Well, it’s been a while since I shared any garden views, or was able to read much about everyone else’s garden on The Propagator blog.
Let’s blame it on many (in)decisions about redesigning the garden.
Seasons Change
Fall turned suddenly to winter, literally, overnight.
Just the day before, I did a quick job of mulching the leaves with the mower, then bagging them, and composting.
I never used this method before. I always raked or used the blower to move the mountains of leaves that cover our yard. But, I didn’t feel there was enough time.
Chopping the leaves up and then collecting them in the bag was amazingly efficient. Even more amazing, they all fit into the compost bin.
Next year’s black gold.
Do Fences Really Make Good Neighbors?
Spring and summer were spent considering whether to replace the wooden boards around the raised beds, whether to put a fence around the entire property, whether to take the plunge and invest in a swimming pool, and on and on.
I visited some beautiful public and private gardens. I saw amazing garden photos online.
But, my garden kept getting more and more shabby and inaccessible as I added net and fence to keep out deer. I wasn’t enjoying crawling under plastic net to get to the plants; or trying to enjoy the garden view through the plastic, wood, and wire.
Finally, I decided I just needed to take the garden fence down and start again.
The garden will be a herb garden. My experiments this summer taught me that deer won’t eat mint, basil, thyme. oregano, sage, rosemary, tobacco, borage, onions, garlic, chives, alyssum, ageratum, artemisia, and the like.
For It Was Grassy, and Wanted Wear
Another thorn in my side was the brick paving. It let weeds through constantly, so I was spending more time weeding the paths than the beds themselves. I love the way the brick looks, but it needs redoing.
I’m leaning toward planting grass in the paths and edging the beds with the brick. The bricks are set lengthwise and at ground level, so that the mower can be run over the edge. I can see that next year I will be getting my exercise by digging a lot, to properly set the bricks.
What do you think of these ideas?
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Thanks for the ideas, Lora. I think grass with stepping stones may be the way to go. Also, I’m hoping to link some of the borders via paths, and have no resources to hire landscapers (!), so I’ve got to come up with easily maintained options. I look forward to seeing your garden grow, too.
I can why you’d like to replace the brick rather than redo it. So much work! So much work, regardless, probably. How much traffic would the grass paths get? Depending on that, the paths’ll either have shorter grass or go bare. Obviously, anything but grass will require upkeep, but you could put down a weed barrier & have gravel or do stepping stones surrounded by grass or creeping thyme. And speaking of thyme, how wonderful your garden is going to smell! Will you not have any flowers because of the deer? Although certain herbs (oregano, for one, I think?) have great blossoms, too. How exciting, to be redesigning your garden. Can’t wait to see what you decide.
Looks like you have done a great job with the leaves. They’ll compost down nicely with a bit of grass mixed in.
This part of the garden around the arch is really nice, a clematis would be perfect ! Good luck for the snow, not yet with us before January I think.
Wow – snow! At least you got after the leaves before the snow fell. I gave up on bricks a long time ago. My problem was moles undermining them and making things all messed up. Bricks are best used as borders. With the snow at least no more weeding!
That pergola is beautiful – not too “dainty” or fussy. What do you intend to grow up it? I would be tempted to leave it bare. In this country snow has been predicted later in the year but I hope not soon. Looking forward to seeing how the garden progresses!