New Garden Projects This Year #3

i used a pole hole digger and went 30" it is doing the job for me now so you are right on for what is needed.

Bill, do you physically abuse your wysteria to make it bloom? I have one that I intended to allow to grow over a pergola in front of Cuppatea, my potting shed. We still haven't built a pergola, so I have to keep pruning it until I'm ready to let it grow up on something. I have heard that you have to whack 'em hard to make them bloom. I'm not into that, so I probably won't have blooms. LOL

Louise, just make sure that your pergola is very sturdy. Those wisterias get very heavy.

Bill, here is the rhodie I'm going to move. I went out in the drizzly wet this evening and pruned it way back so it will be more manageable. This is what it looked like before pruning.

Karen

And here it is after..... Big difference.

That rhodie's been there at least 20 years or more, so I'm not sure how it will take being moved. Has a pretty good sized trunk, as you can see in this shot. I'm sure it's not gonna be easy.

Here's one more view of it.

Karen

There you go, Bill! A GIRL out in the rain preparing to move a Rhodie!

LOL! I didn't dig it up, though. Just pruned it.

Karen

That's because we women are more thoughtful and methodical in our approach to these things ;o)

Yes - if it doesn't move, cut it off...

Ouch!

i cut mine back too before moving it - guess it is my softer side:), yours looks to be a bit bigger in the truck than mine is. still they do not get giant root balls so i think you should be ok and it still has plenty of green - mine was so leggy there was not much green left after trimming. i trimmed three others on the hill the same way - hoping for the best.

you will need some help and get ready to go round and round with the shovel to get that one loose. i had to go around mine three times before it was ready to move.

good luck!!

Thanks for wishing me luck, Bill. I know it won't be easy. I cut it back probably about 2 thirds. About 2 or 3 years ago my sister cut it way back. Looked like a butcher job. I cannot believe how much growth it put out since then. Probably why it doesn't look leggy like yours. It grew in nice and full.

Karen

great job Karen and Bill

Thanks, Jo Anne!

Karen

I've got to move four rhodies this year. I think I'll wait 'till late summer or the fall. I'll have between now and then to dig the huge holes that they're going into.

Garden projects...

Well, my big project of the year is to get serious about veggie gardening. I'm going to build a raised bed, about 8' x 4' and 30" high. To help fill up the bottom without having to buy fill, I'm going to take a sledgehammer to my front foot path. It's asphalt spread out over the grass. I don't think they did any prep at all before they made the path. So, as a result, my next project after building the veggie bed, will be to lay a new foot path to the front door. Wish I could do the entire driveway. It looks like they didn't do any prep work for that either. It's so lumpy, particularly where the car wheels rest. There's huge divets there. It's awful. I think I'll wait and hire someone for that job.

After that, I plan on smaller projects, like moving those rhodies, re-arranging a few other shrubs and perennials. I have another area I want a stepping stone path. I might make the stepping stones myself. That'll be fun.

Pretty ambisious

My garden project this year, well one of them, was to enlarge the shade garden. With all this rain, the shade garden has turned into the 'standing water' garden. I keep hoping that someday soon I'll get outside and open up the bags of sand and the bags of topsoil and then be able to grow something other than mosquitoes. There's just not enough hours in my day right now to garden in the rain. Perhaps when school is out later in the week I can commandeer the teenager to watch the little ones while I go play in the mud.

Aw, but growing mosquitoes is fun! ...not!

We are commencing on the patio project in 3 more sleeps. I will take pics of my owies and post them cuz I'm sure to drop a few big stones on my toes and fingers. My little steppy down bed project is still ongoing as I have to wait for the tulip foliage to die down before finishing. ps making cement out of au natural Cowtown clay to secure steppy down stones doesn't work too well. But it was cool to muck about with it like Homes on Holms so it was worth the try.

Sounds like you guys have some ambitious projects going on. Pictures, please, before and after, as things get done.

Karen

Good point, Karen. I love to see the before and after photos!

yes all you folks should have to be made to post pics, just telling us about the projects and not posting pics is cruel and unbearable punishment...LOL

Janet

LOL! Absolutely, Janet!

Karen

good luck DNut!!.. hope it goes well... and we used to watch Holmes on Homes .. haven't lately though

My DH luvs the Holmes shows. It is a little scary though cuz my DH is a little more like Tim the Tool Man Taylor than the Holmes guy. He has decided that he must cut the patio stones. I have absolutely no idea why cuz they aren't fitted but if it makes him happy he can cut away to his hearts content.

Setting the scene for the patio project. This is taken from the upper deck.

edit: I forgot to say that the patio area is 24 dahliafeets long and 10 dahliafeets wide.

This message was edited Jun 25, 2009 5:59 PM

This is the base for the step down from the upper deck which I think will be 2 dahliafeets wide (as marked by the flipflop)

This is the entrance from the main garden. I haven't pruned the nanking cherry as there will be a semi-circular bed under it and I wanted to see it's natural drip line.

edit: I forgot to say that my first job is to paint the house foundation and tack up the new water line that you see.

This message was edited Jun 25, 2009 6:00 PM

This is the entrance from the woodland garden. I think I will extend the shale path to the edge of the patio. There will be plantings all along the edge up to where you can see some volunteer lily of the valley which will be goned. The stones you see piled are to raise the 'don't look there' bed later this summer and have nothing to do with the patio

This whole area will be the for the table and chairs. I put down the stones to show how the patio will curve at that end.

Gonna look great.

hope all goes well.... sounds like a real nice plan

Dahlia - love your dahliafeet measurements!! LOL What a great project! I think this is going to look so nice! I like that shot of your kitty near the Nanking Cherry!! Keep us posted with photos as your project develops!!!

Cousin Nut, looks like it will be great! Have fun working on it!

Karen

The greys at the paint store seemed well just a tad mundane so I painted the foundation of the house lilac ^_^

Like it!!!

Well I have run into a hurdle with the fence and upper deck weatherproofing. Got the deck all sparkly and ready to go and went off to the store to get the weatherproofing stuff and apparently all the weatherproofing stuff has sunscreen in it so it has a goldy, yellow tinge to it. What if I don't want sunscreen? What if I want clear cuz I waited to age the wood to be EXACTLY the perfect colour. Nope. Not happening unless you use one that you have to do every a year and maybe twicely. I AM SO NOT doing 126 dahliafeets of fence plus a deck twice a year!!! ARGH!!! I did a little test behind the compost and I'm waiting to see. It so better not look like somebody peed on it :(

Love the foundation color. LOL on the weatherproofing. If it was just one little puddle then maybe it would look like pee, but if the whole area is covered, then maybe not so much ?!

I like the lilac color on the foundation. I hope that weatherproofing works out for you.

Karen