Thursday Takes

I've been updating garden progress periodically as it evolves ever so slowly. We have completed another little job — lining the inside of the driveway border with stones ↑↑. We've also added two Chrysanthemums (as you can see) and two little Daylilies (which you probably can't see). I was hoping to do some renovation in the centre garden last weekend, but I was down with a cold. Given the time of year, I think I'll just make a few notes now and wait for the spring.

School is in. The neighbours with little children gather at the bus stop across the street; everyone stands around in a loose circle. I think it's cute, so I took this picture from my window. ↓↓




Since we had yesterday off from our babysitting gig, we took a little walk in the park after sitting and munching on fries/chips from the chip truck. Since I met our mayor at the truck and compared our chip-enhanced tummies, I have decided to vote for him in the upcoming election. To the point: the walk goes past the local high school and kids were our playing lacrosse in gym class. ↑↑

Further along, a little motor boat passed up and a lady and her dog walking on the other bank. ↓↓




Finally, I thought these geese ↑↑ were kind of framed nicely through these diverging tree trunks. Too bad they weren't interested in posing nicely and were already on the move. Because they were so anxious to be off, I wasn't able to get their names or to have them sign a consent form to allow me to post this. So, I am presuming.

Garden Stuff

I went out to do some dead-heading and found bees swarming my Monarda aka Bee Balm. Why bees would be interested in Bee Balm, I have no idea. If you check out the big version of the photos (hint hint), you can see Miss Bee holding onto the petal above its body with one leg. Her missiness is quite sharp and in focus in the large version.



The last plant to bloom in our garden is also the prettiest. This is the After Eight lily (so much like the famous Stargazer that I'm not sure what the difference is) at three different lengths of close-upedness. What beauties!





Finally for today: when I posted the picture of the weed growing out of the tiny hole in the bag of soil last week, I should have posted these two following pics as well. In that post, I think it was Kila who quoted a line from Jurassic Park. "Life finds a way," is how the quote went, I think.

Now look at the daylilies trying to grow in this bed ↓↓. They are of the common orange variety, and, me not much liking them, I dug them out earlier this year. "Not so fast AC: we're coming back." There's got to be the best part of a dozen little daylily plants striving to return to my garden and thwart me.



Then there is the maple tree, that we had cut down two years ago, in the other corner of the backyard, . It also refuses to give it up and keeps sending up branches. We've cut branches two or three times already, but they keep coming back (red leaves behind the geranium).



Indeed: life will find a way.

Instant Garden

A few fine folk among you have expressed interest in my garden-making technique. I make no claims except to say that has worked for me. I hasten to add that I didn't invent the method, so it, therefore, has some credibility.

I had no interest in gardening until about ten years ago. It's like I woke up one morning, just past the age of fifty, and out of the blue decided that I needed to plant a perennial garden. So ...

... in the typical exuberance of a fresh but naive convert, I went all out to prepare that first flower bed, even to the extent of double-digging. In other words, I dug up the surface soil, put it to one side, and then dug up the subsoil. If memory serves, I discarded the subsoil and replaced it with the former surface soil before adding new topsoil. That was total dedication, which I plan to never repeat, I hasten to add.

Ever since then, I've taken the lazy way. It is so simple that I hardly need to outline the steps, but here goes.

1. Outline the area that you will make into a flower bed and cut the grass if necessary.
   
   
   

   Outline the flower bed


2. Wet the newspapers down (see notes 1 and 2, below) and cover the grass to a thickness of about a half dozen sheets, give or take.
   
   
   

   Cover with newspaper
   
   
3. Cover the newspaper with 4 to 6 inches of soil — the thicker the merrier, but when there is much to cover, I'm satisfied with the lesser amount (see note 3, below). If you do not need to raise the bed, such as I must do due to bedrock, I don't see why you couldn't make do with a thinner covering.
   
   
   

   I spread 4 to 6 inches of soil on top of the newspaper
   
   
4. Dig the required number of planting holes. Unless you are planting annuals, you will probably dig deeper than the newspaper, so make sure to remove the sod from those spots. While it might seem counterproductive to dig up the freshly laid paper, remember that you are digging a limited number of holes, which definitely beats having to dig up all of the sod. (see note 4, below)
   
   
   

   I remove sod from the bottom of the planting hole


5. Lay mulch. Use natural cedar or the like. The dyed mixes like red, which are attractive to begin with, soon start to fade and lose their color, so you may as well begin with the natural look.
   

Presto! You have a complete garden. While I did the job in bits and pieces over several days, with proper planning you can amaze your neighbours by creating a fine looking garden replete with plants in a matter of hours.

Doing this job later in the season rather than early in spring, I was able to purchase everything on sale — soil, mulch, and plants — and complete this fair-sized flower bed for about a hundred dollars. While that sounds like a lot in a way, consider that I put in 18 bags of soil, 3 bags of mulch, 9 perennials (some a good size), and and 5 annuals. To me that seems to be a fairly reasonable amount for a garden that endure for a long time.

Based on previous results, this method works because that's what I did last year to produce the happy garden that you have seen in various, recent blog photos.

This year's garden from last year's planting using this method

I hesitate to show the finished product because I absolutely detest the mulch. I've never seen the like. Next year, I will cover it with a thin layer of nicer looking stuff — if I can wait that long.

Grrrr! What awful mulch!

Notes

1. You could use landscaping cloth, but I just use newspapers that I already have lying around.
2. While it's possible to lay dry newspaper, the wet stuff will be more malleable and less prone to being blown about. It's just easier to work with.
3. In my case I used bags of garden soil. In the past I haven't had much luck getting large quantities of dirt trucked in, for I have found it weedy. Your experience may be different, and if you have a large area to cover it will likely be cheaper and easier to truck it in. Also note that it may not be necessary to apply the best soil over the whole bed — see next note.
4. Within reason, dig the planting holes deep and wide and backfill with a good grade of soil. As long as the planting holes are well nourished with fertile soil, it may not be necessary to lay the more expensive garden soil over the whole flower bed. I did in this instance, but it's your choice.
   

An Echinacea for your viewing pleasure: just because I can.

Progress

As the world turned, Friday, July 09 2010 was a unique and productive day of babysitting.

It began by taking Nikki Dee and her festooned bike to daycare for Bike Day. ↓↓



And continued with an impromptu breakfast at the local breakfastery. ↓↓



It was our first time to have Zach out by himself for such an occasion, and he seemed pleased with the undivided attention. ↓↓



For another first, we brought him to our place for his nap, during which we were able to continue our garden addition. You will recall that the bordering rocks were laid down a few weeks ago, but things really got cracking yesterday. We outlined the inside border with pound-in-edging. That being done, I stopped to read the paper. ↓↓



That bit about reading the paper was just a little joke. Very little. What I was planning to do was to lay the paper over the grass as a vegetation barrier before topping it with soil. First we wet the papers. ↓↓



Then we lay them. ↓↓



Ahem. Are we done laying papers yet, AC? ↓↓



Finally done with the blasted paper, BAC (Bald Anvilcloud) poured the soil: twelve bags in all. ↓↓



Unfortunately, we were running out of bags, time and weather before we could finish the job. ↓↓



In this last photo ↓↓, the last three bags were about be be dumped after which it was time to call it a day. We had run out of soil; it was beginning to rain; and, Zach was getting ready to get up and rumble.



Despite not quite finishing the job, it was great to finally make such progress with this vision that has been in our minds for more than a year now. With any luck, part of which will be if I and my back can still move after yesterday's exertion, we'll finish the job today.

How Does Your Garden Grow ii

It grows pretty well with lots of room for improvement. There will be adding and subtracting of plants as the seasons come and go, but it's a whole lot better than it used to be.

The Shasta Daisies are in full bloom. This cultivar resembles Chrysanthemums more than the traditional shasta look with the yellow centers. The two plants are related, but I think I prefer the varieties of shastas with the yellow centers. ↓↓



The Echinacea plants are thriving, and they are loaded with buds, but we don't have very many blooms yet. ↓↓



Beginning with the blue Campanulas (bellflowers) at the top left which are almost done and moving clockwise, we have purple, dwarf Monarda (bee balm). In the years since I last gardened or bought plants, a number of dwarfs seem to have been developed in various plants. I am currently coveting some dwarf phlox, but I'll have to find a spot for them first. ↓↓

Continuing our interrupted tour, there are some Platycodon (balloon flowers) at the top right and some white Veronica (speedwell) to the bottom right. Finally, there is fever few at the bottom left. ↓↓




I guess the balloon flowers are okay ↑↑, but I think I prefer the blue ones from my last garden to this muted pink. And these variety of Platycodon plants (tall spindly ones in the next photo) aren't my faves either. I think these will have to be moved or disposed of at some point. The Echinaceas and Shastas are in the background of this shot, ↓↓ and the little pink flowers here and there are annuals — geraniums. They certainly are helping to fill in the sparse spots until we are able to fill in the gaps with perennials as time goes by.



The traditional bed of impatiens directly in front of the porch is coming along nicely. ↓↓



And this is how the garden looks from my den window. The Echinaceas are in the foreground, and you can see how well the plants are doing but how few blooms there are right now. ↓↓

Fathers Day Diligence

Fathers Day weekend found me with rocks in my head as usual hands. ↑↑ I was laying them along the side of the driveway for part 2 of our garden makeover, the idea being that those rocks will form one border of what's going to be our garden border in an area that resist growing grass and even clover.

Rock is in abundance here, very close to the surface as a matter of fact. Therefore, around these parts, most people bring in soil and raise the garden beds in an effort to give the pants a little soil to grow in. I've chosen the abundant rock resource to act as a bit of a retaining wall for the soil that will eventually be dumped here. You see how I've tried to leave the rocks at driveway level on one side (so I'm not running into them when shovelling snow in winter) but tilted them upward on what will be the garden side (to help retain the soil in place). ↓↓





It sounds and seems pretty easy, but it was a little harder than what one might think. This was especially true as I was trying to make the edges to more or less fit one one side, even though I wasn't actually abutting the rocks. ↑↑

Not that I'm trying to make myself sound like either a hero or a martyr (well, maybe just a little bit), but I am prone to head rushes whenever I stand up from a bent position, and there was much bending and standing involved with each and every rock. Let me confess that I was very glad of having Harriet the Chariot to lean on whilst the dizziness subsided. ↓↓





Once the rocks were laid, it was time to fill the cracks with soil ↑↑ and then to spread mulch over the edges. ↓↓



It doesn't look so bad, especially when you consider that part of the reason for making this garden is to get rid of the patch along the driveway where neither grass nor clover want to grow properly. Although the grass doesn't seem too bad right now, as soon as it gets hot and dry, it turns colour along that patch even when the rest of the lawn looks lush and green. And when the garden at the opt of the photo where I am standing ↓↓ is extended, I think it will be a very big improvement.



So, that's the story of my ridiculously enterprising and toilsome Fathers Day weekend. Now, I will wait for the nurseries to cut their spring prices , so I can purchase soil at a semi reasonable cost. I'm not sure if I will even get around to planting this year, but if not it will be ready to go come next spring. I'm not in a big hurry; I just want to make progress.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

For those of you who have been around for awhile, the answer (see title) is: not all that well, not in terms of blooms anyway. The spring flowers are gone, and the shastas, lilies and echinacea aren't blooming yet, so I can't show you much colour. The plants look fine, but the blooms (shastas and echinacea) will take another week or so to develop. To boot: the annuals still haven't taken off. They remain thin and close to the ground.



The only thing really in bloom is the campanula (bellflower) ↑↓and at that only one plant of the three that I put in last year. The next door dog destroyed one, and the other is there in shrunken form because I pruned it too hard. It should be fine eventually, but it will remain shrimpish this year, I'm afraid. I don't love the campanula plant, perhaps because it doubles as a weed in these parts, but it produces a fairly nice display of blue blooms.



The backyard is not our priority yet, but the bird feeder and geranium look alright together, don't you think? ↓↓



The birdbath, which is actually getting some use this year, is adjacent to the feeder and flower. It's a pity that the grackles sort of ruin the bathing and feeding party for all of the other birds. I know they have to eat too, but they behave like motherless teenage boys, I'm affeerd. ↓↓



The best bloomer right now is our Silk Lilac tree although it's fading fast too. ↓↓



There are some other rather untended plants in the backyard like the shrivelled and fallen peonies. Seriously, why do people bother with peonies? They fall over as soon as they bloom and only last for about twelve minutes before they fade. We also have some fairly wild dame's rockets, whatever their proper names might be. The plan is to really clean this stuff out at some point, but the front remains the priority for now. ↓↓



Perhaps, we'll have something better to post in another week or two, but it is a work in progress, the emphasis being on work and not progress, doncha know.