Front yard / corner lot needs help for British pocket garden

Linda, I really dont think you appreciate that way back in September 08, when you asked for help / ideas for your project just how much pleasure you would bring to others, especially new gardeners, there must be many out there who use this site that gained much confidence, ideas, knowledge as to how to start off a garden and be able to grow along with yours. to think when you and I first got in touch, I was honestly more worried about your health than your gardening skills, you are an inspiration to everyone who thinks illness is a barrier to pleasure and if we have the will, can take advice from so many, read and learn, you CAN have a garden of your dreams. I am so proud of you. I hope others new folks on the site now realise just what Dave's Gardening Site is there for, and enjoy it as much as you have. Best wishes. WeeNel.
PS, I would call your Male Lion HOPE. to remember where you started, how you were recovering from Cancer, how you had to clear such a large area and how you hoped to achieve your dreams. Bet others will have even more great names for him, Ha, ha, ha.

Oh my, WeeNel, I am blushing, girl! But I only asked the questions. It's the rest of you with all your experience who have brought the wisdom to us all in a most amazing way. Interestingly, there's a level of trust between those of us who post. My sense is always that, as a rule, I can trust that those who respond to my queries will treat me respectfully and honestly. And I love it. Life is too short to waste it on less.

Actually, my membership was given to me by an online friend, a woman I met on eBay. She just purchased it and let Dave handle the introduction. I didn't know for some time who had done such a kind thing for me. We'd talked off and on about gardening and gardening web sites and she was convinced that you folks were out of this world . . . and right she was/is. I plan on passing that gift along, BTW, and am excitedly searching for someone who might be interested to a new learning venue online

And as to my health? Well, I continue to live with deficits in my capacity to live as I once did. But, and this is a BIG BUT . . . I'm 5 years cancer free and feel blessed. I hope to keep that remission going for a bit so I can enjoy my new front yard.

Oh, I know exactly where I'm gonna place HOPE when I bring him home.

With much fondness to all of you,
Linda

WAHOO!!! I planted my multi-trunk magnolia, Magnolia Royal Star, today! It is such a sweet shape and it's flowering and leafing out. See the Plant Files photo by mosquitoflats http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/63296/ here. Is it awesome, or what? It's in front of the west corner of the fence, just a tad within the canopy of the Fruitless Mulberry. It will have sun all morning until noon and then late afternoon sun as well. And, if the Mulberry canopy of too much for it I can have the canopy tweaked some in order to clear it. Year-round interest, if you consider the shape of the trunk/branches, which I do.

And . . . and . . . at the lower edge of the photo attached you'll see what I plan on planting in the parking strip. It's a Euonymus fortunei "Interbolwyi." It's called Eunoymus Blondy {cute}. See it here, at the grower's site http://www.colorchoiceplants.com/blondy.htm . 18-24" (46-61 cm) tall, 24-30" (61-91 cm) wide, which is perfect for the parking strip, which I hope to minimize interfering with vision around the corner of the lot. It's a ground cover shrub, noted to be popular in Europe (Britain??), which fits well within my theme and requires minimal care. PERFECT!!! (BTW, to my British friends, am I using the proper references related to converting length, etc?)

Edited to add: Blondy is evergreen, BTW, and loves sun! Perfect for the parking strip!


This message was edited Mar 15, 2009 3:17 PM

By the way, I received a warm and welcoming letter from the City of Fresno, informing me that I was in violation of City Code, in that I have violated codes related to "caution tape," "tall weeds and/or dry (etc.) weeds located on the parking strip (City property)" and that "landscaping is overgrown, causing a blight to the neighborhood." EEeeeeeeek! Ah well, I've dealt with such notices for clients as a social worker when working with them at my agency, and a phone call will delay any fines, etc., past the required correction date of 3/23. I suppose I could remove the caution tape and let anyone who chooses to walk across the parking strip just fall into the 2'X2' (61 cm) holes I've covered with pieces of plywood, eh? Do you suppose the City would take responsibility for the liability if I removed the tape? Just kidding! Fat chance!

Oh, and I've planted a couple of bags full of hostas at the western side of the house, full and deep shade 24X7, in the beds around the azaleas and next to the fence. The slugs/snails started in on them instantly and before I was able to get the bait out, ugh!

Anyway, here's a close-up pic of Blondy. Isn't she just the cutest thing? I found 7 of them at Costco in good condition and well-established in five gallon pots, which will speed up the effect.

We're on our way, boys and girls, and I am getting excited again.

Linda

OK, here's a question for you all. Ideas about what climbing rose to use at the walk-up entry? I was looking at climbers at the nursery yesterday and liked the plants with pencil-thin branches and small leaves. Must have been climbing miniatures, I suppose. They had a few knockouts, but few. And except for the love many of you express about them, know nothing about them.

I'm thinking that it needs a "light" touch, thus the smaller climbers. I'm thinking white blooms, ever-blooming, easy to train (I'm 61, afterall). I'm thinking "light," in that it's not particularly dense. Make sense?

I love my Sally Holmes, but fear she is too wild and throws off too many thorny, rigid branches to make her a walk-under/through.

Thoughts, ideas, wisdom?

Linda

I would like to hear about knockout roses, too.

these two are easy to care for, not sure if I'm coming close - just a thought!

climbing iceburg, an easy to prune

and handles the heat well, disease resistant.

Sally Holmes

Climbing Cecile Brunner might do well for you, too.

Okay, guys and gals, I obsessed about this work during much of my workday. I looked at the photo of the fence with the arbor archway and am beginning to feel like it is out of proportion to the rest of the layout. I'm looking at it again and wondering if, architecturally speaking, I might be better served by simply planting a climber which will spread sideways, one way off-center, rather than up, leaving the arbor archway out of the picture altogether.

It is just beginning to look like a bit much, the more I look at the effect.

Oh my, oh my, oh my. What have I gotten myself into?

So, OK, let's say I decide to go for the no-archway. Let's think about the roses at the walkway opening. Aah, Redtootsiepop, I have two Sally Holmes and she would reach out enthusiastically to greet any visitor walking through. Mine reach ten feet or more, girl, which would be perfect going up, of course! But the climbing iceberg appears to be a friendly little girl, wispy branches with pretty grandiflora-like bouquets all about. I love such a look.

I am still unsure about the knockouts and Climbing Cecile Brunner, and wonder about how they might fit on the lower fence moving from center outward.

Tell me what you think about that archway as you look at the pic post #6108987 above.

Hmm, such a job, this design thing, huh?

Linda

I think it's hard to judge the archway until you have the rest of the area more done--before you've got everything else in place and had time for it to grow it can tend to look a little out of proportion but I think once you get everything else in you'll be happier with it. Of course I'm partial to arches, I've got one over the gate to my front yard so maybe I'm just biased! Here's mine--not a great pic but the best one I could find.

Given all the linear aspects of your lot, house and fence, I think the curve added by the arch is wonderful. Try not to second-guess yourself!

Ditto to what ecrane3 and imapigeon said!

Go for the archway, it will frame the entrace even when the Roses are leefless if you get that in your area, roses are easy to keep pruned to the size you require, my most favourite of all is a Rose called Golden Showers, the flowers fade to very pale lemon with age, but to set it off, I planted a Clematis with deep purple/lavender flowers to scramble through the rose so when the rose has little flowers, the Clematis gives colour, for just a few weeks of the year, they flower together and the purple flowers along with the yellow rose flowers is just so relaxing and pretty. you can mix and match Roses and Clematis with any combination you like, but this is my favourite, all you need to do is dead head both plants as the flowers fade.
You could also paint your arch in a colour to match any paintwork on your yard, for your type of garden, I would go for lavender, pale blue or green and then grow your plants up into the structure and all year round you will have little peeps of colour as you enter or look out into your yard.

You have done a ton more work Twincol, it is obviously great therapy for you and I have to admit, most people find that when they get out into the garden, there is something about getting your hands in among soil and watching the results of your hard labour that just makes one feel at ease with the world. good work Twincol, happy gardening. WeeNel.

OMG, look what arrived today from Brushwood Nursery, Kennett Square, PA!!! This is a Dave's Garden Top 30 nursery. See it at http://davesgarden.com/products/gwd/c/534/ They are awesome little specimens about 14" tall with bright green leaves, strong branches, and even with buds on the rose. I've included the Dave's Garden links for the nursery and links to the nursery for the plants. I am so excited. I am so excited!

2 John Davis Climbing Rose http://www.gardenvines.com/shop/climbing-roses-2/john-davis-climbing-rose-362.html
2 Clematis Blue Angel http://www.gardenvines.com/shop/small-flowered-clematis-4/clematis-blue-angel-57.html

These are for the archway/arbor over the walk-up to the house.

The final major plant purchase remaining is a multi-trunk Crepe Myrtle tree, probably a white, to offset the dwarf magnolia on the opposite corner (west end) of the fence.

I am SO excited! It even makes me forget the oral surgery I had last week and from which I had the stitches removed today. ^_^

Linda

Oh, and I freed a cottage cheese carton-size passel of ladybugs in my roses in the backyard this evening, just after dark. I'm hoping some of them will hang out for a bit and nibble on the aphids currently hanging out, LOL. Look at what they're nibbling on at the moment - - my Golden Showers, WeeNel.


[edited to say] Oh, phooey! what am I doing to my links so that they don't come up as DG links???




This message was edited Apr 2, 2009 9:02 PM

Oh! It's coming along so beautifully!

Links have been weird if they show up at all for a week now...

Linda, those two are going to be GORGEOUS together on your archway (glad you decided to keep it in the design)!!

Okay, here's the parking strip with the Euonymous planted. The weeds are "down" for the moment. They look quite nice in this location. And they will provide nighttime interest with their bright, playful yellow spots. And they're evergreen. I just finished leveling the area and will start planting pre-emergent regularly to keep the weeds at bay. Hopefully the Bermuda grass won't return at the watering holes {chuckling}. Oh, and look at the walkway in the strip. It's covered with the pavers.

The archway is down, as we had to do some re-cementing of the post on the left. And, that cement is in the way of the stake for that area. So .. .. we're back to more repair. Geez, does it never end? So, there's more repair, if you will, to do. But the rose and clematis are planted awaiting their proud frame.

Ummm, let's see ... . The Modesto Ash at the right end of the parking strip is going to be trimmed such that the co-dominant stem/trunk at the street side will be removed. It seems the tree trunk is split at that joint. Such a sad prospect. Here's hoping that the outcome is not too unsightly. I am delighted, however, that the entire tree isn't coming out.

I know it seems to be going slow, but it has been so dreadfully hot (106 degrees last weekend when temp average is 83 -- ugh!) that the work is difficult for me and the teen I have working for me only works 2-3 hours a week on Suns. And, I have two more yards to manage as well. Sally Holmes is amazing. The roses in Olivia's Rose Garden have looked better, but I'll get caught up here.

Someone left me a coupl'a buckets full of some tiny-leaved Euonymous and at least a thousand bulbs of Fairy Lily (Zephyranthes candida) at the side of my driveway gate as I returned home from work one night last week. They apparently have a 1 foot tall by 2 foot wide growth habit and looks like a little grass of sorts. THOUSANDS of little tiny bulbs! For the time being I've heeled them in to some bagged planting soil. But it'll be interesting to contemplate planting them at sidewalk edge up to the fence, which will be covered with the Star Jasmine (which I am feeding regularly this first year).

My "plan" includes some kind of ground cover (also considering ground cover roses) in front of that fence. My rationale is that I'd prefer to focus my long-term energies on the space inside the fence, not outside. And, outside of the fence pretty much anything which covers the space attractively, interestingly, is what I'm searching for. Just filling it with more Star Jasmine has no appeal [ugh]. And if I were to lay out something like this (and perhaps several spots of ground cover roses?) I would accomplish completion of the space between the fence and the street. And given that the plants left here were pulled out in bunches it appears that they do well in our environs. We'll see. I'll do some more investigation. Can you even imagine arriving home from a day's work to find two buckets of someone's overgrowth in your driveway? I think that's the first time in the 30 years I've lived here I've had any kind of thing like this happen. Pretty remarkable, isn't it?

I'm pleased with the outcome in the parking strip.

Linda

really coming together well, wish I was a better planner - you've really done a nice job!

Ditto! It looks so nice...

Well, I think I'm at the end of this year's budget . So the pricey work is over for the moment and the remainder of the working seasons will be spent on the little stuff. The last thing that needs to be done is to have the soil removed from the front of the fence in the front yard, shown in the pic attached. It's a huge pile and mostly clay. So it's not likely to be welcomed as "fill dirt." And I've explored the yellow pages to no avail. I haven't a clue whom to call to load and haul it, but am beginning to ask around and have some numbers to start.

Here's the front from the front! Did I really say that?

Aaaanyway, I'll take you on a brief walk around.

Linda and the MopTops

Now then, the path from the street/gutter to the sidewalk is near completion. Step up and over these, noting the pile of dirt which needs to be hauled off, and walk under the arbor. The arbor has a climbing rose and clematis, described above, to welcome visitors. At the arbor there will be a step up with the pavers affixed to the concrete all the way to the wall and steps up to the landing at the front door.

Please follow me west, to your left, toward the other street on my corner and the side of the house.

You've reached the most south-west corner of the house/front yard. As you round the corner you'll see the walk toward the fence/gate into my backyard patio. I laid my clay pavers last weekend, 40-odd of them, on the path toward that gate. Note in the upper left corner then vine fence ends about 4-5 feet from the concrete fence. Also last weekend, I set out the second archway-arbor, identical to the one you walked under as you moved toward the house above.

I must tell you that laying the pavers and putting out the arbor left me breathless. That's it, I told myself! That's it! I see my skeleton, laid out fully, visible, clearly displaying my ideas. Can you see it? CAN YOU SEE IT?? Isn't it amazing how performing a single hardware, hardscape task can tie everything else all together? Breathless is the only term that truly describes how I felt as I first saw it from a distance across the street. There it is! I SEE it!!!

An awesome experience.

I'll show you in the next two pics.

Lindia

OK, here it is from outside of the fenced-in area.

And here's a pic with the gate open and looking out from the patio area.

I spilled coffee as I opened the gate; what a doofus!

Now then, walk back around from whence you just came . . . the sidewalk. Schlepp due east down the sidewalk to the edge of my property line, at the large Modesto Ash in the parking strip. (Note, if you will, that The City was out several weeks ago to lop off a main branch, a codominant stem trunk, which was splitting off the main trunk and at risk of failing, falling into the street and harming passersby.) Turn toward the house and you'll see the lovely 7-8-ft white Crepe Myrtle shrub. See how it screens the house/yard from passersby? PERFECT! Just what I wanted. And with all-season interest, flowers, bark, wood, shape. Perfect, huh?

YES!!!

Take a look!

Amazing progress, Linda! You've totally transformed this property already!

Now just jump up and over the little 4-ft metal fabric fence and face the street. You can see the cleared dirt surface behind the fence, the leaves on the surface in front, the Star Jasmine growing gently and with strength internally which will cause it to explode next spring. The archway/arbor with the rose and clematis. The corner on which I live and will finally welcome folks as they approach as my neighbors have during and after my CA treatment, while I healed and suffered the complications which slowed me down so.

The layout of my pavers will require that I have the area dug out and layed with 3-5 inches of sand before they are installed. What I don't recall mentioning earlier is that the pavers laid out at the west side of the house began to crack and break within days of laying them atop bare ground. These pavers go back to the 1940's-50's and are not fixed clay, but virgin clay, baked to perform their task. But they are very fragile. Now they rested out in my seller's yard for 40+ years just fine. So they are not so fragile as to be unusable. But they do require a bit of TLC and that's going to be an expensive task which I leave to next year.

So, that's it. Do you see my bones? skeleton?

Linda

Your bones look good, Linda! :-) You must feel deservedly proud of what you have done.

Kathleen

Now then, not lastly, but certainly a bit of a cutesy little aside . . . .

This photo is taken at the corner of the Crepe Myrtle, outside the fence. A month or so ago I hosed this soil off after clearing up the little piles of dirt. Since then the little finches visit nearly every morning for their dust baths, both here and on the outer corner. I drive around the corner each morning and generally see a little flock of finches giving themselves dust baths. So I put out a little birdbath for them to use to clean off and drink, as I also see them in the gutter drinking water. Each day I put out fresh water for them.

So . . . SO . . . even if the neighbors don't appreciate my slow approach to the work, the finches do . . . greatly!! LOL!

One more coming.

Last one . . . .

Linda and The MopTops, well, the MopTops anyway. I had to stand behind the camera and leave Olivia to control the only man in the house, sweetly, of course.

Oh, I just had to send it off to you. They keep me busy when there's no gardening to be done, LOL, tho that seldom happens.

How precious! They are gorgeous.

Hehehe, well they would be gorgeous, Kathleen, but they desperately need grooming. Olivia's 14 years old, quite old for a Standard Poodle and failing slowly, gently, sweetly.

Ezio is such a Bozo! But we love bozo-males around here. He just loves to play. And couldn't care less what you think of him, just that you think of him. He's 70+ pounds, Olivia's a tiny 55 pounds.

They sure are sweeties. Thanks

Twincol , Wee Nel hasn't posted in four mos . Have you heard from her? digger

No, Digger, not recently. The last time we "talked" she was going to be headed "across the pond" for a vacation. I haven't emailed her with my updates, either. I've been thinking it's time to do so.

So . . . I'll send her a note this weekend to say hi and update her, inviting her for a visit with us. I miss her.

BTW, the photo above on July 19, I've learned, seems to be a nest of House Sparrow dust baths, not finch dust baths. I have a vegetation nest in the back yard with the little tykes and their morning songs are a delight to awaken to.

I'm glad you asked about WeeNel. 'Gonna hafta check in with our British garden cousin.

Linda

We "talked" early last year , but lost touch with her , just let other things get in the way . She's super , isn't she . Sure would like to meet her , she has invitation to stop by when she's in the states . That would be wonderful . digger

Hi Twincal and digger, here I am, isn't it funny, I just got onto the site and was informed I had mail, it was you Digger, so glad I went to the site, I am just fine, had a hellish year and still under the doc, but also nursing my aunt who sadly passed away 2 weeks ago, the last of my Mum's generation, how sad, but families are like gardens, there are always new seedlings coming along to Carry on the genes eh.

Managed to get over the pond to Florida and had a long lazy vacation on Sanibel, we took my lovely Grand-daughter with us this time and she loved the place too, we hired bikes and cycled around the island, well I free wheeled around behind everyone else, but it was good to get some sunshine into my old bones, this time we went later, June, I found it just a tad too hot, but it made me take time to relax after all the stuff thats been going on here, my garden was like a forest when we got back and am just getting it under some form of control again, on return, we actually had a really hot spell here, (unusual for us and not complaining) however, the days are already getting shorter, I have so many jobs I still have to attend to, just dont have the same energy yet, but hey, you bet, they will still be there next year if thy dont get done now.

Twincal, you sure have done a lot of work, the place dont look the same as it did several months ago, hope you are keeping well. the landscaping area is looking so clean and neat, you really have done a tremendous amount of hard work, great thought went into all this and now you are moving ever closer to the best part, the planting schemes, choosing colours, textures and planting patterns, what fun, good old winter job, note book, drawing paper and plant lists, cant think of better.
Will close for now and wish you both all the best, and sending kindest regards, WeeNel.