Welcome to ashley_clark's Member Page

See my Clippings        See my Journal        See my trade list        Send me an email

Hello fellow gardeners! I'm a relatively newbie gardener who's just moved onto an old family farm, sadly now down to 3.5 acres. I have absolutely no idea what to do with the land, except I MUST have plants and animals out the wazooo. I'm very poor, so most of my plants are coming from friends or locals cleaning out their beds. I'm a firm believer in sweat-equity - I'll pull vinca, ivy, trim forsythia, divide bulbs, etc. if I can take the healthy cullings. My land is in poor condition, but has about 3/4 acre open for plantscaping, about 2 1/2 for animals. I need advice! All I can offer is enthusiasm and sweet tea, but there's plenty of both. My dream is to meet gardeners who can help me make my dreams for this little piece of land come true. I have no eye for design, but I can sure tell you what I like when I see it. How do I combine the plants, the walls, the archways, the open space, the secret corners, the dappled grove, the perennial bed, the Jeffersonian designs from UVA's grounds gardens, the colors, the feels, the scents... I dunno, but I'm sure looking for volunteers to take me under their wing!

The land is mostly scrubby grass surrounded by light woods in poor condition. Being poor myself, I can't pay to haul the deadfall. Maybe I can find a Boy Scout troop looking for merit badges! Nobody wants it for firewood (all pine and poplar - too bad). I'd love to thin it out, chop and clear the dead wood, and do something marvelous under the canopy.

So far all I have is some transplanted periwinkle, lambs ear, ferns and daffodils I dug up from other gardens, but OH! do I love visiting them at sunrise. They're under three trees in dapply shade. They get more love and attention (obsession?) than they probably need. There's such potential here! I know I'll put in a shade garden using ferns, hosta, vinca, bulbs, etc. in the traffic circle; expand the moss garden (I give up; the moss stays); put in a 40' x 6' sunny mixed perennial bed; get a kitchen garden going; do something with a lovely dappled grove of dogwood and red maple; do something in the woods; improve the soil quality and forage on the rest of the property.

I am just so so so happy to be back on this land, in this shabby little house, with my three crows Heckle Jeckle and Norman criticizing me, and the oddball squirrel who was rejected from the GEICO adds dashing around the driveway, and a front porch filled with lush containers, and dirty knees on my jeans. If I never left for work in the morning again I'd be perfectly content.

I live in: United States

My zone is: z7 VA - C'ville

My favorite forum 1 is Virginia Gardening.

First registered on April 03,2003.