Garden update
Apr. 16th, 2006 09:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyjadwigaI've had a long history of finding myself gardening in places where previous gardening/landscaping efforts have run wild. My mom's house had been intensively landscaped by the last owners but one before we moved in, and two years of medical emergencies after we moved in left a place that needed work. Most recently, my place in A-town had been gardened by a wild variety of people, all of whom planted stuff which my landlord tried desperately to control with clearcutting. (It didn't work.)
S&J's place has a nice yard, and they had done a bit of gardening in a small bricked off area on the east side of the yard, against the fence with the neighbor's property. There are some raspberry canes and some 3-year old strawberry plants left there. We put in a sage plant last fall, and also put in 2 lavender bushes we brought from my Grandmother's old house, all in that spot; along with a lemon balm plant I brought from somewhere. They were concerned that there was no full sun, but there was plenty of half-sun because of the house orientation on the street.
A couple of weeks ago, I cleared out the proto-border near the neighbor's house, which can only be used for non-edible plants because of the termite control embedded in it, but it still is a nice spot that gets about 4-6 hours of sun. I'd put in 8 pansy plants, Rue, Wormwood, Ladies' Bedstraw; I also added some costmary this weekend. I'd put in Catmint (nepeta) and 4 red leaf lettuces in the bed along the fence, and cleared out most of the junk in that bed.
So, this weekend we moved a bunch of the strawberry plants to an old basket filled with soil (since we couldn't bear to throw them away). We put in the first nasturtium (we will have to cover it if we get a frost), winter savory, and one or two other herbs in that bed.
We bought a whole bunch of vegetable seeds from Nichol's seed company, mostly root crops and salad crops, and needed a place to put them in. Once upon a time there was a pond in the backyard, with a mulberry tree near it; J&S tried to take out the pond but it's very reinforced concrete and a lot of jackhammering hasn't reduced it to dust yet. The mulberry tree went down in a big storm a couple of years ago, yielding a large pile of wood, and a very uneven area where the roots partly came up. The woodpile was on the far side of the ex-pond; this weekend we moved it to cover up the uneven area. Under the old pile was an area of rich, black dirt cleared of all vegetation. We dug that up to be the new vegetable garden. Already, we've planted 6 brussels sprouts plants and 6 'Bright lights' swiss chard plants as well as a few rows of beet seeds, a section of mesclun, and a row of radishes ('Easter Egg').
Juergen got Sarah a hydrangea (blue) for their anniversary, but it had already a hunting accident with Cat Cheney in the kitchen, and she wanted to get it in the soil outside as soon as possible. A quick look at the requirements of hydrangeas showed that it likes morning sun and afternoon shade, perfect for the overgrown border beds along the back porch. These beds were covered with some kind of variegated ground cover with the strength of purpose and invasiveness of Jehovah's witnesses. Juergen, Sarah and I cleared about 4 feet of the bed, unearthing a lot of brick edging (which we promptly moved to the vegetable garden) and a mysterious pipe, probably a laundry pole base. After a little digging, we gave up on removing the pole and put the hydrangea in next to it.
This morning, fueled by family holiday aftereffects, Sarah and I removed all the rest of the nasty ground cover (about 3 bushels, and 5-6 major rootstocks) and took it to the leaf dump at the end of the road. Yay! more plants will go in there soon. I am thinking parsley, perhaps some salad fixings, and basil, all of which will be most convenient right by the back door.
Oh yes, and most of the yard got raked, and I wielded our new long-handled pruners with wild abandon against the various weed trees popping up around the yards... Lots of good work.
S&J's place has a nice yard, and they had done a bit of gardening in a small bricked off area on the east side of the yard, against the fence with the neighbor's property. There are some raspberry canes and some 3-year old strawberry plants left there. We put in a sage plant last fall, and also put in 2 lavender bushes we brought from my Grandmother's old house, all in that spot; along with a lemon balm plant I brought from somewhere. They were concerned that there was no full sun, but there was plenty of half-sun because of the house orientation on the street.
A couple of weeks ago, I cleared out the proto-border near the neighbor's house, which can only be used for non-edible plants because of the termite control embedded in it, but it still is a nice spot that gets about 4-6 hours of sun. I'd put in 8 pansy plants, Rue, Wormwood, Ladies' Bedstraw; I also added some costmary this weekend. I'd put in Catmint (nepeta) and 4 red leaf lettuces in the bed along the fence, and cleared out most of the junk in that bed.
So, this weekend we moved a bunch of the strawberry plants to an old basket filled with soil (since we couldn't bear to throw them away). We put in the first nasturtium (we will have to cover it if we get a frost), winter savory, and one or two other herbs in that bed.
We bought a whole bunch of vegetable seeds from Nichol's seed company, mostly root crops and salad crops, and needed a place to put them in. Once upon a time there was a pond in the backyard, with a mulberry tree near it; J&S tried to take out the pond but it's very reinforced concrete and a lot of jackhammering hasn't reduced it to dust yet. The mulberry tree went down in a big storm a couple of years ago, yielding a large pile of wood, and a very uneven area where the roots partly came up. The woodpile was on the far side of the ex-pond; this weekend we moved it to cover up the uneven area. Under the old pile was an area of rich, black dirt cleared of all vegetation. We dug that up to be the new vegetable garden. Already, we've planted 6 brussels sprouts plants and 6 'Bright lights' swiss chard plants as well as a few rows of beet seeds, a section of mesclun, and a row of radishes ('Easter Egg').
Juergen got Sarah a hydrangea (blue) for their anniversary, but it had already a hunting accident with Cat Cheney in the kitchen, and she wanted to get it in the soil outside as soon as possible. A quick look at the requirements of hydrangeas showed that it likes morning sun and afternoon shade, perfect for the overgrown border beds along the back porch. These beds were covered with some kind of variegated ground cover with the strength of purpose and invasiveness of Jehovah's witnesses. Juergen, Sarah and I cleared about 4 feet of the bed, unearthing a lot of brick edging (which we promptly moved to the vegetable garden) and a mysterious pipe, probably a laundry pole base. After a little digging, we gave up on removing the pole and put the hydrangea in next to it.
This morning, fueled by family holiday aftereffects, Sarah and I removed all the rest of the nasty ground cover (about 3 bushels, and 5-6 major rootstocks) and took it to the leaf dump at the end of the road. Yay! more plants will go in there soon. I am thinking parsley, perhaps some salad fixings, and basil, all of which will be most convenient right by the back door.
Oh yes, and most of the yard got raked, and I wielded our new long-handled pruners with wild abandon against the various weed trees popping up around the yards... Lots of good work.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 03:18 am (UTC)That was an heroic effort, clearing that spot.
oops
Date: 2006-04-17 04:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 04:14 am (UTC)You know how to move rasperry canes right? Probably should do it this fall.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 03:50 pm (UTC)J and I are way behind you, probably always will be. Her main focus so far this spring has been trimming old hedges - mostly forsythia. I am trying to organize and clean up our back porch so it can be more of a living space and less of a landing pad for tools and junk. We put in a couple of new strawberry plants in my proto-strawberry bed. But otherwise no crop gardening at all. *sigh* We're pretty lame gardeners in the final analysis.