The new yard has so much room, and I've got so many things I'd like to do, but I have to pace myself. Even so, once I started brainstorming, I had two pages of notes in no time. Here are the things I hope to accomplish this year:
Front yard:
- Plant peach tree. It'll go right about in the middle of the above picture, which is between the two linden trees already in the yard.
- Plant Douglas fir. My mom bought me a tiny Douglas fir this Christmas which will live inside until spring and then get planted somewhere. I'm still trying to figure out where it will fit.
- Plant Annabelle hydrangeas. I've been reading a book called Design Your Natural Midwest Garden by Patricia Hill. As a result, the long term plans for the front yard, which have always included gardens, are now focused on including as many native plants as possible. Annabelles are gorgeous, and I've got a couple spots in mind for them.
Herb garden:
- Dig up the last yucca.
- Dig up those disgusting Stella d'Oro day lilies.
- Fence. The above picture was taken before we fenced in the front yard. The yard fence now starts at the garage corner on the right side of the photo, comes to the sidewalk, follows the sidewalk to the corner of the bed on the left side, crosses the sidewalk (where the gate is), and runs along the inside of the existing flower bed (see below). This means the entire garden is dog accessible, and Scout has spent an inordinate amount of time wondering around in there this winter. I'll need fence enough along the sidewalk to keep her from trampling my herbs.
- Bird bath. This one is probably a long term idea, but I would love to have a pretty bird bath in this area.
- The herbs themselves. There will definitely be basil, chives and rosemary. I'm also contemplating dill, sage, thyme and parsley. When the dill inevitably volunteers in the yard, it will smell like pickles when I mow.
This flower bed is exempt from the native/natural plants plan. This one is just for being pretty. I started on it last fall with some new perennials and tulips. What it needs this year:
- Asiatic lilies in pink, orange and yellow
- Bearded irises in pink and orange. The ones at the old house were gorgeous, so I need to figure out where I got them.
Edibles:
- Obviously, the first order of business has to be filling these beds. I know where to get compost in bulk, but I need to find a source for the other parts of my raised bed mix.
- I'm working on my garden plan for these beds and will probably post it when it's done.
- Blueberries and/or raspberries. I need to figure out where in the yard to put these.
- Rhubarb. I've got to get some rhubarb planted somewhere.
- Tomatoes. These are not going in the raised beds. I'm going to take a cue from the prior owners and put them on the wall:
 |
| Messy, landscaping nightmare |
- Rocks. The tomato plan necessitates getting rid of some of the ridiculously large river rock currently covering the wall area.
By the way, who builds a retaining wall and then covers it with the heaviest landscaping material available? Why didn't they plant grass? We've got long term plans for this area that include getting rid of all of the rock, making a gate in the fence so we can pass from front to back yard, and planting more grass or something less awful for walking on than giant river rock.
Rain barrel:
I have to figure out where to put my beloved rain barrel. There are many downspouts, but the easiest ones to work with aren't very close to the vegetable beds, which is where I will use it the most. I think I'm going to end up building a second rain barrel, but top priority is getting this one situated somewhere.
Now that I've figured out all of the things I want to do, I need to review my seed stash. Then I can open those catalogs and start shopping.
No comments:
Post a Comment