Tag: gardening

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
Pretty Plant Supports and Garden Edging

Me, lately:

I’m like a British lady in my garden, and my plants agree. Unfortunately, the British seem to have better plant supports available to them. (How’s that for a segue?)

Years ago, I bought a couple of pom pom peony cages from Terrain. I love them and leave them out all year — they look great even after the plants inside have died back. I use simple hoops and grow-through grids in spots that are tucked away, but I wanted a few more decorative supports and they’ve been hard to find. My search kept turning up plenty of options in England, but not much here in the States. Battle Hill Forge did come up in my search and liked them a lot, but I ordered these jardin bird cage plant supports from Gardener’s Supply Company, and they’re due to arrive soon. Trellises, too, to flank the garage and for a couple of spots on the house.

I’ve also been looking for rope edging. Why is this not being reproduced? Again, these are available in England, but not here. Antique lots pop up on eBay for hundreds sometimes, and occasionally at flea markets or independent garden centers, but it’s all so expensive — especially when you compare pricing to the modern equivalents for $1 each.

Old paver bricks would be a good alternative too, but I’m going to head out to look at the edging stones in person. Maybe they’re fine and I’m overthinking it? (Wouldn’t be the first time. Or last.)

Off I go! You’ll find me among the plants like:

Wonderful people pictured: Lady Birley in Garden People by Valerie Finnis • Roberto Burle Marx

May 17, 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
A Small Garden Victory, a Formal Plan

I have a boxwood update for you. They bounced back! Two years ago, the hedges flanking the front walkway were overgrown and encroaching upon the sidewalk. I pruned them back, hard. Last year, they looked better. This year, they’re fully filled in!

So now that I’ve had a little success in the boxwood department, maybe I’m ready to go all-in? I’m in planning mode, wanting to work on the front garden this year. I was out there all day every day last spring and summer, cleaning things up, moving and planting. There are two distinct sides to our front yard, since we have an asymmetrical house on an asymmetrical lot. The smaller side has a blue gazing ball on a small fluted column with a ring of flagstone around it. Near the gate, there is a dwarf lilac, a rose bush, and clematis that climbs and covers the fence. It was never very clear what was supposed to be going on in the middle portion, and I let things grow last year to see what they were. Guess what grew? Weeds! There are also some scraggly bushes near the house that I’m not a fan of, and I’m thinking it’s a good time to go at it with an overall plan.

I’ve been reading up on various styles, researching period Victorian gardens, and I’m drawn to formal layouts. Do a quick search of “parterre” on Pinterest, and there are tons of inspiring images.

The layout is really the key though, not necessarily the hedging. Here’s another example with just a few boxwood balls.

I can’t think of any other formal front gardens in the area, but maybe that’s not a big deal? Our house, with our next door neighbor’s, are the only ones with a front fence too, and it’s not like there’s all that much cohesiveness on my street as it is now anyway. I love the idea of a centering a flowering tree.

Images: Formal Front Garden Parterre — Brocaatje Landelijk Brocante Wonen • Garden Design Dublin

April 10, 2017
About to Bloom

I ripped out her zinnia. Technically, I didn’t do it, but it’s my fault.

I took all three kids shopping with me for new school clothes over the weekend while Brandon stayed behind to mow the lawn. “That’s a weed,” I told him as we walked by a planter, pointing to a tall, odd plant I hadn’t noticed before. He pulled it.

The first grade kids planted seeds into little plastic cups as winter turned to spring. We could see them through the window and Eleanor showed them to me, saying that they were supposed to be a surprise. (She was too excited and proud to wait.) The class had lined their cups along the windows and watched them grow, then brought them home just before Mother’s Day weekend to give as gifts. Eleanor and I watched as her seedling continued to grow, remembering (mostly) to water it — just a few drops at a time. “Not too much, mom! Here. I know how to do it.” The weather finally warmed and we planted the tiny sprout outside in a big planter where the side yard meets the back, where we would see it often. We checked on it as it grew sideways at first, then up, growing from two leaves to four, and then eight. We didn’t know what color it would be, but we put forth our best guesses. Pink, probably! At least we hoped so. It’s my favorite color.

This morning, it was Brandon who was taking all three kids out while I stayed behind to work. I helped get them ready, like always, then went out to help load them in the car. “Let’s go check on the zinnia before you go!” My idea. And when we couldn’t find it, I realized that hadn’t been a weed. I realized why I hadn’t noticed it before. It had changed. It was just about to bloom.

I know it’s not that big a deal, but we cried, me more than her. I thought that maybe I could find someone with a zinnia and transplant it, showing her when she got back. It’s not the same though, is it? It won’t have the same bend to it. It won’t be the seed that we cared for together. We’ll never know what color it would have been, but I’d like to think we were right. Pink, my favorite.

August 23, 2016