I’m ashamed to realize it’s been almost a month since my last blog post. This should be a good time of year to be doing a lot of gardening and therefore, for me, a lot of writing about it. However, I’ve been back at work for a couple of weeks and, geez, that takes up a lot of time! Plus, my neck and upper back have been a mess, possibly from over-using my lap top, maybe from practicing and playing too much, maybe a couple of long days in the garden contributed. Who knows? Anyway, I’ve been leery about doing much gardening and even more leery of spending a couple of hours at my lap top. The solution was in the basement all along in the form of my husband’s desk top computer, which is where I am now. Much better alignment for the neck and head. Phew!
So, where were we? I believe I’ve been meaning to write about Phase ll of Tranquil Garden: the Front Yard. I (with the invaluable help of friend and co-owner, Maureen M) have now ridden my front yard of another 1/3 of the lawn! Woot! Well, to be honest, the grass is still there, it’s merely covered by a few inches of soil and mulch, but with any luck it will be dead by spring and I can continue with Phase lll and beyond. Phase lll will entail smothering the rest of the grass using the ‘lasagne’ method as described in “Phase One Complete!”, Phase lV will be the rock garden on the lane way side of the front yard, Phase V, planting all the ground cover and the rest of the plants. There are a lot of phases in this project, but planning it in stages keeps it from being overwhelming. As a reminder, here is a before picture of the front yard:
I already showed you what Ginny and I did on the maple tree portion of the front yard. So here is a picture of the completed Phase ll:
So, it looks a bit like a graveyard at the moment. However, I prefer to think of it as a clean canvas to create whatever beauty my heart desires next spring. I will re-arrange the rocks in a rounder shape, to mimic the wall on the other side of the walkway, but keep the front foot or two free from planting, to avoid destruction by the snow removal trucks. Many thanks to Maureen for the many hours of help!!
I’m planning a day of gardening on Friday with help from my son, Travis, to get started on the fall chores like dividing perennials; cutting back on the seed heads that are probably already spreading themselves around too much; cleaning up the leaves from the rose bushes infected by blackspot to prevent a recurrence next year; picking up the leaves from the chestnut tree for the same reason (they’re infected by some sort of fungus); transplanting perennials from the deck pots; re-potting some annuals that I want to over-winter inside; harvesting some compost so we have room over the winter to add more kitchen waste. That’ll do for a start, specially since Travis can’t commit to a full day…
Scrolling through Youtube today I came across this gem. Roberta Flack and ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’.
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