I spent most of the afternoon in the garden today. Weeding and moving plants around, planting new ones, dividing others. I've said before that I'm a beginner gardener, and that's no joke. My neighbour and good friend Jody has been at her garden for almost 6 years now and it shows. Although I'm totally envious of her garden, mine is coming along quite nicely. The POs did nothing in the 7 years they were here and some plants (like previously mentioned blue bells (aka scilla)) were rampant and needed to get under control. I have left some of them as they do make good filler. So far I've taken out about 8 large clear yard waste bags full of them!
There was already a couple rhododendrons, azaleas (which are rhodos), rose bushes, honeysuckle, 2 different types of clematis, tulips, daffodills, crocus, lillies (...of the valley, easter and day), camelia (it's big and beautiful but a pain to clean up after), lilac and a beautiful cedar hedge which the neighbour's wife planted over 45 years ago. I guess there was more there to start with than I thought! What the garden didn't have was medium and small plants. One of the first things we planted was 2 "skyrocket" cedars in the front, flanking the steps, far enough away from the foundation and not too close to the steps. I added a butterfly bush in the front, moved some of the smaller bushes, trimmed the roses (ouch!) and shaped the rhodos.
Somewhere under all that dirt is my calalily that my parents gave me for my last birthday. It's a white one and my favourite flower of all time... I just hope it made it through the winter. Believe it or not, it's actually not that cold here in this part of Canada- we're a zone 7or8. I've become quite accustomed to the rainy winters, springs, and autums and the average daytime temperature in the winter is about 5-7 degrees celcius here. Can't beat that really!
Anyways, off topic a bit... I also added some daisies towards the end of the summer- I couldn't believe that there wasn't any! Some of what Jody calls "bachelor's buttons", and sedum, and a lot of other plants she gave me with, "here, plant these."
This is what my garden looked like today:
o, and I've got these really cool bricks that say "FAIREY VANCOUVER"...
... how does your garden grow?
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Mary Mary Quite Contrary
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4 comments:
Looks great! I have a butterfly bush of my own to plant. First I have to rip out the ancient yews...hard work!
wow that's looking great! i'm officially jealous of your lovely stone wall...what a nice backdrop for the great things to come
Great progress, Deb! It looks like you have a lot of great northwest plants. I'm looking foward to sharing good planting ideas with you!
thanks! it's funny to read "northwest" since we're on the south coast! lol! i'm looking forward to sharing plants and ideas too, trissa! i think the only thing we need to figure out is crossing the border with live plants...
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