Memorial Day 2012

I was on vacation last week so I took some time to tackle a few large projects that had been looming for some time. Not everything is camera ready just yet, but a here is one of my finished projects...

BEFORE:

2011

AFTER: 

2012

When we cut down the old chestnut tree that used to be in the center of the drive there was a big uneven spot that was difficult to grow anything in because the tree guys couldn't really grind out all of the stump due to the driveway being in the way. Last year I planted up some lavender in pots and placed those on concrete pavers. During the summer I had my solar fountain up in the center on a column built out of pavers and regular concrete block. Over the winter I pack up the fountain and put out a potted spruce tree. By this spring the lavender had overgrown the pots and was to the point where it needed to be watered every single day. I also decided that I wanted something a bit more substantial and I was tired of dealing with the grass/weed mess. 

I decided to use the last of my reclaimed wall block to build a circular planter around the block plinth so that I could create a raised bed. That would eliminate the issue with not being able to dig into the ground because of the tree roots, and also be visually a bit more appealing since this is one of the first areas that you see pulling into the driveway. I leveled out the area, filled with garden soil, and planted the lavender. It isn't quite full enough to fill in the circle just yet, so I also planted some beautiful blue delphiniums in between. Unfortunately the fountain pump was busted when I went to put the fountain out, so for now the spruce is staying out there. Overall, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

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Vacation Progress

Having spent most of my Spring vacation tucked away in a basement... (don't ask :-) I did manage to get in two glorious days of digging and planting. Mostly I worked on the foundation plantings since we started with a mess that took most of last year to tame. I needed to get in some shrubs that will eventually fill in and give some structure to the beds.

As a reminder... this is what things looked like a year ago when we bought the house:

 Then we got to this early last year after the trees were removed:

.

And after a bit more progress in July of 2011:

And now a few shots from this week's progress:

 LEFT: View from the front walk showing the new veggie garden beds. Went with a rose standard in the center pot for now. The blue pots will be ornamental peppers and nasturtiums once the weather warms a tad!  Hard to see in this photo but I added some bright red azaleas in the main bed right under the planter boxes. They should really pop in ta few years. RIGHT: The front entrance. Sadly only one of the evergreen standards survived the winter/remodel... I replaced them with two holly bushes which will be a bit more forgiving of the lack of sunlight in the winter. Eventually I'll trim them up in a formal cone shape. They need to settle in first. All of the mums and pansies in the pots are still going from last year! I also planted two pieris bushes right behind the planters which are small now but will eventually fill in on either side of the steps.

East Side Bed

This bed (ABOVE) is where the little veggie garden was last year. The only repeat here is the very happy hosta. Everything else is newly planted including a butterfly bush and three day lily clumps from my buddy Marc. I also planted in a few Bleeding Hearts which I love. 

 This is the new bed that I made last year with the blocks from Dan and Jo on the west side of the front. It was completely empty past year except for the rose and a false indigo bush (not up yet!). On this side I planted two purple rhododendrons, a pieris, three columbines, three day lily clumps (from Marc), and one of my baby lilacs that I propagated from  root divisions last fall. I also used some of the left overs from this year's tree removal project to make some stepping "stones" into the bed so I can tend to the climbing rose. I think they look pretty nice. 

I also planted a few additional plants in the East side shade garden outside of the library:

This bed is filling up delightfully! I added three foam flowers, and three hellebore plants (aka Lenten rose). I have some coral bells still growing in the basement and will get those out there too in the next month or two! 

I also replanted the planters on the pedestals since I use annuals there:

NOT pictured but also accomplished.... I finished the trench to bring the water line and future power line from the veggie beds to the house. Hopefully I'll finish the water connections this week so the watering will be a bit easier (especially now that I can't drag the hose through the empty east side bed... I also planted two tree peonies and 4 mungo pines to spruce up the area right inside the front gate. What you might be able to see is I also took the time to label nearly everything in the foundation beds so that I know what/where they are and of course so that visitors know too! I've used 100+ labels just in the foundation beds!!! 

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Recent Progress

Just realized that it has been more than a month since my last post.... In addition to some out of town travel, things have been pretty busy around the house. We're getting into some of the LARGER and more long-term outdoor projects at the moment, which means that the progress isn't as fast and quick to come as some of the early wins, but the pay-off's will be pretty good in the long term! Here's a quick look at a few of the more recent outdoor projects:

Astilbe near the back walk

The first "new planting bed" that I managed to complete was this tiny patch next to the sidewalk heading around to the back door. As you can see, it isn't a huge space, but had completely been taken over by weeds. It doesn't get much sun and stays fairly damp, so I figured it would be an excellent spot for some astilbe. I had originally thought about doing some hostas here, but the space was so narrow that I was concerned that they'd end up just flopping out all over the sidewalk. These three grand dames were snapped up on clearance at Lowes and are very happy in their new local!

"Temporary" veggie garden

This decision met with some raised eyebrows from Jason, who wasn't sure how he felt about having veggies planted right out in the front yard. I assured him that this arrangement was just to get us through the current season since right now we lack any other suitable location. I didn't exactly have time to lay out and dig beds for an entire garden, and I wanted to have at least a few peppers and tomatoes this year. Lacking the cash-flow to actually complete landscaping of the front bed I decided that the best plan would be to temporarily put the veggies out there so it wasn't just a bare mulch spot for the whole summer. I managed to fit in a few tomato plants, a few peppers, and a cucumber, zucchini, and some herbs. (The GIANT hosta was already there and I didn't really want to move him until I know exactly what is going to be happening out here long term!)

East side shade garden

The third project was a general clean-up of the shade garden just off the parking area on the east side of the house. Again, it was mostly overgrown and run down after years of neglect. We also have a very bad drainage problem where all of the water off of the parking area ran right into this bed. Consequently the mulch (if there ever was any) from the bed had been washed away a long time ago and things were looking a bit ratty! I solved that problem by using some pot hole repair cold patch to build a small berm around the perimeter of the bed so that the water now runs down into the lawn without flowing through the bed. You can probably see it better if you click through to the full size photo.

The only other update here was the planting of my formerly potted hydrangea n the front center of the photo above. She's been in a pot for the better part of three years, so I'm hoping she likes her new permanent home! All of the other plants were already here, so mostly all I did was get rid of the weeds and then put down a nice thick layer or mulch. I'm going to be adding to this area eventually, but for now at least it cleans up the appearance of the side of the house.

You'll notice in the two later photos the pots up on the concrete plinths. I placed one of these on each side of the side entrance to sort of form the entrance way. The bases were found on the property. They're concrete and at one time were actually outdoor light fixtures of some sort. (There are a few other discarded ones yet to be excavated from the woods.) I thought it was a pretty clever way to reuse them with a bit of flair.

I've got a couple of other projects to share, but unfortunitely I had a slight file transfer malfunction, so I'll have to re-shoot a few pictures and share those later!

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Simple Beginings

Where to start? That's the question that's facing me at just about EVERY turn around here... The answer is never easy... it depends so much on the weather, my mood, the budget, the inspiration, and so many other factors. When it comes to the garden though it's pretty clear that the focus this year has to be on working through a decade or more of deferred maintenance and overgrown untended landscaping.

Using that as a jumping off point I'm starting at the very front of the property and working back from there. My initial project (posted last week) the pond was suspended temporarily due to the fact that I ended up with a NASTY case of poison ivy. Since there's poison almost EVERYWHERE I decided that I wouldn't press my luck and I'll wait until this clears up before I attempt more work over there. I shifted focus to restoring some of the damage done by the trucks and equipment used to remove the big trees. Part of that means rehabbing the front lawn and bringing some definition to the front planting beds.

Left side of the porch from the front walk.

The most immediate need was to create some definition between the planting beds where the ferns are popping up with a vengeance, and the lawn on the left side of the walk. The ferns were growing out way into the yard so those were cut back, but the lawn itself was pretty torn up by all of the traffic. I decided to install a mowing strip of concrete pavers salvaged from elsewhere on the property to create a break between the yard and planting beds. While the house is very boxy and square, I decided to go with a curved bed which will extend from the front walk around to the side walk.

View from east side.

I started from the east side installing the pavers and loosening and leveling the soil which had been very compacted and rutted out. I finished about the first quarter or so and managed to get grass planted back in the adjoining section of the yard.  Once the pavers are in and the yard is totally back in shape I'll work on cleaning out the beds. For this year all I may get done is getting rid of the ivy and mulching, but we'll see!

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