want to read the first installment, Garden Makeover - Maintenance-Free & Drought Tolerant?.

When we last left you, we were discussing the issues surrounding D & J’s front flower bed/garden. Yes, those evil and unavoidable issues:

• Maintenance
• Drought
• Exposure

The landscape fabric and mulch that J and I had put down in the garden was doing the trick of keeping weeds away and trying valiantly to retain what little moisture we’d received from rain.

The garden looked okay, just bare. I’d been back between then and now to trim the dogwoods again, but this time I was on a mission - try to come up with a landscape plan for the front bed that would satisfy the specific requirements listed and above all else, put smiles on the faces of D & J.

As a result of various discussions we knew we wanted to include plants with different shapes and growing habits for variety, as well as shrubs that would have visual appeal throughout the year. The dogwoods that are currently in place, are fully covered in variegated leaves throughout the summer, and in the winter the branches are bright red. These are definite keepers. So what about something evergreen? J has made it clear that she does not want another juniper, but she does like yews. Perfect - these are available in various shapes and sizes, and they are slow growers which minimizes maintenance. Besides the dogwoods, J wants to keep the bleeding hearts, lilies and emerald gaiety euonymous from her original garden. Excellent - these fall into both the drought-tolerant and sun-loving categories.

While searching for shrub ideas I happened across an awesome website - Selecting Shrubs for Your Home by University of Illinois Extension. I went into the section titled Search Shrubs, entered the parameters which matched the conditions of D & J’s garden and the shrub qualities we desired, then clicked ’search’. It came back with a list of shrubs that matched our specifications. It was a terrific resource and time-saver. Money-saver too, since it prevented me from having to go out and purchase more gardening books. Isn’t technology wonderful?!

A plan is starting to come together. Now if we could get past this never-ending dry spell and D & J would hurry up and come home from their vacation, we might be able to make some actual progress!

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!