Michigan Gardening: Ideas for Spring, 1 by calypsa

calypsa wrote:
Hmmm... still haven't finalized a list, but oh boy have I been enjoying the catalogs. Lots of dreaming... We're really wishing that we had a bigger yard! Well, I am anyway. I like to plant grass (I'm just a sucker for growing just about anything), my husband likes to mow (he is so weird) grass, and I admit that we're both kind of tired of these Michigan winters. But then again, we're dreaming of a nice chunk of land in Colorado, and the climate's about the same, so perhaps we're just gluttons for punishment :) But here's what I'm thinking for our yard:

1. Plant more grass! Try to make our backyard/former sandbox actually a green haven. When we moved in there were about 4 sickly little tufts of grass in our whole back yard. Husband would mow and come in looking like Pig Pen. I really got into planting grass last fall... It looks so much better already but still needs work.

2. Plant veggies and try to find a way to keep the weeds from taking over like they did last year,

3. Buy some Russian Sage to add to my herb garden because it seems like everyone here likes it so much!

4. Grow many plants from seed (I've already ordered tons along with some new seed-starting kits),

5. Plant lavender (munstead variety) along the side of the driveway nearest to the house after I grow them from seed,

6. Clean up the North side of our yard and

7. Landscape out our neighbors to the North! (They've got this big fat chocolate labrador that is always doing his business in our yard. And when the neighbors are outside with him and see us trying to shoo Moose out of our front yard, they laugh and wave and say that we'll appreciate the fertilizer... Grrrrrrr....) I'm thinking about big decorative grasses, Sum and Substance hostas, and Stella de Oro daylilies. But I'm still not sure about everything over here, this area will definitely take a lot of thought, and

8. Try to figure out what I can grow under these horrible silver Maple trees that are growing all over the back of our lot. The former owners planted oodles of Maple trees and then put rocks allllll over. I'm not such a fan of rocks, but the Maple roots literally choke out almost everything we have planted within 30 feet of them. (The picture I've attached shows part of the back of our lot, with the garden I planted to try and brighten up that area. There are maple trees all around. I'm hoping that some of those hostas and hellebores come back this spring!)

Phew! Sounds like a lot, and that's not everything I'm sure. All these wonderful catalogs encourage me to add more and more plants to my list and to my to-do list.