Picking up the green thumb

If you knew my mom, you probably knew that she liked gardening. Faithful (and often youngest) member of the Fort Payne Garden Club, mom loved loved loved her gardens. We had several in our yard--all plants--and I often joined her, putting in new pansies or petunias, weeding or picking roses for vases.

My brother also has a history with gardening--he worked for a landscaper in high school and helped out an elderly neighbor with his yard. I don't know if he loves it, but he was always pretty good at it, and I think he still does a good bit for his own home.

Then we get to me. I don't think I have the same green thumb my mom and brother do, but I'm certainly making an effort to spruce up our yard...with lots of advice, sketches and phone calls from our friend Kristin. (shameless plug: need a landscape designer in Western Mass? Kristin is awesome!)

During the winter I posted about the plants she and I got at 50% off in late fall. We healed them in for the long winter, and I was told to dig them up after the last frost, which is generally late May. I got sidetracked and didn't get to this project until last Wednesday, but we now officially have our first landscaped area in our yard!

Here are some before pics:

these were the four plants we put in the ground in pots just before winter

before...yep, we have a sink right there. we're just bringing a little bit of the South to the North :)

The goal was to plant two evergreens, one boxwood and one hydrangea. I chose a pretty hot day to work on this, and it took me nearly all day, but I finished! I first had to dig up the plants, water them and cut back the dead spots. There were quite a few on my evergreens, mainly because I waited too long to care for them. The most time-consuming part of the project was taking out all the grass, but I had a little help...sort of:

I wasn't really sure if I should encourage or distract this behavior, but Sherpa really wanted to help dig, so I let him for a little bit. 

After digging up the grass, I mixed in compost I got FREE from our town compost area. Then I dug the holes, added fertilizer, a little more compost and voila!

I finished by putting mulch around the plants and reworking our path. To do the path I first graded the area, trying to make it even. It's still not perfect, but we'll straighten it out soon enough. I added stone dust or patio build, raking it with a grading rake. We had several flagstones in the garage from the previous owner, so I just used those to save money. I filled in around the stones with more dust, then wet the entire area. 

Looks pretty good I think! And yes, the sink will be gone soon, along with the pile of grass and weeds I removed (you can see a bit in the bottom left of the last picture). We're also going to try and put in a border between the walk and the driveway--suggestions appreciated!

Small Steps to a Better Landscape

I think I said somewhere along the way that we have an awesome friend and landscape designer, Kristin, who did this amazing plan for our yard. I so wish we had a trust fund somewhere that we could spend and do it all right now! But since we don't, we plan to do a little at a time. I started last fall by buying four plants to use this spring. I learned that fall is the time to buy plants--they go on sale at the end of the season, and though they look ugly, perennials will come back in their season and look great! With Kristin's help, I picked out four shrub-like plants to put in a bed near the mudroom entrance to our house. I planned to spend $50, and with everything basically 50% off, I stayed within my budget.

Once home, we dug holes and planted the shrubs in their pots. We packed dirt around them and "healed them in" with leaves. I can't wait to dig them up after the first frost! (Stay tuned for this...it won't happen until May up here in the frigid North!)

You obviously can't see them, but four plants lie under those snow mounds!