Three projects

Having all this time to garden means doing more than the routine maintenance. No, new peaks must be scaled! Hence three projects, at least two of which will test my abilities.


The first is the expansion of the back corner, which was looking awfully bare after the forsythia was grubbed out a year or so ago. The current plan is to plant three oakleaf hydrangeas 'Alice' that should provide height and mass (plus three-season interest). (My sources claim they grow 10-15' in height and width, though their label claims only 8' - we'll see.) Then I'll underplant with hostas, spring bulbs, etc. Here is the project so far. And here are the plants waiting to be planted.






Second is a raised bed beside the cutting garden which will be a home to sun-loving annuals and vegetables. The very nice man at Home Depot assured me I could do this. Yes, but... Here is the lumber, and below is a picture of the raised bed frame, a bit cattywompus because I had to use screws and a drill instead of my sewing machine.



 

The third is putting up the trellis, which I did today with a little help from Alison as to moving and placing everything. At its feet are the cardinal climber vines, eager to clamber up the trellis. (Or is it an arbor?)

And the fourth of the three projects is to get rid of the grass underneath the viburnums. Newspaper and mulch on their way!

The Work I Did on my Gardening Vacation

So enough about the consuming. Here's what I accomplished.

Cleaned out the erstwhile vegetable/cutting garden, though not sure what will happen next. Before and after:
 
 

Grubbed out some of the forsythia along the back corner and planted the kerria.

 

Planted three autumn ferns bought at a church garden sale (heeding Martha's suggestion for the bare shrub border by the house):
 

Edged the front and back gardens, in the latter case using an uncharacteristically precise method:

 

And generally wished I'd had more time...

Vision and reality

"I want to have a year in the garden this year which is the opposite to 2008. I want to finish the year without feeling like I've bought loads of random plants from plant sales and then come home and stuck them in wherever. I want to feel like I've taken care of what's actually there, and not ached for it all to be totally different. And most of all I want to stop arranging my garden so that it needs more work than I ever have time to do, and ends up feeling like an evil, sulking presence in a corner of my mind."

So says Emma Townshend.

Actually, 2008 was not bad for me. But this spring, I've been worrying about all of the following:

Shouldn't I just root out all the forsythia along the back fence?

Was the akebia a mistake and should I have put in a climbing hydrangea after all (like Martha's, I say longingly)?

I've really got to do something about the front garden, because although it's looking better this spring, it is still nothing but HOLES.

What in the world should I do under the maple tree in front, where the BARE EARTH is showing between the wee patches of mulch?

When will I ever clean up the compost pile so that I could invite a gardener over and not be totally embarrassed?

And so on. I need to calm down and stop aching for it to be totally different.

Grubbing out

In yesterday's Post, Joel Lerner recommends cutting forsythia down to two feet to renew it. "They'll have long, flowing stems full of blooms next spring," he claims. Plus, if I decide to remove or greatly diminish this overgrown clump in the back corner, this should make it easier.


Here are the before and after pictures.

He also recommends digging up tulips because they don't reliably return, but then commands us to save them and re-plant in November. Seems way too hard to me, and why bother? I liked the Corps de Ballet collection from WFF, but I planted them too far apart and they're not listed as reblooming, so I may be bold and profligate and pull them up. I can always replant them in the cutting garden in case they make an effort to return next year.

Since we had a gentle rain yesterday (and it felt so cold in the house that I turned the heat on!), today should be a good day for digging weeds, moving bulbs, and whacking back the forsythia and azaleas.