Wood Chips

Those of you following our adventures in Tennessee will know that wood chips are a constant theme in our gardens. Mostly free from the local town recycle stations, but occasionally we have paid for them too. Once again we are having mulch days here and this time we really mean it. This was the first truck load and the big boy got stuck in our mud and had a dickens of a time getting out again. The second truck load was much easier and he stayed mostly on the driveway, to be sure.

Doesn't it look lovely? We can walk anywhere without getting stuck in mud! And the fence is up!!! Yay! That means I can let the dogs out and not worry that they will wander away. Double Yay!! 

You will note that the fence is partial here. The pots of plants are at the end of our driveway and the dogs won't even try to jump over them. We won't be having the fence extend any farther because this is where the fish pond will be built; above ground, three courses of concrete blocks lined with a heavy rubber liner, and visible from the patio. It isn't the very next thing on my list so for a while the pots will close off this entrance. We do have a gate in the fence for entry.

Here's the rest of the fence which surrounds the whole yard. Pretty invisible but high enough to do the trick to keep the boys in. In front of the fence is a planting berm for our hydrangeas and hostas. It rained like crazy just as the job was finished so I will wait til it is a bit less wet to plant.

I have been studying gardening videos on You Tube, mostly Charles Dowding an innovator of  No Dig gardening and followers like Paul Gautschi and his film Back to Eden, and I have gained the confidence necessary to embark on this huge garden for the remaining years of my life.

For example, this area below between our fence and our neighbor's is a pathway which surrounds the patio garden. It is always shady and muddy. Now with the wood chips and in the autumn lots of leaf litter, it will become a productive area for woodland plants and my beloved hosta collection. The depth of the chips will prevent weeds and break down slowly to improve the soil below. 

 As with all my gardens, I prefer to have raised beds, but that doesn't mean the garden is contained only in those beds. Already I have planted peonies and daylilies in front of the patio, in a little berm of good soil. 

 This area was where the pile of debris had been and now it is holding the remaining chips, soon to be distributed up our hill, behind our bamboo and along the rest of the path. But wait there's more. A series of four long raised beds are going to be built here for my veggie garden. It is a very sun baked area which will do very nicely for things like watermelon, peppers, tomatoes, and of course zucchini!

Hardy Perennial Salvias

Always on the lookout for blue flowers, I fell in love with Blue Bedder Sage years ago. But it is only one of the seemingly zillion varieties of wonderful plants in the Hardy Perennial Salvia family. East Friesland Salvia is a must have and is gloriously blue purple early in Spring.

   Just now starting to bloom are several Blue Bedders that I relocated from my downtown garden. Lucky for me that they are considered a perennial in my zone 7b.

Culinary sages are part of the same group and I love those too, with or without blue flowers. For this new garden I have collected six of the herb varieties. Purple, garden, tricolor variegated, golden, pineapple and Russian. And I just discovered a sage that smells and tastes like cucumber! I didn't buy one...yet.

 Pineapple sage gets huge in one season and attracts hummingbirds with its scarlet flowers.



 Golden Sage has bicolored leaves, and I hope to keep it going until it blooms, to see if it does, and what color they may be. 

And finally, Russian Blue sage. Haven't had this one before but have enjoyed seeing them in full bloom in other gardens. I showed Dave all these plants and boasted about how huge they grow. He responded that they are planted awfully close together here, which is true, but that's because they will be moved to the veggie beds, when they get made, soon. Nick the landscaper said the wood chips and dumpster will be delivered on Monday, which makes way for building phase two of the garden. 

 Other new plants are Beth's Blue Starflower, Larentia axillaris.
And this little cutie, Browallia. I am hoping this isn't too sunny a spot for these six. I may have to move them to a shadier section of the garden. Behind them are the tiny new East Friesland and in the cubbies in front, blue Lobelia. Lots of pretty blues to come.
 
Speaking of cubbies, I decided it's not too late for lettuces despite predictions of 90 degrees this weekend. Buttercrunch, green leaf and Romaine are filling these, and I will find a red leaved variety when I venture out today. Last year my neighbor bought a planter with three or four heads and shared the bounty with me and we both had more than enough salad for several months.

Garden Q&A

mlaiuppa asked...
Can you grow lobelia or ageratum? They're blue and low and would work in the front of the cool planter. 
Yes, definitely, and I saw some yesterday at the overpriced garden shop and will try to find them in 6 packs today.

You can't grow clivias? My Mom's are blooming a wonderful vibrant orange. 
 Clivias
I haven't seen clivias here, and looked them up online. Pricey!

And no fuchsias? They have uprights that do well in shade and filtered sun. All sorts of colors. 

Fuchsias

I haven't considered fuchsias, because we have such hot summers and I always think of them dying of thirst in the pots at Home Depot or Lowe's. On the other hand we have places on the front porch to hang them and a lot of shade in the yard for shrub varieties. I will think about this.

That was a ton of work you did in a 24 hour span, with breaks for food and sleep. 
It was pure heaven to work in that gorgeous dirt. Loved every minute of it. With the exception of trying to get the plants out of the 6 packs. I cut the plastic and still had to rip it off in pieces, in garden gloves which made it more of a challenge. Finally took them off and used my bare hands. You should see my nails now. Ha! I prepared with a hat and wet towel for the back of my neck. That made a difference, but then the next day it was much cooler and I really got things done quickly.

Have you given up on your Scandinavian berm of composting stuff?
Yup. The hugelkulture idea is kaput. The guys who cleared the land put all the debris, wood, pallets, garbage from the previous owners etc. all in that big pile and it will be taken to the dump this week.

Will the new fence be enough to keep the deer from tasting the new buffet or don't you have deer?
We live in town and don't have deer. However we have rabbits, chipmunks and squirrels and the fence won't help keep them out. However our bird feeder and the tender bamboo shoots are keeping the squirrels at bay.
Phase two is the veggies garden and that will need fencing of some sort. Stay tuned.

Any plans for "working" trees? The kind that produce edibles like peaches or apples or lemons?
O gosh...you are way ahead of me. When our veggie beds are in I might take a look at the remaining space and consider peaches or plums.  I am pretty much over spraying fruit trees for good, but if I can find some varieties that do well without spraying I might consider it again. At our first TN house on the mountain it came with an orchard which was so exciting, but then after a few days of rain the trees were actually pushed out of the ground by the water coming down off the mountain. That ended that orchard. 

I must say that this garden is becoming my ultimate dream come true. Having the space, and finances allows me to have it done right, and with speed. Being 70 now makes me aware of the time I have left to work and I want it to be a pleasurable process, using the experience of all my past gardens to avoid the pitfalls.

Patio, Plants and Jubilation

Nick and Carlos finished filling the beds with the (most delicious dark chocolate cake) soil at 2pm on Friday and I went right to work planting the garden, finishing up around 2pm on Saturday. I took a break to sleep while dark. But as early as I could see, I returned to the joyous task.

On the left is the hot (colored flowers) bed, the center is the cool bed and on the right is the white bed.

The white bed also has herbs at the front, since I had fewer white flowers available to plant. Herbs include basil, thyme, sage, and fennel. White perennials in this bed are poppies, specimen daisies, coneflower, iris and phlox. Still waiting to buy  a flat of white impatiens or similar annual for the back cubbies. Front cubbies hold white begonias, and backed with wave petunias and vinca.

The cool bed has blue and purple flowers (I hope) but the foxglove and delphiniums are not ready to flower, so I can't say what color they are. Of course the foxglove won't be blue, but it will be tall so I put those along the back. Salvia, several varieties,  hardy geraniums, veronica, baptisia and a few petunias in this bed. But plenty of space for more blue flowers as the shopping continues. Little sprouts of zinnias fill the cubbies in back but the front cubbies are still empty.

It's totally easy to find hot colors in both annuals and perennials.  Stargazer lilies, coneflowers, poppies, coreopsis, achillea, speedwell, canna, hardy geranium, phlox, rudbeckia, lupins, kniphofia, yarrow are the perennials. Annuals include nasturtiums, zinnias, verbena, begonia, petunias, calibrachoas, asters, marigolds and whatever else I have squeezed in there. I really like Profusion Zinnias, as they form a nice clump. I might have to move a few of these to give the others more space.
Nick moved soil to the front of the street facing bed so I could plant daylilies and more perennials between. We've moved the hydrangeas and hostas to the shade already, but they will have their own 'berm' against the fence in the near future.

 

 The four clematis continue to bloom and the will be placed against the yet to be installed fence surrounding this part of the garden.

 This pretty much ends construction phase one of the garden, and then the big veggies bed will be constructed, starting at the end of this week. Or so I was promised.
But first this pile of debris has to go...

. . . .At Last!!

 Today is the day, HURRAY! Hard to decide which day I was awaiting with more anticipation: the house closing or dirt delivery. Whatever, I am thrilled that Christmas  Garden Day has arrived. Woowoo!!! This pile of luscious black soil was dumped last night around 6pm. I threw the driver a kiss. 

The size of the dump truck was huge and I expected an equal size load of soil, but this may just be the first of many. I expect it will just fill one bay of the three sides of the bed. The interior depth is about 24" and crushed rock is already filling a couple of those inches. Drainage is important, as well as the stability of the beds. When it is dry, our 'soil' is concrete and when it rains a lot it turns to mashed potatoes. I loathe putting down rock in any garden but needs must, as they say in Britain. 

In the meantime I am kinda liking this idea that I saw on Pinterest for keeping garden tools handy and out of the tiny one car garage. This side of our garage is a desert and rarely sees any sun or water. I hope the brooms will be alright there. We have a ton of leaves and tree blooms falling on the patio this Spring so sweeping is a regular task (until we get a leaf blower, which I dislike for the noise it makes). Dave promised to wash and paint this pallet...and I promised to get some hooks to hang small tools like trowels, hedge shears, tree pruners and secuteers.

  

Speaking of Pinterest, I saw this cute homemade garden pagoda, and tried to assemble one from the debris left from the patio brick. ha! I await one good wind to topple it, hopefully on top of the voracious big fat seedling eating critters that have attacked my efforts.

 Mustn't grumble, I have a good bunch of basil already sprouting its second set of leaves, and loads of zinnia, which seem to sprout overnight. Love their enthusiasm.

 

So many plants ready to plunk in.

 Four clematis, and an equal number of coneflowers, some swiped from my previous house...and a whole tray of asters, which I never have had in my garden, but aren't they sweet?

Home Depot had a huge (on sale )selection of tremendously large hydrangea, so I went nuts and got eleven. Some white, some pink, some blue-ish and then the new selection this year, Bloomstruck. A white turning pink turning purplish mophead variety.

Still unplanted in the garden is my darling little fig tree, which is going great guns in the galvanized pot. We relocated this from the previous house too, before it had its current leaves. They grow really fast and I am crazy about having one, and maybe more if I can find the variety I want.
We are sooooo glad to have the space, the trees, both the sun and the shade and landscaper to do all the hard work. I keep saying that now that I am 70, I deserve it. Dave does too, even tho he is a mere youngster at 63.

 Must mention my two pots of Empress Wu hosta. I ordered one and it arrived with the main stem broken at the base. So I had them replace it, and lo and behold the roots had news for me. Two sprouts appeared even before the replacement arrived. These are reputed to be the largest hosta yet. O boy!