i love it out there, wish my body could go longer, but each day goes a few minutes more as i get back into shape.
this week's (and part of last week too) project has been working on the north garden. it is a mixed area that is fairly large. the nicest part about it is that it actually has topsoil.
first thing to do was to get the western edge along a pathway cleaned up. last year i started getting that edge planted with a very low growing thyme to replace the birdsfoot trefoil which likes to sprawl and drop seeds into the path. there are also the spring flowers along there (daffodils, tulips and hyacynths), a few summer flowers to work around, vagrant strawberry plants, lillies, etc. so it is interesting. removing grasses, yarrow and filling in gaps in the thyme to keep it spreading inwards. the trefoil can be a challenge to pull up, usually i just chop off the green stuff and eventually the plant gives up. the green stuff is excellent mulch for any surrounding strawberry plants.
after getting the west edge done i tried to get the garlic and weeds/grasses out of the top part. ate a lot of the garlic and cleaned up some for cooking. still had a five gallon bucket's worth that i left for the worms to munch on. still more grasses and weeds to get out of that section but i'm about half done. also wild strawberries to get out of there and some thistles. both are excellent worm food. :)
then switched to working along the southern edge where i also wanted to push back the trefoil and replace it with a creeping phlox (with pink flowers) that is blooming now. i know it's not the best time to move/transplant something when it is blooming, but i wanted this project done now before i get into planting the rest of the gardens... so i've done that over the past few days. where the phlox was before is about as poor soil as we have out back and it survived there and flowered so along this new edge is going to be interesting to see how it copes. i already started a part of it last year and so this is to get more of that done. there is still going to be a gap along there where the current large patch of strawberries are doing their thing. right now it's very nice looking with the strawberries blooming and the creeping phlox blooming too and some miniature irises and some alliums (both of those will be moved sometime into another garden as they block the view).
and when i get tired of transplanting ground- covers or weeding grasses and pulling or chopping trefoil i have the lower part where the moneywort is planted that i want to take over that area to weed through. it's a different type of weeding so i like the change in textures and challenges there too. i have to keep an eye on that spot because some horsetails still like to try to get going in there again.
and when i get tired of transplanting ground- covers or weeding grasses and pulling or chopping trefoil i have the lower part where the moneywort is planted that i want to take over that area to weed through. it's a different type of weeding so i like the change in textures and challenges there too. i have to keep an eye on that spot because some horsetails still like to try to get going in there again.
and yet another spot within this garden is where i have seedling tulips and other flowers going so eventually some of them may flower or get transplanted (once i know what they are), but it takes a very delicate and patient hand to weed in and around a tulip seedling.
just came in from the last round of transplanting to take a break and have a snack before the next round of weeding up top. when i finally do plant it (Mon or Tues) i'll scratch some of the bare spots and get some ground cover and forage plants in there like the buckwheat, turnips, radish, flax, etc. so there will be a variety of flowers and edibles for the critters. some i'll eat. Ma won't eat them so i don't need many to escape the critters. that is why none of this garden is fenced. the straw- berries and trefoil intermix up there and i will eventually have it covered with patches of straw- berries and creeping ground covers too. it will be a few years before it will be more stable but i do like how it is progressing.
the much easier weeding and planting will be saved for last. the lower half which is mostly bare dirt (eventually the strawberries will wander into there and i will reuse their old space for veggies, flowers or ground covers) i can scrape it and bury any weeds in an hour or two. a chunk of that space will get onion sets or more patches of other veggies or annual flowers. there's a few existing onions in there to work around. and i'll scatter some more onion seeds to start the plants for the next round of onion sets. oh, and a few flowering turnips (from last season) and a hedge mustard are in there now for some nice yellow blooms. :)
um, so hey, ramble time is over, but that's an example of how to do a more random garden and to do progressions of plantings and to mix things up instead of having a formal bare dirt garden with only one type of thing planted in it. i don't think i could even list all the things planted in this space but it would easily be 100 or more (with all the different crocuses, daffodils, tulips, etc.).
so, back to it... peace, etc.
songbird