Shortly after ordering the plants for my shady slope, I decided there was no reason not to work on the sunny slope this year, too, so I got back on Prairie Nursery's website and ordered 13 more plants!
To the right of the bird feeders in the above photo is the slope I'll be working on. I planned an area roughly 8 foot by 6 foot. Unfortunately, I haven't done anything yet to start killing off the grass, which is now greening up, so I've really got my work cut out for me. The best news is, all 31 plants are currently scheduled to ship at the same time! I've already requested a couple days off work at the time they should be here to give myself a four day weekend. I just hope they don't change their shipping schedule.
You might be thinking that none of this sounds too bad, but there's more. I have been wanting to plant more fruit for awhile. At the old house, I planted strawberries and rhubarb, but we left before I could harvest either of them. I've thought about raspberries and blueberries, but each has their issues. Blueberries will be tricky to grow here (especially for a lazy gardener like me), and raspberries can be quite messy.
The other thing standing in my way was the place I wanted to put them. In the top middle of the above picture, you can see the northwest corner of our lot. Nothing is growing there except weeds, and I thought some bushes would look good there. Sounds great, except that is the only easy access for machinery that will likely be needed when we fix the failing retaining wall. So, anything I planted would eventually get run over.
Even though I wasn't planning on planting any fruit bushes this year, I couldn't help but look through the Stark Bro's catalog when it showed up in my mailbox. Good thing I did because I was struck with inspiration in more ways than one. Why not try honeyberries and why not put the bushes next to the garden beds?!
By "next to" I mean in the grass north of the beds, which is toward the top of the above photo. Long story, not really short, Stark Bro's had a deal on honeyberries, four bushes for $25, and they could be here any time in the next week or so.
So, that's 31 perennials and 4 fruit bushes to be planted this spring, in addition to the regular vegetables and annuals. Oh yeah, and my good friend Carla, who's almost done more to feed my gardening habit than I have, sent me a Prairie Nursery gift certificate for my birthday a few weeks ago, so I get to order more plants!
I know what you mean about the lure of those catalogues and websites. I'm still unable to order only what is on my list - a "few" extras always end up in the cart.
ReplyDeleteGood for you in thinking ahead and booking the time off. I find if I set my mind to doing something on a specific day(s), it's much more likely to get done. And looking forward to see how you fair with the honeyberries (we call them haskaps). I planted a couple of them 2 years ago but haven't really taken great care of them so they are still tiny. Hopefully they are still alive in the spring and I can remedy that.