This weekend a group of neighbours (Gang Green) worked on the street terrace to plant some flowers and put in a woodland garden at one end. Here is some pictures :-)
First a shot of the fountain. DH has rototilled around the fountain widening the planting area by about 3 feet. There are already hosta and rudabeckia (sp ?) planted.
Here is another shot - as you can see, the dirt is really brown powder - sigh . . .
DH put in a new path to the gate to the fountain. Here he is just getting started. He did a great job - the pavers are set so the lawn mowers can go over them without any damage to the machines.
Here I am very early Sunday morning - I was up at 5 am to start taking stuff from Our Old Home to the terrace - stuff like garden tools, plants, fertilizer, potting soil, etc. The rest of the gang was scheduled to start arriving at 8 am.
this is a picture of the first half of the woodland garden that I did by myself on Saturday. First I staked out a pathway wide enough for walkers, strollers, and wheelchairs between the two parts of the garden. Then I thought, "If I can just get this smaller half done today, I bet I can convince others to help with the larger part tomorrow - they just have to see what can be done"
MG! The ground was sooooo hard under those trees! And the roots! I even considered renting a power auger - but DH said it would cost too much. So, I worked on the small part by myself from 6 am until 2:30 in the afternoon. . . . which show real commitment on my part, because I hate the heat and I am normally in the house before 8:30 am!
The hostas were a gift from a dear DG member - who will remain anonymous because I don't want his generousity taken advantage of :-) I dug "containers" into this hardpan soil, then filled them with potting soil (even though wiser people than I advised against this). Then into the potting soil went either the donated hosta or columbine plants I had wintersown.
Then I created a little"fence" with bamboo stakes, twine, and bits of bright orange plastic bag that the Sunday newspaper comes in.
8 am - and other members of Gang Green start showing up. Wow! They were even more clueless than I am! I explained to plant the seedlings in groups of 3, or 5, or 7. They tended to plant them in straight lines about 3 inches apart . . . . I was working on the hard stuff - digging holes in the woodland garden . Anyway, I came back and showed them how to space the plants.
Another member of the team. Neighbours were really good sports. Some came for an hour, some stayed and helped for three hours. As some would leave, others would arrive - and so it went all day.
Deep in conversation . . .
WOW, your story really warmed my heart!
I am SO HAPPY to hear that others showed up to help you. You will be their teacher now :) You never know, you could just inspire one of them to become a "master gardener" somday :)
What hard work it sounds like and what a great and touching project you are heading.
I love your clubs name....."Gang Green" *lol*.
Congratulations on "spreading the soil" to others who may not even know how much they love to garden and how relaxing and rewarding it is. I hope they will continue to be supportive and show up.
Kim
Why I like men . . . Men are great! Men have defined masculinity in terms of being tough and strong. No "real" man would stand idly by, and let a woman do the hard digging :-) And of course, no considerate woman would try to demasculate a man by refusing to let him dig! So - while I did work very hard on Saturday - I didn't dig any holes on Sunday - just some half-hearted attempts, at which point some chivalrous (sp?) gentlemen would INSIST on diggin the hole - well, how could I refuse?
More guys working! You can see the cart of hosta waiting to be planted.
Ooops! DH didn't take pictures of the finished woodland garden! I am going to grab the camera and take some shots.
Site of woodland garden before we started :-)
About noon, another neighbour came over and helped dig holes, He asked if we could use 4 bags of red cedar chips (wife didn't like the smell of the cedar) . Nice, huh? The hostas look a little wilted - but we are taking very good care of them - they have received LOTS of water since they have been planted - so I expect that in a few months they will start to fill in, and in a year or two this will be a green mound of hosta with columbine poking through.
another shot of the small garden
The larger half of the garden printed. We only had enough mulch for some of the perimeter of this garden - but I expect that eventually the hosta and columbine will fill and we won't even need the mulch. :-)
Absolutely Amazing..........in years from now you will drive by and say "I was part of that" and smile. What a WONDERFUL gesture and huge undertaking. Really made my day to see all your pictures of the progression of your project. Friendships will be made by this garden and memories of "the day we planted together".
Kim
Another shot of the larger part of the woodland garden. The brick house in the background is my place.
Thanks Kim - I have just a few more shots - including some of the terrace. I am looking for ideas for the rest of it! I will explain in a minute when I post the shots :-)
This is a dark picture - but it shows the path we left between the two parts of the woodland garden.
DH's finished path to the gate - not as fancy as the brick path posted on the rose forum - but the pavers were donated by a neighbour. You probably can't make them out, but DH and I bought two soaker hoses for the plants around the fountain.
The following are a series of shots of the terrace. In three years, it is our neighbourhood's turn to host "Illumination Night" There are 7 terraces in the Forest Park Historical District, and each June, one terrace puts on a kind of block party, with events for kids, strawberry shortcakes, lemonaid stands, and live band.
I want to turn this terrace into paradise. I have three years to work on it. Any ideas? We have a benefactor who is willing to contribute irises. I am very happy to grow perennial seedlings, etc. And I think we can get a grant of $200. The city can provide free compost.
Another shot, looking from the woodland garden towards the fountain.
Any ideas what we might do with the landscaping? This is another view, looking towards the fountain.
You can see, we have a lot of area to play with. some gardens could be full sun, others, dappled shade, some deep shade.
Another picture of the woodland garden
Gotta go water the hosta now :-)
If your not carefull you could be kicked out of the Newbie Club ! GREAT JOB.
kdcon
Wow.
HEY! I was a founding member along with Kassia! Can't kick me out! lol.
Thanks for you kind comment - any ideas what we can do with the rest of the terrace?
This message was edited Jun 21, 2007 1:18 PM
Daylilies are a great plant....they are tough, take all kinds of abuse....multiply yearly. A large planting of Stella D'Oro looks beautiful and blooms for a long time. One of the banks in town has a HUGE planting of Stella's and it blooms for quite a while.
Very nice Michaela - congratulations!! For the rest - how is it going to be used? Do you need lots of room for people to hang out? Also, you don't want to detract from the new landscaped areas. Is that entire area in the photo available?
Yes - I was thinking of daylillies. Alas - colours I prefer are purples, hot pinks, and whites.
I was thinking of maybe an island bed with maybe butterfly bushes in the centre (height about 6+ feet). Because the butterfly bushes emerge late, I thought I could underplant these with flowering spring bulbs and Oriental poppies - fruit punch; these will bloom in late spring, then go dormant before the butterfly bushes overwhelm them (I hope!) In front of the butterfly bushes, I would like to plant groups of "mystic Merlin Malva - which will grow to about 4 or so feet tall. these are supposed to be various shades of purple and blues. Amongst the Malva, or maybe just in front, I would like to plant groups of Casablanca Oriental Lilies (which will bloom in August) and some form of pink Asiatic lily that will bloom earlier.
Then maybe in front of these grouping of iris, blue geranium (have this, can collect the seed), or Veronica Sunny Boy (have this, can collect the seed), or maybe some groupings of Agastache Golden Jubilee (have this, can collect seed)
Then, I am stuck on what to do for the edging. In my own garden, I use white wax begonias like flowering boxwood - but I can't afford to buy that many annuals, so it had better be some form of easy to grow perennial. Maybe white clips campanula. Or some form of short daylillies in pink, mauves, or purples.
Anyway, the idea is to do this with almost no money (anybody can have great landscaping if they throw enough money at it - just hire professionals.)
What ideas do you have?
Apparently, we have free reign to do as we wish, as long as we are willing to maintain it.
Oh, and maybe some Magnus coneflowers - I've got seeds for those too. I know the perennials won't look like anything for three or more years. But beggars can't be choosers. Planting seeds is the only way I know to get enough plants to fill a garden.
And yes . . . I understand that (1) the plants never look like the front of the seed package, and (2) all the plants won't be in bloom at once.
Anyway, am I being silly - or is this actually possible?
If you can dream it - you can do it. If you want Nora Barlow columbines - I have a ton of seeds I can send. Think about violets as a border - they grow wild and look tidy. Ferns are good - they take little care and put up a lot of fluff. You could also post on Freecycle for plants. I gave away a 25' x 3' patch of hostas this spring on Freecycle.
What's Freecycle?
Thanks for the offer of columbine seeds. - we may be able to use those too!
columbines are a good choice, 'cause I can winter sow those. I don't have any of the fancy heating pads/light systems :-)
Ferns would look great in the woodland garden - as would the violets. :-)
Sounds like you have a pretty good idea already, Michaela! So you're talking about just adding an additional bed, correct? Full sun, I assume. Good thing you don't have deer because you named a few of their favorites. A note on the Golden Jubilee - I am finding them all over the place this year. When planning this garden, please don't forget about level of maintenance. You will have this in addition to your own garden. I saw maintenance as no problem when I started out. Now it's a major concern, especially with my back getting worse. Consider flowering shrubs, not just perennials. There are many gorgeous multi-season interest shrubs out there. Also, don't forget about Fall color. Don't get overly hooked on bloom color alone. Foliage is very important.
Just some general comments. Have fun.
Freecycle http://www.freecycle.org/ There are very few rules - the big one is that anything offered must be free. Join groups (free of course) in your area and watch for people to put up something that you want and email them asking for it. If they pick you - you go and pick it up for free. You can also ask for things and someone who has it to give away will email you. I have seen everything from baby food coupons to boats and automobiles on Freecycle.
I can dig up some violets for you for Sunday - if you want. I also have some bleeding heart seedlings that I wasn't going to bring because the leaf miners got them - but even though they look ratty - they will be just fine - let me know if you want them.
You can put blueberries in your shaded areas along with elder berries, choke cherries and viburnums. They all have 3 season interest including food for birds. Because they are natives - they will take little care in the years to come.
Of course, you are right Victor - some ornamental grasses and some shrubs would be great - but there's no money - yet. So everything must be grown from seed. We will have about $200 for bulbs for around the fountain.
Cat, I would love the bleeding heart seedlings! also the violets. I can find spots for those right now :-)
As for the blueberries, etc. We don't need to feed the birds - we have lots of birds, but more importantly, we have WAY TOO MANY squirrels. (which, I don't like). So, I really don't want too much that looks like groceries for squirrels. :-)
I see this as a long term project - this fall we will create one new bed. In the spring, we will bring in the compost and basically use it as a nursery bed.
Then fall of 2008 create more new beds. Spring of 2009, bring in more compost, and move 1 year old perennials into the beds. Fill in gaps with annuals. Fall of 2009? More beds? Spring of 2010 - bring in more compost, etc.
I don't expect anything will really look like much until 2009.
Meanwhile, I have lots and lots of fun sketching ideas . . . . because the actual final planting is still a while away, I have lots of time to make adjustments - so please give me all your ideas :-)
