July was a crazy month and although I didn’t make time to write about the gardens, I’ve been out there working almost every day. I usually go out about 8-9 a.m. while it’s still shady out front, then again at 5:30 p.m. when the shade returns. Yes, I regret not keeping up with this as so much has gone on.
The front gardens were finally weeded and I got all the new plants in the ground or in flower boxes. I haven’t made up my mind if I want the big boxes attached to the house again. Window boxes look cute, but I would have to walk through the garden to water and deadhead the plants. That could lead to accidently crushing or breaking the flowers planted in the ground. Plus, rain in the window boxes causes soil to splash against the house.
Right now the boxes are sitting along the edge of the garden. Those front edges are on hold until I get the walkway put in as I’m not sure yet how the design will go. There’s a decision to be made with this, too. Do I want stepping stones or go for a more expensive “real” walkway. My preference is a real walkway. I want to make my house inviting and a good walkway will make people feel more comfortable coming to the door. (Of course I always tell everyone that if the garage door is open, they are welcome to come in that way.)
The garage was finished and this opened the opportunity for more gardening. The garage is attached to the house and there’s the section under a window which opened an area to add new plants between the old side of the house and the driveway. The garage sits back 5 feet from the front edge of the house which makes that section of garden deeper than that along the front of the house.
The house and garage sit on a raised area which means there’s an embankment on all four sides (close to being able to have that moat I’m always joking about). The builder suggested I grass in the flat area around the outside of the garage, but I’m not a lawn person. I couldn’t make up my mind what I wanted to do with that sandy area that leads around to the back of the garage and deck.
The area to the far side of the garage and down over the embankment had purple cone flowers. He suggested I move them, but Echinacea doesn’t like to be moved and I like that they were planted near rocks. I weeded and mulched the area after cutting back the blackberry briars. I planted rudbeckia (another type of cone flower) in front of rocks nearby and mulched that in.
I worked on the garden manual in between the physical aspects of playing in the dirt. I am gathering information on all the flowers and plants in my yard and creating my own book complete with photos from the yard. I’ve been waiting for the plants that came with the property to bloom so I could identify those and add them to the manual, too.
I stopped at The Lily Lady in Sutton on July 17 and purchased eight different kinds of daylilies. Yeah, I get carried away. Marge Davison is wonderful and gives all kinds of advice and tips on how to care for these beauties. She carefully dug up the ones I chose and put them in a big trash bag with a little water. They sat in my garage for a couple of days while I prepared the area I’d chosen for the lily garden.
The one issue with my yard is that every rock I turn over, every clump of weed I pull, and every place dug in the ground, thousands of ants swarm. I can’t even stay still for a few moments and they are crawling on me. They are even all over the plants so when I am deadheading the spent blossoms, I have ants crawling up my arms. Arrgggh! I may have to get an exterminator next year.
It took two days to get the area ready for the lilies (two days because I only work while the area is shady). I wished for a second opinion in the garden design, but, alas, it’s just me. I went to sleep at night thinking about the lily bed design, woke in the night thinking about it, and it was on my mind in the morning.
Marge had told me I needed nine holes for the lilies, but I found I could divide the plants even further. She had said it they come apart easily, they are ready to divide. I worked on one or two holes at a time, mixing two different potting soils, adding water to make a much, then choosing the lily to put in the hole. I built a moat around each plant and watered.
The sun came out and I roasted, but I wanted to get it all done. Sweat dripped off my brow and ran down my nose. My body was screaming in pain from the bending over. I had five lilies to go when my area was filled. Now what? I took a break until after 5:30 when the area shaded again. I put the last five lilies in on the higher level beside the garage not sure if that’s where I’d keep them. Uh, oh, I had one tag left over. I got mixed up in the dividing of plants. I had to wait until the other lilies bloomed to match that tag. I mulched the new garden areas the next day.
The affects of the drought hit and the district posted a strict water ban – no watering of grass or flowers were on the list. I was upset. After spending a lot of money on beautiful flowers to make my place look great, now I can’t water them? Yes, I have the brook out back, but I can’t get down to the little bit of water, and if I could, I’d never get the heavy bucket up the embankment.
I posted my issue on Facebook. Someone offered to help me set up a sump pump to get water from the brook and I picked one up at Aubuchon’s. In the meantime, others suggested a rain barrel. But what’s the sense of a rain barrel if there’s no rain?
A water angel came through. “Take the sump pump back,” she said, “and I’ll come fill your barrel every few days.” Wow! How nice is that! My heart was overflowing with joy that two people offered to help me.
A couple days later I came home from an assignment and there were jugs of water beside the garage door along with 10 more lily plants. I was so happy, but where to put these new plants? But before I could plant them, I had to make an Agway run for more potting soil. I couldn’t help getting a couple more flowering plants.
I read that lilies don’t mind sand. The back and side area of the garage is all sand, so I built a terrace in the embankment and planted the lilies mixing the potting soil with sand. I wasn’t sure how it would work. If we got a good rain, would the mulch and sand all slough off down the hill? (It hasn’t yet).
I planted hollyhocks and the balloon flower next then I tackled the area below the railroad tie retaining wall that Michael had built behind the garage. I had previously planted a couple of hostas that Nan had given me and I wanted to weed that area between the wall and a couple of big rocks.
First I had to build steps down the soft, sandy embankment. I used a few leftover planks that Michael had cut from the deck when doing the garage. It’s not the sturdiest construction setting the planks into the sand, but they served the purpose for the moment and I finished the weeding and mulching.
My water angel has been bringing me water. I set out two big plastic trash buckets which she is filling. We were lucky to get a little rain, too which perked things up. I want more flower gardens.
There is one forsythia bush bordering the road and the driveway and another on the opposite side of the property behind the dumpster. There were indentations in the lawn which looked like other plants might have been put in there at one time, but now were grassed in. I dug out the grass and two are forsythia and one looks to be a lilac. I made little beds with mulch and put up little white fences to protect them. I’ll see what happens in the next couple of years (I know lilacs take a long time whereas forsythia is fast growing.)
This morning I put the planter full of catmint and the one with regular mint and chocolate mint on little glass garden tables. I dug up (what I think is) a butterfly bush that was growing too close to the rose bush and moved that to the garden area that has more open space.
Little steps and I’ll be a gardener yet.
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