Last Sunday I got some time to get the plants that my friends Lois, Catherine, and others had given me into the ground. I should say I made some time, because as I explained to Michael, I wasn’t going to be able to sit and relax until I had gotten my hands into the soil, and made my imprint on the gardens.
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| The garden, needing some love. |
The back garden, pictured above, was where I focused my efforts, as I’d be spending the most time looking at it. We’re using the back door as our main door, so I look at it each time I go in and out of the house, and during any time I spend on the porch. I needed to fix things there, pronto.
The first thing was clearing out all the dead leaves, branches, and growth from last year. There was a hard winter this last year, so many things that would have weathered pretty well had died back to the root system. Snip, snip, snip went my garden shears, and the bush was thinned out (I know what it is, I just can’t remember the name – the plant which, if you get it in the store, will boom purple/blue when exposed to nickel?copper?, but is normally pink clusters of little flowers).
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| Bush thing whose name I *should* know. |
The graslike mounds there are a plant I’m again, familar with, but have no clue of the name. Clearly I need to look these things up. Anyone have a clue? In the fall these plants have a dark purple/black berry which is pretty, I suppose. Still, the line of these, slightly overgrown and in places quite crowded, was driving my crazy.
I dug up nearly half of them from this garden, and transplanted them to other places. A few others got split and transplanted also. One of them got shifted over 6 inches, because the placement was *just* off.
Now, in between each of these, is some of the plants I was loaned. Lois gave me several irises and some type of orchid thing, which went in the corner, what I’ve come to think of as my display spot.
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| Siberian irises, orchid, and other lovely things. |
Several of the lilies that Catherine gave me (just out of frame, I forgot to get a picture of them), went right next to the steps. Around the back of the porch, I put little groupings of plants in between the shifted grasses.
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| The grass things given some room to spread, and the “little groupings” of plants between them. |
On the sound advice of several people, I’ve been told that things look better grouped together, so I tried to keep the plants that I’d been given in the same area, with the exception of the Coper Iris that just had to show off it’s attitude. You can see in the corner the bush looking much happier now that it’s dead growth is pruned back.
The bush, (again, whose name I can’t remember), I know has a tendency to put out roots if you take a cutting. I’m thinking later in the season, when it gets a bit more growth, I’m going to take some cuttings and put them against the outside of the gate, or perhaps on the side of the house. My pay it forward to future occupants.
I got several Lilies of the Valley which I planted in what I’m planning on making a shade garden, under some bushes in the back. I’m planning, when I head to the farm soon, to dig up some more of them and put them in the back too. Perhaps in a year or so, they’ll have spread into a nice bed of them – something that is low maintence, pretty, and much nicer than the vines that were taking the bushes over.
There’s a bare patch of ground where it looks like the driveway once extended all the way to the back of the yard, previous to the fence being put in. It’s quite rocky and compacted, and the grass doesn’t take there. I’m hoping the grass/bush things, which I know to be quite hearty, will do well in the corner. I’m thinking that I might try and make this area more of a rock garden, putting some plants that are hearty and okay with nutrient-poor soil there. We’ll see. At least they brighten up the corner, and give the other plants some room to grow. If it doesn’t work out, then no harm, no foul.
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| Potential rock garden. |
