Beginner Gardening: "Wild" garden vs. tidy gardens which do you prefer, 0 by meezersfive

meezersfive wrote:
Many thanks to all of you for your kind words....it's been a labor intensive project since we started with only a new lawn in the spring of 2000. Gradually we've added more flowers, and moved lots of "too big for their britches" perennials, but it's finally coming together.

Rocks? We are in what is known as a Kettle Moraine area of Wisconsin. It's where the glaciers came through (back when I was a child according to my grandchildren) and rolled all the rocks around and piled them up in the "kettles", so we have small human head sized rocks in abundance. We had to haul in some of the Biggies but for the most part we just dragged them from all over the acre to where we could use them. Not many are attractive, mostly brownish black and round. They are easy to find, just stick your shovel in the ground. Clunk! Oh, there's another one. Plus lots of it's nieces and nephews, and cousins and uncles...........

The photo shows the big ones, as well as the part of the front garden that we are destroying because of a hideous prehistoric weed called Field Horsetail. We've used two kinds of weedkiller, and nothing seems to touch it. Next step is to go out there and flick my Bic because there's two or three inches of burnable woodchips which should toast the little roots nicely. Just waiting for a breeze from the right direction. . . . . . just call me Smokey...

Fertilizer is mostly Miracle Gro in these photos from '04, but now I'm also using Preen and Green which keeps the weed seeds from sprouting. It's not 100% but it sure cuts down on dandy-lions. We also mulch with grass clippings and turn those in in fall to loosen up the heavy clay soil.

Jkom, your cottage looks quite comfortable among the flowers and plantings, who needs to see the house? . I'm also afflicted with the gottahaveit plant syndrome. Went past Home Depot Friday ( uhh not exactly past...) ended up filling my trunk, and as if that wasn't enough, went back Saturday and filled the back of hubby's hatchback. There 's always room for more.

Yeah, people who don't garden are unaware of the hours we put in, just to keep pace with the weeds, fertilizing, soil amending, deadheading, watering and pruning....I try to get out every day and give some attention to a specific area, so that I can see what I've accomplished. If I wander around and just pick a weed here and there, it doesn't please me because it's hard to see the difference. If I focus on one bed, I feel I've done some good.

Time for a rest ..I dug in 36 of my bargain plants from Home Depot and I deserve to put my feet up for a while!! But first, I have to move the sprinkler................