Progress!! Bwahahahahaaa!





This is about 1/4 of the path, I think, and it took me about 2h to excavate...so naptimes over this weekend and next ought to be enough to have it done and ready to fill. Although tomorrow it's supposed to rain - dammit. Hopefully it will keep to a drizzle in the early afternoon.

Also, while browsing usedottawa.com, I came across an ad for a pile of Fine Gardening magazines. When I responded, it turns out they also had a stack of Canadian Gardening issues for sale. 90 new garden magazines - RAWK. If I restrain myself to one magazine a day, this will almost keep me in garden daydreaming material through the whole winter. I don't know if I have such ninja-like willpower in me.

Thanks to one awesome neighbour, I have a new spirea (smallish and pink-flowering), some gooseneck loosestrife (which is apparently apt to be thuggish, so I'll have to plant it in a pot, I think), an astilbe, and some silver deadnettle.

Another awesome neighbour is redoing her driveway and has offered to share the cost of delivery for crushed stone and sand, making the aggregates for the spiral walkway a lot more affordable.

The bricks, meanwhile, have been found and delivered! Cobblestone interlock pavers, actually. They were more expensive than what I'd originally been hoping to spend, but they are so gorgeous that I'm thrilled to pieces anyway. I did a dry run this weekend and totally should have taken pictures...for my absent-mindedness I will just have to wait for a few weeks until we can get it done for realz.

Stupid fall. Why does it have to get dark out so early? I want to be in the garden!!

I am doing some editing to accommodate my recent purchases. I tore out the beans, which makes a pretty dramatic difference to the architecture of the whole bed. With the digitalis, ginger, and sweet woodruff moved elsewhere, this will give me space to put the gigantor rheum palmatum in the back of the bed instead, where it will fill up the space nicely and be much more visible than the current occupants. The digitalis will go between the RP and the peonies, with room for more of the less gigantic and more colourful kind come spring; the ginger, which has gotten pretty massive since last summer, will be in the front of the corner bed where there's both room and visibility for it. The sweet woodruff can go in front of the lady's mantle and chocolate boneset in the side bed, since there's a big blank there that could use some groundcover.

Found an awesome spot for the phlox in front of the rose and the irises, since it will fill the gap nicely when those are finished blooming. Not totally sure what I'm going to do with the clematis yet; with the prairie joy rose and the rose campion where they are I don't think I'd be able to see it in the middle of the sun bed, which is the most obvious spot for it.

Ooh, and now it's pouring rain, so the transplants are getting a good watering in. Eeeeeeexcellent.

Well, I achieved most of what I set out to do during my Glorious Vacation. Weeding, civilizing, and mulching were mostly accomplished - it's just the wild and woolly part of the east bed (past the rhubarb) and the foundation bed out front that have yet to be conquered. Planted all the plants I meant to plant (although I now have some veronica and some hollyhocks waiting to get into the ground, and didn't get around to a pile of seeds).

To my irritation, some disgusting insect - probably sawfly larvae - is devouring the needles off the mugho pine in the front bed. Must remember to wield some soap-and-water at them, although I'm not sure that will be effective; worth a shot I suppose. The intarwebs assure me that one year's infestation doesn't generally kill the plant. And if it does, well, I will be sadly lacking a nice structural evergreen, but on the plus side I will have space to plant something new.

Something dug up the sunflower seedlings Rose brought home from daycare for mother's day. Not that Rose is old enough to really understand making or giving a gift, but still: GRRR. The Empress of Dirt has to protect her sprouting sunflowers from birds, apparently, so maybe that's what got mine. She has a picture illustrating a nice little cage that seems to be made from an old hanging basket. Maybe I will try that next year. Meanwhile, I still have the pot that she painted to put them in, so there's something anyway.

In other pest news, I am somewhat surprised to find that the alliums seem to be - knock on wood! - deterring the groundhog, since its depradations have been limited to the one bed that doesn't contain any. Hmmmm! I need to get some more of the pinks ones (allium roseum) anyway, and I like them in general, so those are totally on my fall bulb shopping list. (Also some Black Hero tulips, so pretty!)

I would also really like to plant some asparagus. Not to eat - the soil here is sandy and poor (I submit for evidence our pathetic excuse for a lawn), which conditions apparently result in tough and woody stalks - but for ornamental purposes; if you let asparagus stalks mature, they turn into gigantically tall feathery foliage. Check this out:

Wouldn't that be a cool accent! I am pretty much out of space for tall full sun plants in the back - there's some space in the middle, but I think something so tall in that spot would just end up hiding everything at the back - but it could go in a corner of the new bed out front. As a bonus, I believe I spied some at Artistic Landscape Design for the eminently affordable price of $6.99.

Fall bulb schemes so far, then:

Gardenimport.com
Eremurus x 3
Black Hero tulips x 20

Breck's
Scarlet majesty tulips x 8
White cloud allium x 3

Vesey's
Blue drumstick alliums x 24
Peach melba tulips x 15
Angelique tulips x 18
Allium roseum x 20

Now if I was smart, I would make my tulip investment in some nice single flowering varieties that would come back reliably for a few years...but I can't help myself, the double ones just cry out to me. Siiiigh. Mail order plant purveyors, you had better love me.

Long Weekend & Vacation Day 1 Accomplishments

* added to east bed:

Cardinal flower


Golden loosestrife (no relation to the evil purple loosestrife, don't worry)


German catchfly


Lady's mantle


* found a nice and affordable obelisk chez Ritchie's Feed & Seed - damn that place is awesome - and set the prairie joy rose climbing up it. Noticed in the process that the rose has several buds. FTW!

* emptied my "wasteland of pots", as a friend so aptly described it, and schlepped them all to Loblaws for recycling

* snapped up two gigantic, gorgeous peonies while at Loblaws, since they were on special for $10, and added them to the sunny part of the shade bed

* beat the ferns back as far as the rhubarb, at least. Discovered that the ferns were thoroughly underplanted with not only creeping jenny but evil creeping campanulas (the proper name for the long purples I battled at Jamieson). Not sure what to do about this; they're all mixed up in the fringes of the lawn, too, which dense mat of roots makes them a real bitch to pull out. I suppose I could try digging up all the soil around there, sifting out what I can, and then mulching the hell out of the whole area.

Additional progress in the front yard:

* snapped up a few cheapie plants in the market (lupins, lavender, cilantro, and a funky pink-flowering ornamental grass) and added to the new bed.
* planted seeds in the new bed as well: hollyhocks at the back, poppies of various heights and colours and longevities all around, bright lights swiss chard in the middle, some gigantor marigolds (just in case they might actually sprout when direct seeded outside) nearish the back. I have never yet succeeded in growing poppies from seed, but the packages insist they're easy to grow and that bed is the best approximation I have of their ideal conditions, so here's hoping.
* the peonies are (knock on wood!!!) looking like they might actually manage to bloom this year??!? Again, here's hoping!

Progress in the back yard:
* Operation Lily Beetle Sudden Death continues apace. I could only find two of the little bastards to squish the other night; this morning I couldn't find any. Trying not to get my hopes up, as they will no doubt be back in force soon enough. Sneaky tricks I have discovered:
* it's hard to tell whether you've squished them enough to actually kill them dead, and it's gross besides, but picking them off and chucking them in a bucket of water will make sure and is not as squickifying.
* my cousin had the excellent idea of wielding needle-nose pliers at them, since they like to hide in the folds of leaves and fall right off the plant and hide in the ground if you are too clumsy to nab them right away.
* use a short bucket of water; that way you can lean the plants over it and just brush/shake the beetles off into the bucket. Much less gross than squishing them.
* check the undersides of the leaves - eggs, like adults, are bright orange and easy to spot.

TO DO
* plant today's spoils. SQUEE.
* buy some of those tall hardwood stakes and fix up the delphiniums - also the japanese maple, which has grown a few inches since last year, astonishingly enough.
* ongoing weeding of doom. Bleh.
* On that note: MULCH. How I am going to manage this exactly I'm not sure, because it will involve a crapload of the stuff. But nonetheless.
* Clean up the throughway, it's getting embarrassing.
* de-dandelion the backyard lawn and add some more clover in its place.
* mow the lawn front and back. What a concept.
* hunt for a shade-tolerant mockorange and possibly a bicolour buddleia, if there is still a sunny bare spot that's big enough.

I ♥ my crocuses.



Here's a wider-angle shot for future comparison purposes. Naturalize, my pretties!! Ahahahahahaaa!



Aaaaaaaand look what I did today! The new garden bed begins to take shape! Now I just need topsoil. I meant to get Ritchie's to deliver it on Monday, but I forgot to call back on Thursday, so I may have missed the boat on that till next weekend.



As an added bonus this used up every last one of the remaining rocks from Montague, so now I can sweep up the throughway once and for all. Well, except for that pile of sand that I need to figure out what to do with.

Also this weekend I need to replant a bunch of my seeds, since some cat or other around here has been using them as a salad bar. GRRRR.

Spring cleaning

Ahhhhhhh. Sweet, sweet project time, how I ♥ you.

Tonight I accomplished the following:

* gave the backyard lawn a thorough raking over, as it was caked with half-decayed fallen lilac leaves. Will have to deploy some dutch white clover and some shade-mix grass seed; it's pretty patchy and mossy back there. Not that I mind the moss, it's nice and green and soft, but the last thing I need is hostile weed takeovers, and the clover should help to reduce the amount of bare ground available for them.

Speaking of which, the creeping jenny is already on the move, depressingly; I did the "rake first in one direction, then the other" trick advised by Ed Lawrence for creeping charlie, but it didn't do much good. I think I will have to wield a spade and then go sifting through the soil by hand for every scrap of root in that patch in order to stave it off. And even then I haven't got a hope of digging it all out of the garden bed. Goddamn thuggish plant. I wouldn't mind it so much if it actually discouraged other weeds, but nooooo.

* finally transplanted the prairie joy rose, hopefully not demolishing its root system too badly in the process. Ugh. Fingers crossed. The outcome of this will go a long way towards determining my opinion of the finickiness of roses. At least I managed not to accidentally dig up any bulbs while I was at it.

* swept the patio mostly clear of pine needles, revealing a lovely ever-more-established patchwork of thyme and moss and nicely settled stones. It is totally increasing in gorgeousness and I am dead proud of it.

* swept up the astonishing drifts of fallen leaves and cedar bits covering the passthrough between carport and yard. I really have to do something about this area, it's a horrific mess. It would be tempting to dig up some of the pavers and turn it into garden space, especially given all the nice inviting passageway ideas I've seen in garden magazines, but it's so shady in there that the attempt would be an exercise in frustration. Maybe if I get bored in 10 years. Besides, we need somewhere to put the BBQ.

I figure that if I can dedicate the half-hour that is Corey's part of the Zoodle's bedtime routine to yard-work, I will be able to keep at least sort of on top of things. Naturally that is the same time slot I would need to work up to biking to work. Too many damn projects, not enough time. But REGARDLESS, here is my list of Stuff To Tackle In Nearish Future:

FRONT YARD
* determine outlines of new bed and cover with compost and topsoil
* plant "early spring" seeds, e.g. poppies
* dethatch and top-dress lawn, deploy clover and grass seed
* clean up leaves and other crap out of existing beds

BACK YARD
* finish cleaning up throughway
* organize shed so it's not a hazard to set foot in it - just about gave myself a black eye this evening
* top-dress lawn, deploy clover and grass seed
* start shade bed with compost, topsoil, and mulch while I figure out wtf I'm going to do with it
* get the drop on all the goddamn celandine that's popping up everywhere

Triumph! This is probably the first time I've actually gotten bulbs into the ground in reasonable time, despite there being an unprecedented frahillion of them. I also planted most of the spoils from the previous post.

Remaining Garden Chores
* move pampas grass
* move primrose to front, where it will actually be visible
* plant poppy (forgot to this afternoon, oops)
* move rose and peony when they go dormant
* cover maple and magnolia when it gets cold

The one thing I'm still pondering is where to put the burning bush. The internets tell me it has the best colour in full sun and dry conditions, which suggests I ought to stick it in the front yard. Maybe I could put it sort of in the front corner...



...and then it could be the centerpiece of that little decorative corner I was scheming there.

In other news, here's what the sun bed looks like right now:



Between the cosmos, the asters, and the gaura, this is impressively colourful for October, eh?

Less impressive:



One single, solitary, lonely sweet pea. File under Plants I Will Not Be Bothered With Next Year. This is particularly annoying because if they HAD worked out, they'd still be blooming like crazy.

The finished wall!




Also, some blooms (pardon the flash-lighting, it was getting late when I took these):

David Austin rose, continuing in gorgeousness:


Cleome. Have I mentioned how delighted I am with these, despite their annualness? If I can track down some of those variegated pink ones next year my happiness will be complete.

Tonight, after I planted the juniper, the piles of extra rocks sitting around the yard were suddenly so annoying in their messiness that I spent an hour or so starting to pile them into a dry-laid wall, as maundered about below. For a snap decision this is working out gloriously: it's gotten rid of about half the rock piles so far, and it looks fantastic. There are all kinds of nooks and crannies in it, which I may try to stuff with plants, but which will no doubt also shelter snakes and toads and all kinds of good garden critters. Also, I hear that you can paint rocks with some sort of yogurt solution to encourage moss - will have to double check that Fine Gardening article again.

How solidly this wall is constructed is anyone's guess, especially since I remember hearing that a dry-laid wall actually takes considerable skill to build, and I have none such (as the blog title notes, just enthusiasm). Well, if it falls over on the hydrangeas, no loss there, right?

As mentioned, I would looooooove to have a gorgeous copper fountain in front of this wall, where it would make a stunning centerpiece for the whole yard. The trick there is that the fountains I have my eye on require a power source, which would involve burying a line in conduit all the way across the yard from the house - a.k.a. total, abject pain in the ass. I'll have to ask if there's some way to substitute a solar or battery powered pump.

Irrigation system: complete and leak-free, w00t!!

Weeds: beaten back, sort of. They seem to know that they have been dealt a serious blow by my landscaping efforts, because wherever I carelessly left a leaf or two exposed at the edges of the new beds, they are exploding into new growth. I think I'd better advance my plans for mulch in a hurry while the advantage is still mine. Also, to every last bit of creeping charlie everywhere, I say "YOU GO TO HELL AND YOU DIE".

I don't know what they're smoking at Environment Canada, but at least I got my garden time today after all. Recording results in pictures for future comparison.



The patio, pathways, and beginning of (creeping) thyme:


The newly dignified west bed, with ferns - magnolia in a bucket is waiting for Corey to help me plant it, since I don't feel like screwing up my back any further than I already have:


The beginnings of the sunny bed, with cleome, cosmos, and very small pampas grass, shasta daisy, and mimulus seedlings:


The east bed, somewhat less junglelike - indeed, rather bare - with some of the ferns moved elsewhere. Canterbury bells and hardy geraniums are a start on repopulating it, at least:


Ferns replacing some of the bigger revenant hydrangeas, which got dug up and foisted on a neighbour:


Lilac in bloom! Wish I'd gotten a picture of the neighbour's apple trees in bloom, too - they droop floriferous branches over the east fence; so gorgeous!


It's totally a spirea, and it's starting to bloom too:

Was very productive today. Dug up the rest of the stoopid pavers - hurting my back in the process, I think; stoopid goddamn pavers - and got rid of all the saplings and celandine in the west bed, although I left most of the daylilies alone. Also dug celandine out of the east bed, thereby discovering that the liatris I planted there are coming up after all, albeit a little anemically due to lack of sun. Dug up several ferns and moved them around the yard; they are very stylish in the west bed, I must say, and add some nice height to the shady back corner. We'll see how well they take the transplanting, but my theory is that with all the rain they won't even so much as wilt. There's still quite the mob of them to dig up, and even then I'll be leaving a whole chunk of the east bed chock-full of them. (Anybody want some gigantor ferns?? I got plenty!) I figure the rest of the ones that are currently in the way can go in front of the spirea and hydrangeas, where they'll make a nice transition between the gigantor shrubby stuff and shorter perennials. Although that will make for quite a chilly green palette in that bed; I'll have to come up with something tall and colourful to put in there to break things up a bit. Astilbe maybe? I have to get rid of all the freaking lily of the valley first, in any case.

I also chopped down most of the rhubarb, which was creating a lot of shade with its massive leaves, so now I am making rhubarb crisp. Mmmmmmm, rhubarb crisp. It's been years since I've had this. I ♥ my garden.

I got the stones laid for all the pathways, except for the one on the east side of the yard that I will have to carve out once I've redistributed the giant pile of dirt that's in the way. I wish I could have planted the creeping thyme today, since it's going to rain for the rest of the week and it would have gotten a nice watering in, but I couldn't find it at Loblaws and I wouldn't have had time anyway, so alas. The outlines of the stones are rather smudgy at the moment because of the topsoil I swept over everything to get it in between the cracks; I am looking forward to seeing it after the rain, which should wash things clean and settle the contours a bit.

Overall, I am very pleased with the outcome of this project so far. Some of the stones are still not perfectly settled, but that will come with time/rain/ground cover, I think, and after all there's a limit to the perfection one can expect from dry-laid fieldstones (vs, say, perfectly flat flagstones laid in mortar). I have a good deal of rock left over, which I figure I will put down in the garden beds as needed for access purposes, and - more problematically - also a good deal of sand and topsoil. The topsoil I can use, but I'm at a bit of a loss for what to do with the sand...I'd make a sandbox for Rose, since God knows my sisters and I enjoyed the sandbox we had in Calgary, but she'd be too little for it until next year, and since it's building sand I don't know if it would be any good for that purpose anyway. I guess I'll throw an ad on craigslist/usedottawa and see if anyone wants free sand to schlep away.

So with THAT craziness mostly out of the way, I need to turn my attention back to the plants. I have seedlings that need to get in the ground and also seeds that need planting...damn, should have done that today, too. Well, if the rain lets up one of these evenings I will scoot out for project time; the ground will be wet, after all. Shasta daisies and pampas grass can go in the brand new sunny bed - pampas grass at the back, since if it survives it will make some nice height back there. Seedwise I have some little poppies that will be nice in the front, along with some wildflowers (scarlet flax, purple coneflowers). I have some annual seeds I may try, too; temporary solutions are better than nothing. And I may move some things (rose, peony) that are getting too much shade where they are...although maybe that should wait until the fall. We'll see how hacking out ferns and rhubarb stalks improves the light conditions. Meanwhile canterbury bells can go in the new part-shade bed, along with the lovely fuschia hardy geraniums that I haven't gotten around to planting, and some forget-me-nots.

I REALLY need to move some of those damn ferns; they are waist-high and thus would be good for height in the shade next to the west fence. Also I need to finish digging up the back of the west bed. I think I will buy one of the magnolia shrubs Loblaws is selling for $60 and put that in the sun bed, and then I need to find that flowering tree I've been speculating about for the back corner. I believe I will make a mid or late June nursery field trip.

Excavation complete:


Starting to lay stones over rock and sand (wish I'd gotten a picture of Corey steering the plate tamper, but alas):


Aaaaaaand nearly done! Just need to get more dirt into the cracks, settle a couple stones a bit more firmly, and plant ground cover - then I start on the pathways:


More views:

Landscaping weekend of doom complete! Crushed rock got compacted, pathways got at least roughly dug out (stoopid tree roots :P), turf, paper and topsoil got distributed over most of two garden beds, and sand got almost all filled in and leveled - I have the last little crescent to fill in by myself tomorrow, and then I will start hauling rocks. I was going to get Corey to help me place the heaviest ones tonight, but those are going right in the middle, and in order to get to the middle at the moment one would have to stomp through all our soft, squishy, beautifully leveled sand. So I'll start at the edge and work my way across. We spread a tarp over it for the night to prevent neighbourhood cats from using it as a luxury-sized litterbox; hopefully they (and any other suburban critters) will be disinclined to walk on that.

All this accomplishment is thanks to the yeoman service of my darling husband, who has been a baby-minding, sand-schlepping, rock-compacting SUPERSTAR for the last couple days. It's also thanks to my mom, who took over the baby-minding for the later half of today, and who used her mad productivity mojo to ALSO get groceries, make dinner, and clean the fridge (!!!) I think I may sneak out to her house during the day and leave her some flowers or something.

Looking back over previous pictures of the yard, I have to say that I am THRILLED TO PIECES with the effect of all this renovation, which you can totally see taking shape at this point. The whole yard will have so much more...more...I don't even quite know how to put it. Structure? Definition? Pizzazz? This setup actually puts all the space in the yard to work in a dynamic way, whereas before the space was just sitting there empty and useless (except for attempting to grow straggly lawn). Tomorrow I will take some progress pictures.

The remaining problem, of course, is filling the gardening spaces, because they're HUGE. Even doing one per year is going to be a significant challenge. As I said to Corey this afternoon while throwing turf and topsoil around, "holy CRAP, this is going to be a big fucking garden bed. What have I gotten myself into?" His response: "oh, you know, the usual." Heh. Touche.

Hear me roar:

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRR

RRRRRRRRGHHHH!

Today while Rose noodled along with Corey I schlepped 1.5 tons of crushed rock from the front of the driveway to the backyard. It is now spread out in the patio circle and more or less leveled.

Tomorrow:

* mow the lawn, water the garden
* dig out pathways (OMG...more digging...nooooooes) which will involve redistributing that big pile of sort-of-turf and topsoil
* once mom arrives to watch the baby, to do with Corey: re-rent the plate tamper (long, stupid story there) and compact crushed rock, lay 3" of sand over the whole thing, and start putting down the Montague rocks
* get groceries for dinner of boeuf bourguignon (yummay) and some creeping thyme while I'm at Loblaws

I suspect I will be hacking at the pathways and putting down rocks during the week, too, but the bulk of the work - and certainly everything I need a second pair of hands for - should be done by the end of tomorrow.

Today I weeded ferociously for a good 3h and got out of it about 3 square feet of bare dirt. And that no doubt is temporary, since I know I didn't get all the roots out. Man, lily of the valley is a lot more pernicious than it looks.

I have, randomly, a red-osier dogwood growing right next to the pine. I was happy to see this, since I have no objection at all to bird-feeding berries and nice red twigs for the winter. Strange place to plant it, though. Apparently low-lying branches will root themselves; I pulled up one branch that was attempting this feat and redirected it so it goes around the pine instead of into the spot I want for the lilies. Google, however, tells me that dogwood thickets can get pretty massive, and now I'm not sure what to do with it; I don't think it has enough room where it is, unless I send it in the other direction to do battle with the hydrangeas, and I'm afraid it would be the loser in that fight (considering that it was totally invisible until I chopped the hydrangeas down). Maybe I could try digging it up and moving it over to the west bed, since I've been wondering what to put over there for some height at the back? Easier said than done, I suspect...well, whatever I dug up would no doubt grow happily in the west bed, but I bet any root pieces left behind under the tree would ALSO grow happily.

Planted the anonymous bigass thing next to the maybe-a-spirea; planted the solomon's seal in the west bed, next to the fence where there's near-total shade; planted the filipendula between dogwood and lilies, since it's supposed to reach about 3.5' tall; planted the red sempervivens in the front yard where they will hopefully spread and fill up an empty spot under the yew. Still hemming and hawing about where best to put the others. The little alpine doodads will probably go in the front yard too, since it's drier there and there are better-defined places for tiny border plants. This is sort of my problem with the remaining shady stuff, since most of it keeps a pretty low profile but it's all interesting-looking enough that I want to be able to see it. I suppose I could just throw them all into the west bed for now and move them around or divide them once I start to get things more straightened out...not like that's going to happen very quickly, after all, and I may as well give them the chance to multiply a bit.

Today I:

* dug under about half of the west bed (up to the stupid pavers, which I'm going to wait to tackle till I can get my hands on a crowbar), digging up many rocks and all the daylily rhizomes I could get my mitts on
* having checked with the neighbours, trimmed back the prickly climbing thing that is invading from their yard
* tidied and swept the through-space between carport and shed

I also kept an eye on the sun conditions through the day and confirmed that the front yard is indeed full sun (6h+) throughout, and so is a swath of the backyard, with much of the rest of it on the sunny side of partial shade. I've decided I'm going to move the compost, because AS IF I am going to waste one of the sunniest spots in the yard on it! It would in fact be a very good place for that flowering almond....

I AM SO EXCITED about this yard, I cannot tell you.

Tomorrow or Sunday I will whip out to Canadian Tire, where I saw a bunch more perennials that piqued my interest. Also on my to do list, although somewhat longer term, is to put together some containers to hang over the front step, decorate the through-space, and generally be gorgeous, since I seem to have acquired a bazillion containers in the last year or so. Maybe I will attempt some of those impossibly perfect arrangements I've been seeing in garden magazines. I'll just have to remember to water them this time around. For this purpose maybe I will start a rain barrel.