Season Dos (2009)

The fall of 2008 was very unproductive compared to the spring. Most of it was spent trying to keep everything we had planted alive and trimming up many of the hedge apple trees around the perimeter of our house. Side note: if you buy a house with hedge trees be aware, they provide wonderful shade but also produce terrible suckers all year round - trimming is an annual chore. L We did manage to plant three 5 ft. tall Cleveland Ornamental Pears along the west side of the garage to help shade the driveway. Two years later, they haven’t grown much in width but they tower over me at 8 to 9 feet tall. I have heard many people groan when I tell them how much I love these trees especially when they reach maturity. I know they are not natives and they have weak wood and they are one of the higher allergen trees…but I also know that no tree is without its faults. There are many native, weak wooded, seed spreading trees out there that people rave about constantly. Also, pruning a tree while it matures (removing potentially weak branches) goes a long way in growing a healthy, long living specimen. Now, I’m sure in ten years when one of them splits in a high wind I will cry but today they are beautiful and I love them despite their faults J

Ice covered trees

            In the spring of 2009 (I believe it was early April) we had an ice storm. Unfortunately, this is not as uncommon as I would like it to be but it does reinforce the point that no matter how much I want to buy those early annuals at the local markets in March, planting anything before tax day is a terrible idea in my climate (zone 6). It did, however, allow me to take some pretty neat pictures.

NW corner of the property

            I did not get around to doing anymore landscaping until May when I began hacking away at the prairie grass on the north side of my property. As I have mentioned before, we purchased our lot because of the tree line, however, those trees became an issue when we went to put the backyard fence in for the dog. We could not put the fence on the actual property line because it ran right through the middle of the hedge row on both the east and north sides of our property. We also had to make sure when we did dig the posts for the fence that we avoided the roots of the trees so we wouldn’t kill the very things we loved. Along with the trees there were several other things we had to avoid - underground power lines, gas lines, etc. Eventually, we ended up placing the fence ten feet away from the property lines. This allowed plenty of room for the dog to run and (bonus) a 10’ X 90’ some odd swath to add more garden - a large garden that the dog couldn’t eat or dig up (double bonus). J



The finished product viewed from the back deck
(you can tell the dog is already trying to figure out how to get to it)!



A closer look - blue creeping phlox, fox glove, Miss Kim lilac, etc.

A view from the other side

The beautiful hostas were transplants from my mother-in-law and the daylilies came from my first home

This is what it looked like before I started!

            Later on in the summer, an engineer came to our door to inform us that a man-hole had been slated for our backyard. They were going to have to come out and tear up a section of our fence, sprinkler system, and yard to hook into the current sewers. We were devastated! We had just spent all that time and money and now it was going to be ripped apart. Fortunately, my husband was able to talk to the developer and have him change the plans to place the man hole in the undeveloped field behind our house. We had to lose three trees out of the NE corner of our tree line and one of our newly planted Arborvitaes but we decided it was the lesser of two evils. After they began excavation we were extremely happy with our choice. A man hole no bigger than 3 feet at ground level required a 12 foot diameter wide and deep hole  – they would have had to rip out one third of our yard! Man…be happy for the small blessings J



A beautiful double rainbow over the adjacent field (those are the trees we lost in the lower RH corner of the picture)



That could have been our backyard!

Spring is for Work! 2008

My first new garden ornament - Mr. Frog

The spring of ’08 was our first chance to put in some landscaping other than trees and grass. I had spent all winter drawing out different garden plans for multiple areas in the yard and it was time to see if any of my artistic creations could make it in reality – still life becomes real life! We decided to focus on the region around the front entryway because it was the smallest area and would provide the biggest immediate impact to the overall landscape. Plus, this was all the square footage we could afford to makeover at the time. Since this area was the first thing visitors would see when they came to call, I decided that a more traditional suburban landscape would be appropriate as well as the safest bet. Let’s face it – this was my first big planting project, we were dumping extra money in for mature flora and frankly I was just a bit nervous that I might kill everything. J The first hurdle we had to tackle was building the retaining walls. Our front yard sloped drastically to the east and the last thing I wanted to do was build mini dams around each plant to keep the water near the roots - besides no outdoor design is complete without some sort of hardscape. So my husband and I set out to build our first retaining wall and boy what a treat! (Hopefully the sarcasm was evident in that last sentence – lol). It took two full weekends, a dump truck worth of dirt, various levels, mallets, and other assorted tools, and more than a few scraped knuckles to finish. The stone wall was dry stacked at a slight angle back towards the house. Then it was lined with weed material and filled halfway up the walls with pea gravel to provide good drainage. I chose not to include drainage pipes in the bottom of the wall because the dry stacking allows for excess water to weep between the individual stones. At the time I remember thinking to myself “Man I hope those ‘How to’ directions on the internet were reliable,” but I’m proud to say three years later that wall hasn’t budged. It may not last 50 years but it’s definitely looking like its going to make it a decade or longer (knock on wood). After the erection of the wall it was just a matter of filling the area with dirt, buying and planting my garden design choices, and covering them all with mulch. We also put in drip lines that tie into the sprinkler system which is very handy during the long, hot summers. Here are a few pictures of the finished project (circa 2008):

Looking back at these pictures, it is amazing to me how much things can change over just a few growing seasons. I have since moved the creeping phlox that was next to the garage wall (it did not like all that shade) and replaced it with another Green Velvet Boxwood. The other area of creeping phlox around the Coral Bark Maple has quadrupled in size and spills over the retaining wall. In fact, almost every plant has grown remarkably more than I remembered. I never could get the Sky Pencil Holly to last for more than a year (I replanted new ones in 2009) so in the fall of 2010 I gave up and planted two Fine Line Buckthorns (Rhamnus frangula) instead. Now before anyone throws a fit, I am aware that some varieties of buckthorns are invasive however the Fine Line is supposed to be a much better behaved variety with little to no seed or fruit production. With that said I have no intention of ever planting them out near the perimeter of my property and if the ones near my foundation begin to behave badly I will tear them out of the yard without a moment’s notice (so let them be forewarned). J All in all I consider this first spring a success. There are still things about this area that I want to change – add a plant here, move another plant there... but with less than a 10 percent death rate I would say it was a good first attempt…now if only the rest of my yard could follow in the same fashion.

The First Planting Season – Fall 2007

Our first planting season did not bring much in the way of actual landscape or plants of any kind. The number one priority was keeping the dirt in the yard and out of the street. Bring on the lawn! Due to the HOA rules we did not have many options for turf. Grasses that grow from runners, such as Bermuda and Buffalo, are strictly forbidden in our neighborhood. (If only they would inform the prairie grass on the other side of my fence that it isn’t allowed perhaps it would behave a little better). J So we had two choices - fescue seed or fescue sod. Since we have a dog we decided sod was the better choice because neither one of us wanted to wait months before allowing the dog to walk around outside – after all it was her new house too! 

Having the sod laid was a real experience, never in my life had I seen anything like that – instant lawn in one day! Plus, because fescue is a cool season grass that requires more water, we also had the opportunity to put in a sprinkler system. I call it an ‘opportunity’ because I would probably cry if I really thought back and remembered what a pain it was setting up that system. I won’t even mention the constant monthly adjustments and multiple times we’ve had to fix/replace pieces and parts. And who can forget the fun of crawling around on our hands and knees every spring trying to find those reclusive sprinkler heads that somehow manage to get buried under six inches of grass and dirt over the winter – so much fun! (Sarcasm included).  Now don’t get me wrong –my sprinkler system does make my garden life more efficient (especially in the months of July and August) and because we have well water it allows me to water all of my landscape for a very economical price. But for some reason when I’m running around in the spring adjusting sprinkler heads, sopping wet, covered in mud, freezing my tail off…those positive aspects seem to escape me.



Preparing the hole for our first tree
(he always gets stuck with the hard jobs)



Along with the yard and the fence, we did manage to plant a couple of trees that fall. The first official plant in the ground was a 4ft tall Singleseed Contorted Hawthorne that we picked up at a local garden center for what I thought was a steal at 40 bucks. On a side note this was also the last time I purchased any plant during its dormant stage (as the sales guy called it). For when this poor tree leafed out in the spring it had such a bad case of blight the leaves all fell off within the first month! However, because I’m a sap for poor defenseless, sick plants I have been treating it for the past two years and am happy to announce that last year (its third year growing in my yard) it retained all of its leaves and even had pink flowers in the spring. Its leaves are still quite small and some continue to have spots but I still hold out hope that one day it will be the beautiful architectural piece I imagined when I first laid eyes on it. The other trees we planted that fall were five Arborvitaes (Thuja occidentalis ‘Emerald’) along the backyard perimeter. Since then two have died and been replaced, one was torn out by a backhoe (hazard of living in a developing neighborhood), and one had such a terrible case of bagworms last year that I wasn’t sure it was going to make it. (Not a great first season – lol – no wonder my husband thinks all I do is kill plants). Fortunately that bagworm infested tree did make it and three years later we are left with three nice looking, healthy Arborvitaes which have only grown about two inches in height but have almost doubled in width. J  



Singleseed Contorted Hawthorne



  

Emerald Arborvitae



The Beginning



A hedge row - the one asset to the property



A little more than three years ago my husband and I took on the experience of having a new house built for us. Although the highs and lows of that adventure could have easily been the topic of an entire blog all its own, one of the bonuses (for me) was the opportunity to start a brand new garden from scratch. I have always enjoyed gardens and landscape design even before I had ever read a single thing on the subject. Plants, trees, fields of grass – you name it – these have always been reasons for me to stop and take in the moment. I knew I was hooked after I potted my first series of perennials (an herb container garden) and managed not to kill a single one. Plus anyone who finds relaxation in weeding is destined to dig around in the dirt forever. There is just no way around it. So, after moving in to our new house I had my first opportunity to take a good look at this blank slate and to be perfectly honest I am not sure which emotion overwhelmed me first - excitement or fear! Apart from a lovely hedge row of half century old Osage-Orange trees on the east side of our property, the ground around the house was an amalgamation of clay, weeds, and multiple varieties of prairie grasses. Also, due to the pasture land next to the property and its 20-plus occupants, we had more than our share of cow patties to enjoy. Thankfully, my determination and naïve enthusiasm won over and slowly but surely every spring and fall has lead to the continued expansion of my first garden/landscape undertaking. 



Our new neighbors



Over the past three growing seasons I have been diligent about writing down everything I have planted (and everything I’ve killed) into a large plant journal which my husband has affectionately nicknamed “The Spell Book”. He says it is because I kill so many plants but I think it also has something to do with the fact that I “zone out” anytime I am in plant mode. This book combined with dozens of receipts, hundreds of photographs, and thousands of gardening articles have been spread over my house for far too long and has become an organizer’s nightmare. The goal of this blog is to bring some semblance of order to all of the information I have collected thus far and to recount many of the experiences I have already enjoyed before they leave my memory forever. It will also support my continued education of trial and error in this ever-growing, constantly changing, and seemingly never finished project. Of course, what gardener’s garden is ever really finished…