The Right Perspective

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

My Rookie Garden

So I've mentioned before that I'm not really into gardening. I don't know the first thing about it except that I hated pulling weeds as a kid and I still do. I also don't really care to get hot, sweaty and dirty. And then there are the bugs....and spiders - need I say more?
But this year, after a very long, cold winter, the gardening bug hit. Well, maybe it was more of determination to beat something that has, up until this point, completely defeated me. That something...making plants live and grow and maybe, dare I hope it?...flourish into something beautiful and lasting. And so, I present to you my first, all-my-own-design, flower garden.
The above picture shows most of the thirty-foot long area that sits behind our pool and deck. The retaining wall was already there when we bought the house, but up until last fall, was completely covered with overgrown ivy and a few ugly holly bushes and weeds. The entire area was covered, even the vertical wall. Andrew cleared most of it out last fall and I finished yesterday. (Oh, the buckets will eventually be filled with live plants, but it's rainy and cold today.)

The tree is my Mother's Day gift from Emily and Andrew. It is an ornamental cherry tree. It looked bigger in the store. I've never attempted to plant a tree before, so this should be interesting. It should turn pretty colors in the fall and have showy white blossoms in the spring. We'll see about that! This sits at the corner of our property.


This is the view from the property line toward the cul-de-sac. Eventually there will be some type of border /edging, but I'm not sure what to use. I bought some black edging that goes in the ground, but I don't know. Until yesterday, it was roughly edged with river rocks, but it had become quite over-grown. Oh and the ugly plant between the two pinkish flowers and below the left bucket is one of the remaining holly bushes. I don't really like it, but I didn't feel like digging it up either, so we'll see how it looks. Right now, it's just ugly.

And finally, the long view. The complete garden...all thirty long feet of it. It looks pretty empty right now, but hopefully there will soon be mulch and in a couple of years, the perrenials should all spread, so it should fill out nicely. That is, if the curse of my black thumb doesn't make an appearance!

7 comments:

Beth/Mom2TwoVikings said...

As a fellow "black thumb", you are much more ambitious than I would be! LOL I'm worried about killin' everything in a 10' by 3' flower bed out front of the house! I think you did wonderfully!

SkyePuppy said...

If you need a nice ground cover, lobelia does well (although mine all died, but that's because I didn't water it and we don't get rain here). It spreads pretty far and has purple flowers.

Your garden looks wonderful! Nicely done!!!

Christina said...

Beth, I am only ambitious because I've had very limited success in the front flower beds and that has, of course, fueled my determination. That, and I'm not too bright sometimes!

Christina said...

Skyepuppy,

I like lobelia. I'm just a little leary of ground covers in general as they tend to like to take over more than I like. That being said, the creeping phlox I planted on both ends should spread 1-2 feet per year (if they live!) and are supposedly "carefree". I think they're similar to the lobelia, with small purple flowers, so we'll see. I may add a few more plants, so maybe I'll look into those.

SkyePuppy said...

Christina,

The advantage of ground cover is that, although it may take over more than you want, it looks good in the process, because it hides the low-lying weeds well. When you use a mulch, like bark or something, the weeds make themselves known quickly, and there's no hiding them. Then you have to pull them more often.

Better to have a ground cover and only pull the tall weeds once in a while...

Bekah said...

You people are a wealth of information! I am NO GOOD at any of this stuff, but I am determined to make an effort on the yard this year. Keep blogging about this stuff because then I can learn!! :) Because if I don't, I'll have to resort with the actions of many people on my end of town - plant silk flowers. And by silk I mean plastic from the dollar store.

And Christina - you're my hero! I am very impressed

Malott said...

Great job. Don't skimp on the manure.