#fountainproject

[nncastle]

My garden is so full of joy! I love it.

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The ambassador alliums are really making me happy. I planted these last fall.

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This morning the dew is clinging to the spiderwebs between the cedars and the air is perfumed with the scent of autumn. From where I'm sitting I can count six frogs. There is nothing quite like the pleasure I derive from my garden. 

I take a lot of pictures to remember this lushness through the barren winter, but very few shots capture the magic. I do try.

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The seedlings have grown and many of the annuals have begun to flower. The long walk is looking good.

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The long path is making awesome progress. I’ve been spending a lot of time planting, weeding, and watering. My husband had a great idea to add metal edges to keep the mulch in. The edges will make it easier to mow and they give the space a very clean, sharp look. The flowers I planted from seed are all coming up. I’m very happy with the idea so far. 

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Long Walk, Long Update

The work on the long walk continues! Ahh, will it ever end!?? 

Someone said to me that this is looking like some weird golf putting area sans flags, but their comment comes from a lack of gardening imagination and a severe underestimation of how much work this is. 

Allow me to explain what's going on here.

Last year we moved a lot of dirt to create this area. We graded the hill and completely reshaped this space. The only constant was the pond and the fountain. The imported dirt grew weeds, lots of them which swallowed all the wildflower seeds I put down resulting in a mess of nasty plants.

This year, I hatched a new plan. I didn't have the budget to thickly plant perennials to outcompete the weeds so I went with a middle ground approach. I created some flower beds in organic shapes and planted them with fast-growing annual seeds like zinnias, cosmos, sunflowers, and asters. I didn't mix the seed so each bed will grow a unique type of flower. I bought mulch, lots of it, which I then packed in between the flower beds to stop weeds from taking over. My husband and I have now moved 12,000 lbs of mulch and there is more to go.

Without the clearly marked areas, I wouldn't know where to weed, or where the flowers were planted. The mulch also creates walking paths that weave through the flower field. Each bed is labeled so I can keep track of which flowers I liked best and which performed better in part shade/ sun, etc.

I did buy some perennials this year, which you can see in the photos. I mostly started with larger shrubs and trees because they take up a large amount of space. I put in some Itoh peonies, ninebarks, dogwoods, sorbaria, spirea, etc. Each year, as my budget permits, I will add more and more perennials in the currently drawn beds, thereby eliminating some of the annuals.

For this year, however, I'm truly looking forward to the explosion of color. Most of the plants I planted will grow 30" or more and bloom all the way through the first frost. This space will be a huge cut flower farm and a boon to pollinators of all types.

For those of you who don't remember what this area originally looked like before the landscaping...here's a before and after pic. If you want to see more of this project in progress I chose the tag #fountainproject.

I chose the curving shapes partially because of Gertrude Jekyll. Gertrude used to weave colors and beds into one another to create more of an organic cottage garden feel. Straight lines would have just been weird in this space.

This blog is a diary of the progress I make on the house and garden. Having lots of photos helps me assess what works and what doesn't. The gardening entries also help me understand how weather affects what I grow each season. I realize there's a lot of people following the blog now and that it's grown from a personal space into a sort of community space... but the focus for me is the same. This is a place for me to jot down ideas and keep track of changes around the house.

If it provides pleasure and inspiration to readers, then all the better.

Now let's get gardening!

[nncastle]

Got a lot of work done in the last two days. My friend and I hoed and weeded about a 1/4 acre, started mulching, sank two itoh peonies and two ninebarks. Mulched the juniper, marked our annual seed beds and planted seeds in one of the four quadrants. We also lined half the walk with 24 nepeta plugs and finished spring prep on the pool garden. Happy to report that the coleus survived the frost. Now it’s time for some serious Icy Hot and booze. About to drop dead.

[nncastle]

Long walk beds are coming along!