A year ago, when I was still in San Francisco and I would day dream about moving to Ann Arbor, one of the things I was most excited about was having a garden. By the time we got here in July, we were just too overwhelmed to plant more than a few things in the fall. This weekend, thanks to the enormous help of my sister and brother-in-law, we finally established several garden beds in our backyard! I am so excited!!
I've always loved the idea of growing things, but never had much practice (except of the killing plants variety). My mother is an excellent gardener, as were her parents, but as a child I never had the patience to learn how to garden. Now that I am a bit older, calmer and wiser I see the value and joy in gardening. (I don't think my 18 year old self would have believed I'd ever say that.)
I'm going to try to post pictures on this blog, as well as on Instagram, to show off any progress we have (despite any rabbit's attempt to thwart us). So you'll need to stay tuned!
A trip down memory lane... Here's what our back yard looked like in the fall with Jason mowing the lawn!
And here's what it looked like in December. This was before the polar vortex and storms in January and February!
Now, here's what it looks like! Please ignore the dirt trench in the foreground... I'll explain later.
It all started when my Aunt Bea brought 9 (nine!) peony bushes, just the roots of course, in November, and we planted them just to the left of the telephone pole on the right side of the above photo. Those are also marked with sticks in the snow photo. (We marked them with sticks because we didn't want to step on the delicate buds as they were coming up.) We turned the area in between and behind into a bed that we could plant other sun-loving perennials in.
The fence edge is north, so this bed gets direct sunlight until about 5pm. In addition to the peonies we planted... Corsican mint (ground cover in the foreground, can actually take light foot traffic!), Lavender - two in middle (two to left, just out of the photo) and Dwarf Lilac in the back.
In the same bed, in the front of the photo below is Silver Edged Thyme, on the left is another Peony and in the back center are two more lavender plants.
The Peony buds are starting to open! I can't wait for these to bloom!!
Here below, on the west-end of the sun-loving perennial bed we planted Rhubarb!! It's too big for the veggie garden, and it's a perennial so we put it in the peony bed. In the front center, and to the very far right, just barely in the frame, are creeping phylox!
We edged the bed with pavers and covered the freshly tilled soil with cypress mulch. We hope it'll keep the grass and dandelions at bay, although I see a lot of weeding in our future.
Look forward to the vegetable garden update in a separate post!!
I've always loved the idea of growing things, but never had much practice (except of the killing plants variety). My mother is an excellent gardener, as were her parents, but as a child I never had the patience to learn how to garden. Now that I am a bit older, calmer and wiser I see the value and joy in gardening. (I don't think my 18 year old self would have believed I'd ever say that.)
I'm going to try to post pictures on this blog, as well as on Instagram, to show off any progress we have (despite any rabbit's attempt to thwart us). So you'll need to stay tuned!
A trip down memory lane... Here's what our back yard looked like in the fall with Jason mowing the lawn!
And here's what it looked like in December. This was before the polar vortex and storms in January and February!
Now, here's what it looks like! Please ignore the dirt trench in the foreground... I'll explain later.
It all started when my Aunt Bea brought 9 (nine!) peony bushes, just the roots of course, in November, and we planted them just to the left of the telephone pole on the right side of the above photo. Those are also marked with sticks in the snow photo. (We marked them with sticks because we didn't want to step on the delicate buds as they were coming up.) We turned the area in between and behind into a bed that we could plant other sun-loving perennials in.
The fence edge is north, so this bed gets direct sunlight until about 5pm. In addition to the peonies we planted... Corsican mint (ground cover in the foreground, can actually take light foot traffic!), Lavender - two in middle (two to left, just out of the photo) and Dwarf Lilac in the back.
We edged the bed with pavers and covered the freshly tilled soil with cypress mulch. We hope it'll keep the grass and dandelions at bay, although I see a lot of weeding in our future.
Look forward to the vegetable garden update in a separate post!!
per harriette, apparently human hair (like when you get yours cut, bring some home human hair) keeps rabbits and other creatures out of the beds...hope it helps! jlm
ReplyDelete