My Autumn Projects

I cut down all of my deck containers today--just in time as we may get some snow flurries next week. DH's marigolds stilled looked good, so I moved them to the front yard where they work nicely with the pumpkin décor.

 Despite many night's in the 30's, my tropical containers still look good.  Being under a roof overhang and next to the house shelters them in their own little mini climate. I have not even covered them.

Since my last post, I have planted some Japanese Silver Grass with my Limelights in the old apple tree border.

If you look closely at the pic below, you will see our latest addition to the landscape...the white corner fence.

DH worked very hard digging 2 ft deep holes in our rocky ground.  At first he did not think he could go down the full 24 inches, but perseverance paid off and he finally got all three holes level.

Here is the area last week after the removal of three trees and a long perennial garden where nothing would grow & the addition of new top soil:

and here it is today--almost ready to be planted.  The new grass will have to wait until next spring.

My intention is to use just 2 mop heads and one Ninebark. The color scheme will be  the same chartreuse/dark purple that I have on each side of the front porch:

It will look exactly like this, except there will be a mop head on each side of the Ninebark. Once planted it should be as close to maintenance free as any border can be.

I hope you have all been enjoying autumn in your area of the country!

The Beginning of a New Border

The 15 trees are now gone

and we are beginning to redo the first big border in the front of the house where the apple tree once stood.  DH removed all the old plants and  hauled 15 wheelbarrows of new top soil to this area.  We bought a lot of shrubs and decided on this layout:

Tomorrow while I am work, he will plant them. On the side you see here, I am using the same shrubs that I have in front of the house--Ninebark and mophead false cypress--I love the form and the bright green/yellow color of the false cypress.  To the side on your right, near the perennial gardens, I have two 'Limelight' hydrangeas.  I have a third 'Limelight' on the left side.  On the backside facing the road,  we are going to plant burning bushes.  That whole side will be flaming red each fall.  My plan is to have a border requiring very little maintenance.  While the shrubs are so small,  I will fill in between with waves of Sedum 'Autumn Joy'.  This will carry over the masses of pink I have in front of the house.

So that's my plan..................always subject to change. :)

Landscape Perspective

I get some questions about the size and arrangement of my gardens so I thought I'd try to show you where everything is located. I left these pictures big, so if you click them they will enlarge nicely and you will be able to read the writing (and probably be able to find a few weeds!). Be sure to hit the back button after you enlarge them because if you hit the "X" it will close out my whole blog.

I can't get it all in one picture so I have tried to get most of the side area in two shots. This is where the majority of my perennial gardening takes place. Everything in these gardens are perennial. I only plant annuals in the deck containers. I have labeled the different areas with the names I tend to refer to each area as.
About the only thing blooming in the main gardens now is the creeping phlox.



This is the front of the area above. I am standing about six feet from the road. The gardens go all the way back to the rockwall which is about 200 feet back.

If you focus on the main arbor, you should be able to see how this picture relates to the one above. I call these the "road view" gardens. These gardens are under pine trees which have been limbed as highly as DH could reach on a 12 foot ladder.

Nonetheless, sun is a precious commodity in the roadview areas. I have creeping phlox here, too, but it's not in bloom yet because of the shade. It's pretty difficult to get anything to grow in these areas. I think the tree roots as well as the tannin-infused soil has a lot to do with my lack of success.

I sometimes wonder why I even try! I guess because I spent so much time digging them all out (with only a shovel) that I can't bear to let them go back to the poison -ivy-filled empty lot they used to be. I think these gardens are about eight years old (time flies so quickly that I can't be really sure).

Everything is looking very green right now. I love to see the green grass paths. We don't water the grass so it's a rare thing to have all the paths looking so vibrant as they did at 6:30 a.m today.

I really have only done about 10% of the spring clean up work I usually do. Today I was working out there for about two hours. Considering my lack of spring effort, these gardens look fairly decent.

I think I have been working WAY TOO HARD in past years!

Sunday was no Day of Rest for Me!

I worked outside for over 9 hours today and really accomplished a lot of weeding. I have the road area looking pretty decent so I no longer have to cringe with embarrassment when someone drives by.

I usually put one of my birdhouses in this middle area because it needs a focal point. This year I decided to put the birdhouses on the deck, so I stuck a milk can here about a week ago.

The milk can just doesn't do it for me. I think it's too small. As I was walking to the deck to bring the birdhouse back, I saw my old wagon wheel leaning against the house. It's been there for a few years, so I decided that I would try it behind the milk can.

I liked that look. The rusty wheel matches the rusty can and it gives the area some height. I thought I needed a little something in the two beds on either side of the wheel. I moved a couple of pieces of driftwood from the woodland area.

You can't see the one of the left side in this picture, but you can on the pic above. I think they work, so I am now happy with this spot.

I found my big old green frog and stuck him here (you may have to click to see him).
You will just sort of discover him as you walk down the path.

Here's more irises near the birdbath. I have iris all over the place.

Here is the woodland area. I haven't yet done any weeding here. It's my next project. You can see the big wave of dame's rocket behind the small rockwall. DH surprised me today, when he came in from cutting the grass and told me how pretty that area is. He doesn't usually pay much attention to the flowers unless I specifically point something out to him. Wouldn't you know, he likes the weeds! LOL. This is my other wagon wheel in one of the big borders. I usually have a metal table and chairs in the grassy area here. I haven't gotten them out yet this year. I need to repaint them. I bought orange paint, but now I don't think it's the right shade of orange.
Here's a close up of the dame's rocket. One thing about weedy flowers--it doesn't take long to get a BIG drift of them!


About 5 0'clock I came inside and showered. It was getting all dark like a big storm was brewing. DH was going to cook steaks on the grill. I didn't want him to cancel because of the rain, because I sure didn't feel like cooking.

I suggested he go into the garage and get the umbrella a friend recently gave me. It clips on. I thought he could stand under it. Well, as it turned out he was too tall, but it stopped raining so he got the steaks cooked anyway.
It was hot today and by 5pm I was ready for a little cold beverage. I brought out my leftover Christmas vodka slush and added some Faygo diet Raspberry Cream soda. It gave me the chance to use one of my fancy glasses which is just the way it's served in a bar. If I just had a fresh raspberry and a sprig of mint for a garnish, it would be perfect. I think I will name it 'Raspberry Razzle'. It seems like I once had a coleus named that.

I did so much more work today and have all kinds of things to post about later in the week. Right now I am off to put fresh linens on the bed. I can't wait to fall into it!

People Are Always Asking Me

"How do you keep the grass out of your garden?"

The majority of my large beds have no edging. I like the look of nothing between the flower beds and the grass.

This look demands a good deal of effort to keep the grass out.

My favorite tools are not very expensive and not very glamorous.



Here they are


Just my foot and a straight-edged spade.

Most people think I must be crazy to hand-edge all of these beds three or four times each year. But it really is not that hard to do. Tonight I did over half of this bed in about half an hour (I still need to do the back side).


Last fall my friend (who is positive that I am totally NUTS to do this) brought his fancy gas-powered edger over to show me how fast it was. Sure enough it was fast. I think he did ALL of my beds in half an hour. But I didn't think it was nearly as nice as when I hand edge. I like to get right down in the dirt. As I bend over to pick up each piece, I find all sorts of things...today I found 4 grubs that I removed and some little rocks that worked their way up. A few inches from the edge I removed 5 tiny dandelions -- oh, how I love to get those when they are small and I can easily get the whole root. I get quite a little thrill yanking those babies out!

I can see the allure of fancy edgers, but as long as I am healthy and able, I plan to continue hand-edging all of beds. Old habits die hard, I guess.