Tag: AND not OR

Reviving the Front Yard For Spring

This is the second of three posts sponsored by RISE’s AND not OR home and garden program. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The great spring garden cleanup of 2019 has come to completion! I’ve pulled the weeds and have been assessing the garden after our particularly harsh winter. I like most of the garden to be self-sustaining and easy to take care of, but I do enjoy my time working on it! AND not OR has tips tailored to all kinds of gardeners to help you get a game plan together.

The perennials are thriving! I was able to split some of them to use along the wrought iron fence. We have a lot of the varieties from RISE’s list of plants that work well in this area, and looking at it again I’m thinking I’d like to have hollyhock too. Doesn’t that sound like a charming addition to the front of a Victorian?

I monitor our dwarf Alberta spruce throughout the year for spider mites and have to treat it periodically (they’re prone to pests), but it’s fine right now. I’ll be trimming the boxwoods later this month and I cut back as much of the yew as I could reach. It’s probably time to bring in somebody that can lop off the top half and bring it back to a reasonable size. I remember my grandparents yews getting cut down to bare wood and bouncing back beautifully; yews are like that.

The fence borders were filled with creeping charlie. I found the best technique for removal was to take my Japanese garden hoe and run it beneath their shallow roots. This is just one example of how I use The AND Approach to find, solve & prevent using a combination of solutions that work for me based on the problem at hand. Based on peoples’ responses on Instagram, creeping charlie is tenacious! Look at that beautiful weed-free bare dirt. I need to get something planted there before it gets overrun again.

I’ve filled the planters flanking the front walkway and lined up on the stairs with annuals. Sometimes I’ll arrange my own combinations of flowers, and other times I take the easy route and buy the ones that are ready to go. This year I mixed some flower fertilizer into the soil, planted the refill, and called it good.

The yews and Annabelle hydrangeas out front continue to fill in nicely! Still babies, but they’re growing.

I’ve added creeping phlox, and a new lily to the yard. I split some of the allium, phlox, and lamb’s ear that was growing on the left side in the flower bed and planted it on the right. Please please please don’t let me forget to add tulips and/or daffodils in the fall so that we have some spring color next year. The houses that have them are so cheery! I want in.

I also added foxglove, again, which I know is a biennial (and poisonous) plant. I keep trying, but I’ve never had any luck with them reseeding to come back. I think this is the fourth year I’ve planted them. I continue to love them, even if they don’t seem to love me and my garden back. Is there a trick to this that I don’t know?

Everything has come together so nicely, but what should I plant in the newly bare section along the fence? I like the idea of a mass planting like the Annabelle hydrangeas on the other side, but they seem too big for this spot.

It’s in full sun. Roses or hydrangeas? Our street sees a fair amount of foot traffic and I worry about thorns at the fence line snagging passers by. Does that push me definitely toward hydrangeas though? The fence will be covered in sweet autumn clematis come late August or September with prolific tiny white flowers, but it’s so empty until the clematis takes off. Lavender was a popular suggestion too. What’s your pick?

May 17, 2019
The Front Yard, One Year Later

This is the third of three posts sponsored by RISE’s AND not OR home and garden program. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Everything made it through the winter! Improving the backyard has been my big outdoor focus for this year, but I wanted to give you an update on the front, too.

The garden was pretty high-maintenance when we moved here, and I wasn’t out there all the time taking care of it. Half of our front yard had basically gone to weeds! I did a massive cleanup last year, keeping the boxwoods, clematis, and a rose bush. Everything else was ripped out in preparation for a new, easier to tend to garden.

I haven’t added anything new to the front yet this year, but I did weed and tidy things up. My in-laws helped and between us, the front was done in a day. So much better than in the past! We raked out old piles of leaves and junk (pest-friendly and unkempt is not the look I’m going for), trimmed back the hydrangeas and clematis, and pulled any weeds that were starting to come up.

I planned the garden with my level of commitment to it in mind. You can get tips from AND not OR tailored to your gardening style too (I’m sort of a cross between what they call “Daring Doers” and “Picture-Perfect Planner”).

A new row of boxwoods along the fence mimics the rows lining the walkway (or they will, in 10 years or so when they’re not tiny little things). Near the house, I planted yews as a foundation hedge with Annabelle Hydrangeas in front. The new shoots are just now beginning to take off.

I laid sod in the middle portion. Not my favorite gardening project to date! The results though — instant lawn — were admittedly nice. It was just a lot digging to prep the area. You can check out RISE’s list of grasses that work well in the midwest if you’re looking to add a lawn.

We watered the grass deeply and often all summer and into the fall, and it’s looking decent. A few spots are a bit brown, but I’m hopeful that they’ll green up along with everything else. And I kept that gazing ball on a pedestal in the middle. The previous owner added it and while it’s not something I would have chosen on my own, I’m into it!

Also very into my new planters on the porch and stairs. The bust of Apollo with flowers is my favorite thing out there right now, and the curvy metal planters are a close second. Mine are vintage, but I found reproductions for sale.

To the left of the porch, our Dwarf Alberta Spruce is getting new growth! It had been slowly declining and the master gardener that RISE put me in touch with last year helped me realize I need to treat for spider mites. There are still bare patches, but it seems healthy overall and I’m hopeful that it will eventually recover.

The yard has come together so nicely! I’m a little jealous of all the tulips that popped up in front of other houses around town, so maybe I’ll plant bulbs in the fall. I also want to do something along the fence this year — it’s a prime opportunity for something pretty. RISE has a downloadable list of flowers that work well here, and that part of the yard gets full sun, so there are tons of options open.

My sister has been watching our yard progress and she asked for help picking out a few easy to care for, low-maintenance options for her place. I’m all too happy to oblige! Now is the time to get bushes in the ground, and the selection at local nurseries is expanding everyday. Have you been out there planting too?

May 11, 2018
The Newly Planted Backyard

This is the second of three posts sponsored by RISE’s AND not OR home and garden program. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The yard is on its way! Little baby plants, all set in place and ready to do their thing. There were some existing mature plants that I liked and wanted to incorporate into the new design. The boxwoods at the entrance to the dining patio, the lilacs along the fence, and the climbing roses at each end of the garage are all lovely. I’ve added hostas, heuchera, duetzia, viburnum, boxwoods, and I have a few hydrangea waiting to go into the ground too. If you’re interested in plants and flowers that do well in the Midwest summer (and winter) check out RISE’s downloadable list.

Please ignore the awful fencing! Oscar is a cute puppy, but he needs to be restricted because he loves to dig. The plastic garden fencing is only 2’ high and I’m sure the dog could jump it if he tried (especially as he gets bigger), but the combination of supervision, training, and a physical barrier has worked so far. If we only need it temporarily, great! If it’s going to be long-term, I’ll find a more attractive option.

Let’s talk about the roses though — whoops. I cut them waaay down to the ground years ago, and they’re just now starting to halfway resemble their former glory. I didn’t know what I was doing before! I mean, I still don’t sometimes, but I’ve learned a lot. I did a ton of research on climbing roses a couple of years ago.

The old rose trellises were falling apart. When I took them down, the paint behind them was cracked and flaking, so that wall of the garage was scraped, prepped, and painted last week. The new trellises are more visually delicate than the old ones, but they seem sturdy and will hopefully last. Roses can be a bit temperamental, so I fertilized them with a product that also prevents pests. I’m training the canes back and forth in a winding S-shape (new, flowering shoots only grow off of horizontal canes), and I planted clematis that should make its way around the roses, blooming earlier for more seasonal interest.

There was snow on the ground not long ago, so all of this came together over the last couple of weeks. (Also, an update on my hand — I sprained it, but it will be fine!).

Those giant ball finials are weird in a good way, right? I needed something grand in scale since it’s going to be years before any of the new bushes (very excited about the Mohawk Viburnum!) reach their mature sizes. Itty bitty baby plants are cute, but the eye goes right past ’em. I considered a more modern geometric sculpture, but liked the idea of something with age (or at least the look of it). I also relocated a metal tub planter from a different part of the yard to somewhat hide the back of the barbecue.

I added plenty of mulch everywhere after getting the plants in the ground. I’ve gone through all of the effort to weed an area before, pulling things out by the roots or using weed-killer for things like poison ivy, and if you leave that soil bare for even a little while, new weeds come back so quickly. Mulch prevents weeds, keeps moisture in the soil, decomposes and improves the soil, and helps plants survive the winter. Magic stuff! Messy, heavy, and requiring a few trips when you need as much as I did, but magic stuff nonetheless.

The AND not OR approach to gardening is all about finding that balance of what works for you. I like the big initial spring clean-up because it’s nice to be outside in the sun after a Chicago winter, but the weather tips into hot and humid pretty quickly and then it’s not so fun. Getting rid of the weeds that were already out there now and preventing new ones with mulch will make upkeep much quicker and easier.

Gardens are always a work in progress, but that’s especially true of this one right now. I’m going to add a hedge (yew or boxwood) to more formally separate the front and back half of the backyard, and the arch needs something to grow over it. I think I’ll pick up a pair of pedestals for the urns to give them a bit more height, and the flower box on the back porch railing will be filled. Imagine those changes with mature plantings and leaves on the trees — like so.

You see it, right? We’re also planning for a new fence this year. The section behind the egg chair is in decent enough shape, but it’s shot pretty much everywhere else.

Our egg chair is still a big hit with the kids! It’s “all-weather wicker” (plastic), and it has held up beautifully. It’s tucked away and as the lilacs leaf out and bloom and the new deutzia I planted to the right of the garden stool grows, this area should have a kind of magical secret garden vibe. I’d like to add flowers along the fence too, but that will have to wait until after it gets replaced.

There are dahlias and a heuchera in the washing tub, and I’ll add sweet potato vines once the nurseries have them available. This photo from a couple of years ago shows the same angle, further on in the season. I love the softness of the trailing leaves.

A post shared by Nicole Balch/ Making it Lovely (@makingitlovely) on Aug 7, 2016 at 2:12pm PDT

The trees are only now beginning to bud and I’m hopeful that the hostas and heuchera will take nicely, so the garden is going to be more lush and leafy soon! It already feels like a much nicer place to be. And if you have any tips for keeping the puppy from undoing all of my hard work, I’d be glad to hear them!

May 4, 2018
Bettering the Backyard
This is the first post of three sponsored by RISE’s AND not OR home and garden program. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The backyard was so charming when we moved to this house! The previous owner spent her days in the garden and it showed. Years later with us and our combination of kids, a dog, and plain old neglect, we’ve done a number on it. I could barely keep up with the front at first because I was pregnant, and then it was even harder the next year when Calvin was a baby — forget about the back. I didn’t weed or replant the annuals. Without any grass in the back, Murray trampled and peed on the plants (mostly hostas), and they all died. I haven’t done much to change the yard for the better, and it’s definitely in need of some love.

I took the AND not OR approach in planning my front garden last year, and bolstered by that success, I’m turning my attention to the back. We have a cute new dining set on the flagstone patio with less than cute surroundings. I could pull off a close shot last fall, kind of, but take a step back now and it’s a mess.

The idea behind AND not OR is that there are a variety of ways to care for your yard, and you should take into account your style of gardening. I do like to be out there shaping our hedges and tending to the roses (especially as I’ve learned more about how to do it!), so I don’t mind a garden that needs some maintenance. We’ve got three kids though, plus a brand new puppy, so I’m trying to come up with a plan that’s going to work for our lives and schedules. Weeding, keeping pests away, pruning, shaping, and fertilizing — I’m happy to do it as long as it isn’t all day everyday. I need a balance.

RISE (Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment)® put me in touch with a Master Gardener again this year, Eric of Complete Lawn Care, Inc., and he confirmed that grass would be difficult to establish in our shady back yard. I know the hostas have flourished in areas where they’ve been left alone, and I’m learning a lot about what else could work in the garden from my local Extension site.

Here’s what I’m looking to do:
- Create a cute backdrop for the dining patio.
- Nestle the egg chair in among plants for a ‘secret garden’ feel.
- Replace the trellises to better support and encourage the climbing roses at each end of the garage.
- Reorient the barbecue or figure out a way to not see the ugly back of it.
- Figure out how to keep the puppy from destroying the new plantings (tall border fencing?).
- Focus on shrubs and plants that will kind of do their thing without needing too much help from me.
Local nurseries are starting to get their inventory out as the weather warms. I have a mix of boxwoods, hydrangeas, and yes some thriving hostas in other parts of our garden, and I want to continue with them as I work on the back. Maybe some urns, or more modern planters with annuals too? I’ve been thinking about this area since the fall and now that the time has come to actually work on it, I have too many conflicting ideas! Wish me luck as I get out there and start clearing the old stuff out. I think it’s going to be great once I commit to a plan and go with it.
March 29, 2018
The Front Garden’s New Layout

This is the second of two posts sponsored by RISE’s AND not OR home and garden program. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I’ve been out in the garden each sunny day since I last told you about my plans for the front! Before we talk about the rest, let’s pretend that bare dirt has nice green grass in it, yeah? I’ve never purchased sod before, and I’ve had the hardest time finding any for sale this year! I remember seeing a ton of it at garden centers before, but no luck so far. We may spread seed instead. (Here’s link with a handy list of grass types for the midwest at the end.)

There’s an antique iron fence around the front yard (which I like and want to keep), but if we planted grass up to the sidewalk, cleaning up the edges with a string trimmer would cause damage. We could either place pavers or bricks against the sidewalk and then grow grass up to the new edge, or we could soften the perimeter with a planting area. I chose to go with plants, which was a driving factor in adding another hedge row to mimic the others flanking the walk up to the front door.

I like certain garden tasks more than others. Pruning, trimming, and shaping? Love it! Weeding, deadheading, and tidying perennial borders? Not so much my thing. That’s what I was so drawn to with the AND not OR concept from RISE (Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment)® — taking into account your preferred level of maintenance while planning for a balanced approach. Some people (like the previous owners of our house) love to spend their days caring for a garden, some want it to be as easy and carefree as possible, and others (like me) fall somewhere in the middle.

I like neat and tidy hedges and am willing to work to keep them that way, and then we’re adding grass, which increases our weekly mowing just a bit. I’ve also added a few other bushes rather than perennials for ease of care, and I’m selecting hardy varieties. We already have a Dwarf Alberta Spruce, for example, that needs spraying to control spider mites. It’s mature and I will care for it, but knowing its needs I’m not planting more.

Here’s a sketch I made while I was planning everything.

A few things have changed, but that’s the general idea! I planted yews as foundation hedges to soften the front of the house, and added hydrangeas in front. I was torn between smaller, more upright panicle Bobo Hydrangeas (like in the sketch) and big mophead Annabelle Hydrangea. Both are exceptionally cold-hardy and bloom reliably, but I chose Annabelle because I like the fluffball explosion of flowers it produces. I also added two Yuki Cherry Blossom Deutzia (a new dwarf pink variety) between the fence and the new hydrangeas.

As the established boxwoods are rejuvenated and reduced in size over time, the newly planted hedge will catch up. I want them to be about 32″ high, and I’m guessing it will take at least four or five years before they match? Executing a garden plan is an exercise in patience! Once the center area has filled in with grass it will look far better, but all of the little bushes need to grow for the yard to really look like I want it to.

I cleaned up the yard a lot. There were two rose bushes: one with red roses that I removed, and another with pink blooms that I’d like to relocate. There’s a perfect sunny spot for it on the side of the house, tucked behind another boxwood hedge next to a climbing rose, alliums, and peonies — too bad I didn’t think of it until now! It’s far better to move roses when they’re dormant, so it will have to wait. I’ll do more along the front edge next spring when I have more of a blank slate there.

I’m not totally sure what I want to plant in that spot yet anyway. It should be something that would be pretty peeking out from the fence for passers-by, but it’s also a main part of our view from the front porch. My sketch had a couple of peonies. Maybe I would line the front with a whole bunch of them? They’re so lovely in bloom… for like, five days. (But it would be a glorious five days!)

I laid landscaping fabric around the yews before adding mulch and repurposing some of the flagstone we had as stepping stones. I’m hoping that preventative step will mean less weeding over time, but the stone path will make it a little easier to get back there when I need to.

RISE has been sharing more AND not OR tips for yard maintenance on their Facebook page or Twitter channel. By embracing AND, not letting OR limit the ways you can care for your garden, you can choose from all of the solutions you need for your family, home, and lawn.

I’m looking forward to seeing how everything matures! The bones of the garden are in place, and I like that there’s still room for experimentation and changes over time.

May 25, 2017
Working on the Formal Front Yard

This post is sponsored by RISE’s AND not OR home and garden program, but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

I’ve been planning and working on the front yard! I’m still drawn to the idea of a parterre, but I think it may be better suited for the back of the house rather than the front. Instead, I want to incorporate some of those formal elements (namely symmetrical boxwood hedges), but I’ll likely be adding some grass rather than pathways. We can’t grow it in the back because it’s too shady, but the front gets enough sun and some grass would better fit stylistically with the neighborhood. That’s not to say I’m just pulling everything up and laying sod, though that is kind of what the house looked like in the not too distant past!

The previous owners lived here for decades, taking care of this old lady of a house and making improvements, and they left us a handful of photos from over the years. Here’s a couple from before and after the house had been painted, and then a shot of the house when we bought it and again last year.

The majority of houses in our neighborhood have a grass lawn and a few shrubs hugging the house, and our place was no exception. The horse hitching post was there, but the wrought iron fence wasn’t installed until some time after 2002, and the landscaping changed over the years too. Here’s a larger shot of the house when we bought it.

Lush! (And a little overgrown!) The plantings had been added to over time, bit by bit, and it shows. It’s a cottage garden — super charming and casual and appropriate for the house, but with little structure. And what have I come to realize I like most in gardens? Structure. Formality. Simplicity.

I don’t mind spending a full day tending to the garden. The way it’s planted now though, it takes several full days per week, every week from spring through fall, and it’s more than I want to keep up with. Many reactions to my idea of a parterre were along the lines of “oh, boxwood hedges need so much work” but I don’t think so. They need trimming, thinning, and shaping yes, and they’ll benefit from fertilizer and mulch to protect their shallow roots, but it’s a couple of labor-intensive days a couple of times a year, and then they pretty much do their thing. Plus, I’ve come to realize that my favorite garden task is trimming hedges — so satisfying to tidy them up!

RISE (Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment)^® recently put me in touch with a Master Gardener to talk about AND not OR — the idea of taking a balanced approach to caring for your garden or yard — which was so helpful as I’ve been planning everything. One of the first things he noticed was the Dwarf Alberta Spruce. “Is it doing well,” he asked? “They tend to get spider mites and need to be sprayed regularly to keep them healthy.” Oh! Well, no. It isn’t doing well — there are dead and brown patches throughout that I was concerned about. I checked it out after our conversation, and yep, that’s the problem! So now that I know what’s causing the trouble, I can save and care for the wee spruce.

Three Types of Gardeners

The AND not OR site has descriptions of three types of gardeners. There are the Picture-Perfect Planners, dedicated to even the most demanding of garden checklists with the perfect flower beds to show for it. The Saturday Savers have places to go and things to do, and yardwork shouldn’t get in the way. And then there are the Daring Doers, never shying away from a good DIY project. (I’m right there between the Planners and the Doers.) There are recommendations for tools, pest and weed control, plant selections, and more to fit each type.

Out front, I’m keeping my level of commitment to garden tasks in mind as I plan. I got started clearing the area and pulling up a ring of flagstone. I like the idea of a circular center focal point, but I didn’t love the execution, so I’m making some changes.

I mentioned before that a bunch of weeds had popped up on this side of the yard. I wasn’t sure what was growing, so I let it grow last year, and then everything got to four feet high without any redeeming aesthetic characteristics. Whoops! They’re starting to grow in again now. Brandon and I have been pulling things out by the roots. I’m focused on preventing them from coming back, and knowing how to get rid of them if they do. I’m still finalizing the plan, but the center area is where I’d like to add grass for another kid-friendly space. Then maybe another hedge along the side, with flowers nearest the sidewalk and foundation shrubs at the back? And keep the gazing ball or replace it with something more my style?

Boxwood Plans

I’ve been reigning in those boxwoods for three years now, so I had some questions about those for the Master Gardener I chatted with too. I explained that I had been rejuvenating them, but that they were still too large for my liking. Do I give up and rip them out (as had been suggested to me in the comments of previous posts)? And what if I’d like to add more? Start everything over from scratch, mix varieties, or stick with what we’ve got? We agreed that mixing varieties isn’t the best look in this case, so it’s really a matter of preference between the other two options.

Start Over!

I could pull everything and start from scratch with a more compact variety. English boxwoods take a hit with cold/wind, but Korean boxwoods do well here. (And Vardar Valley is a newer, promising cultivar. Apparently Mount Vernon has switched over after struggling to maintain older varieties.) It’s a slow-growing plant though, so the house would look pretty bare for a while. The aim here would be to replace what we have with a dwarf type, thus leading to less pruning needed over time.

Work With What You’ve Got!

I don’t know for sure, but there’s a Green Mountain tag left on the boxwoods that line the side of the house, and I’m assuming that they’re all of the same type throughout. It’s a recommended boxwood variety for our area (hardy and cold-tolerant). Mine are larger than I’d like, but they are responding well to my efforts in rejuvenating them and they can be brought back under control with time and effort. I want them at about 3′ and they want to be 4-5′ tall naturally, so they will always require more pruning than a smaller dwarf boxwood, but they’re mature, and happy and healthy where they are.

Master Gardeners are big on the ‘right plant right place’ concept, and I’m on board. In this case though, it really is a personal preference issue. If I wanted teeny tiny bushes at 1′ high, I could see starting over, but I’m going to keep trying to work with the boxwoods we have. And probably add more. (Feel free to agree or disagree in the comments — let’s discuss.)

I’m forming my plan with graph paper, doodling over photos in Photoshop and on my iPad for a better idea of how things will look, and referring to my favorite garden design books for layout ideas. For specific plants, the Master Gardener I spoke with recommended the University of Minnesota Extension site and it’s been a great resource. I’ve been outside working when I can (so rainy lately), and I’m eager to get to the planting stage. I’ll share more soon, once everything’s further along!

(P.S. Until I’m back with more… you can keep up with springtime spruce-ups on RISE’s Facebook page or Twitter channel. They’ll be sharing AND not OR tips all month. The idea is not to let OR limit the ways you can get the job done. Instead embrace AND – and have all the solutions you need to do what’s right for your family, home and lawn.)

May 11, 2017