I got my wish and we’ve had garden weather. I decided to pick one area to focus on and I went for the front bed because this the first thing I see when I drive up after a long day at the office and it would be nice to enjoy something pretty. The photo above is the before picture. Last Fall I did very little clean up out front partly because I’m lazy and partly because the neighborhood cats seem to think that fresh clear dirt is an invitation for them to come on over and do all their business.
The front flower bed was my main project but when you’re out in the yard at this time of year, everywhere you look there’s work to do. So as I went back to find a shovel I’d get sidetracked whacking back some dead branches and then when I went back to get the yard debris can I’d find a few dandelions to dig up so I kept busy without finishing a whole lot. This shows the bed after I finished cleaning out the dead stuff. The remaining plants, besides the lavender, are a couple of orange things that I think reseed themselves every year and they look nice and they’re already there so I left them in.
Whatever gene people have where they know about color and decorating/arranging is a gene that I was born without. Or maybe not. I like to think that creativity is about effort and I don’t put a whole lot of effort into figuring out color/decorating/arranging. When it comes to gardening I go the big box store garden center and walk around and buy things that I like and look like I can keep alive without much thought to the big picture. If you saw a picture of my entire yard, this would not surprise you.
When I went to the big box garden center everything they had that I liked was purple. I knew the front already had orange but I wanted to buy what I liked so I’m just hoping that when everything comes in all flowery and colorful that the neighbors are impressed by my bold color choice. The above is the bed when I finished with it. This part is always a bit demoralizing when you’ve done so much work and you’re all dirty and stinky and you have these teeny little plants swimming in a huge pile of dirt. (Which the cats have already scratched in, not 24 hours later!) A month from now it will look amazing, hopefully, and I still might go get some petunias at Fred Meyer for some extra color in the front bare spots.
In addition to the front bed, I planted a new rose in the front where the old one met an early end during some enthusiastic lawn mowing. The rose was on sale for half price which leads me to believe that only an idiot would plant a rose bush at this time of year but I think the purpose of this entire post is to support the idea that I am that idiot. I also planted some random plant that looked like it would get big and pretty and thrive on neglect and I have a corner of the backyard that needs just this sort of plant.
My next door neighbor was working on his raspberries and asked if I would like a few canes. Perfect because last year I dug up my raspberry patch since it it never produced more than 6 raspberries. So I set this all up. My neighbor’s patch is so prolific that he showed up at our door twice last summer with a 10 gallon bowl of raspberries begging us to take some. It would make more sense for me to grow something different and then trade. But I like raspberries and he’ll just have to knock on more doors next summer.
