Specialty Gardening: Suburban Right Angles to Cottage Garden - Year1 Planning, 1 by poolrunning

poolrunning wrote:
Hi all. I didn\'t care to resubscribe after the forum got reorganized, and my pix are all in Facebook albums now.

I\'ve continued lasagna gardening out from existing beds, and started a new area along the empty side wall of the house-- a 3\' strip of unplanted lasagna, connecting bigger, quarter-round beds for dwarf lilacs at the corners. Each also holds canine cremains.

In the daffodil bed, I overplanted a few Dianthus to take hold, and spread and built the lasagna up to about 6\" above yard level as well as doubling the width. In the beds across the front, I built up the lasagna to 4-6\" to hold a few Coral Bells I don\'t love love.... it\'s shade there, and hard to find flower/foliage to contrast with the existing hollies. It may be that those beds will become knickknack beds.

I scored a very cute child\'s hutch, meaning a cabinet for a toddler\'s play kitchen. It may masquerade as a bush.

I also lasagna-mulched a large circle bracketing the front walk.... we leave heavy chairs there all summer for music/storytelling, and Lawn Boy never seems to put them back right, after moving them to mow. So I eradicated the grass with dark brown mulch. We call the monthly gathering the Celebration Circle-- so even with chairs put away for winter, I do like seeing that circle.

I\'ve continued to collect found Bluestone, for the path I want thru the children\'s garden from driveway to front door. I\'ve determined the path\'s desired layout, and plan to lasagna-sand a base; and then I\'ll fill the gaps with more lasagna I can plant into. I\'ll make my own pavers from freely available bluestone chips and Sakrete, if I can\'t find more good pieces.

Making my Fall visit here the long one-- to get plants established-- has been WONDERFUL. I love the job of moving the hose every hour to give everybody a good long drink.

The City tore out all 4 sidewalk corners here to put in curb ramps. I was so lucky to BE here as they began demo-- asked for and received all of my corner\'s scrap. Net: 1 yard topsoil, 10 gallons gravel, 5 gallons fist-sized rocks/concrete/asphalt, and about a half yard of thick, busted concrete. Used everything except the concrete already-- the gravel repaired our driveway mouth and the soil filled lawn holes and was used in lasagna, too. I figure the irregular undersides of those big pieces (from cantaloupe to watermelon sizes) will make a good base for rock gardening. In the spring I\'ll decide where/what.

We rolled the pop-up camper out of the 2- car garage, and I took one whole side for garden gear/supply. When I come back in May (and r maybe Feb. too), I saved a spot for a potting corner and can\'t wait!!!

My best purchase this trip was the telescoping hoe/cultivator I\'ll be able to use from my ADA scooter to snatch weeds out of all this mulch.

The pic here shows the path layout. It was created the day I dragged groceries, in a recycle bin; I liked it so much, I plan to reproduce it in lasagna! ;-)

Look me up at FB if you want to see this fall\'s projects! I miss you guys!

~Susan Oldberg Hinton