A work in progress
For those who like to see works in progress, my home project for the year has been to rework the flower bed in the back yard.
October 2003, when we moved here, the back yard was all mixed grass. There were three juniper bushes that spanned about 60' from the gate to the corner, and five mulberry trees with 6"-8" trunks allowed to grow in the fence. There was Virginia Creeper all over most of the broken down fence. And bindweed had almost taken over the entire section of the yard where our vegetable garden is located, shown in the photographs. We kept the other foliage, which consisted of: one snowball bush, one overgrown pyracantha, a small grouping of mixed euonymous, and one large concord grapevine. The grapevine bore about 10gal of grapes last year. I replaced about 150' of fencing last summer before I could even begin to landscape. You can see some of the fence turn grayer in the progression of the pictures. In addition to the gardening, I replaced another 80' of fencing, some of it also visible in the last pictures.
March 3, Austrian pine planted, lots of garlic chive stubs, two temporary raised beds behind arbor full of strawberry plants and onion chives.
March 27, new raised bed in place with strawberries transplanted in it, onion chives around it, two new pyramids for clematis Niobe and Elsa Spath. Garlic chives have greened up, daffodils are in full bloom.
April 3, homebuilt 7' arbor has replaced cheap, temporary one for General Sikorsky and Hagley's Hybrid.
May 1, some of the vegetable garden is in place behind the flower garden, garlic chives have been moved behind roses and shasta daisies. Marigolds and pansies are in front of roses. Verbena, alyssum and columbines are spread throughout. Most of the verbena and yellow marigolds came up in the bed from last year's garden.
May 25, first flush beginning for the roses, clematis in full bloom, lariope (taken from another flower bed) transplanted along border.
July 22, I added trellises for Graham Thomas and Pat Austin behind the raised bed because they got blown around badly. Tomato plants by the back fence are almost 6'. I had to cut down the daisies behind the roses because they were about 6' tall and fell over from strong winds and rain.
August 3, sod removed to place paver bricks for a walkway. Not all the roses are visible, but from the foreground (right) to the arbor are Sunsprite, Intrigue, Tropicana, Fragrant Cloud, Gingersnap, Chrysler Imperial, Chicago Peace, Double Delight, and Tiffany. From the arbor to the tree are Granada, Passionate Kisses, Mr. Lincoln, Intrigue, Mirandy, Crimson Glory, and Black Bacarra. Behind the raised bed are Pat Austin and Graham Thomas.
August 7, pavers are in place. Our soil is heavy clay, so I will let the soil settle and harden. After the soil has hardened, I will remove the pavers and use sand to level the walkway and lock the bricks in place. Transplanted garlic chives are in full bloom with the daisies already 18" tall between them and the roses.
Some of the roses need to be moved because of height issues. For instance, Passionate Kisses is behind the arbor and Granada. It's 3' tall and 4' wide. It is the best bloomer in the lot and should have been out front. Plenty of room for more roses in new beds planned for other areas of the yard.
Thanks for looking,
Gary
Comments (12)
jean_ar
juicy_tomato
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