Sunday, February 8, 2009

Making Plans

I'm having a hard time getting started this morning for a variety of reasons. Yesterday I had planned to plant out some cool weather veggies, clear some more brush from the gully, and a whole list of things I could never accomplish in one day. Instead, I think I'll use today as a planning day.

Beside the front steps, I have a small bed that was filled with overgrown and ugly foundation plantings when I bought the house. Last summer, I paid a guy $20 to remove everything. In December, I tilled the area and pulled out what I hope are the last of the nandina roots. Those things propagate easily from root cuttings so the chances that I got them all are nil. I left the one camellia and it's regrown to a height of about 18". I had planted two "August Beauty" gardenias in this area last summer. Like most of that variety, they committed suicide shortly after blooming. I've got rooted cuttings of a gardenia from a neighbor that I'll plant here in the spring. It will take a few years for them to grow to a decent size, so I'm thinking of filling in with impatiens and other shade loving plants this summer.

Before. There is a camellia in there somewhere.

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Today.

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Other plans include trying to decide what will go where from the wintersown sprouts. I may sketch out a few plans while sitting in my adirondack chair. Or I might just make some mental notes knowing that it's all going to change as I go forward.

From the front steps, you can see two different beds. The one against the house doesn't retain a lot of moisture when it rains. I tilled this area in December and added a lot of organic material. I hope it helps, but I'm planning to use a lot of drought tolerant plants here just in case. I've got coreopsis, coneflowers, salvias, and creeping groundcover plants to put in here.

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And then there's the back beds, the north side garden where I planted hostas, the perennial bed, the front slope, etc and so forth. All in all, I need LOTS of plants to fill everything in. I don't have a lot of patience, but I do have a lot of sprouts and rooted cuttings.

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Sunday's picture.

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Believe it or not, there are things popping up out there.

Daffodils
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Ditch Lilies
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3 comments:

Kris said...

Say, Tom. Will you be putting back up the shutters? I always think shutters on a cottage are so friendly. Great pic of the liter bottles. Do a lot of dumpster diving to round them up? *grin*

Anonymous said...

How exciting to see those first daffs poking their little heads through the earth. It looks like you've got a great plan -- I love your brick cottage style house. You have a very cozy lot.

Tom - 7th Street Cottage said...

Kris, I'm planning to build new cottage style shutters at some point this spring. I'm still trying to decide on a paint color for the trim. The windows are vinyl so I think it will be either black or white since I can't paint them.

The bottles were saved by my mom, sister, me, and several people they know. I don't drink a lot of soda, but they do. I've still got another 100 or so in the basement to use.

The daffodils here have been sprouting for a while. Some as long as a month ago. I have some older varieties that are already blooming in the woods and around the old oak tree.