Today, while Frank and I were pruning trees and Doug was putting the final coat of paint on the front door, we talked about how lucky the former owners of our house were that it sold in March. Now that the trees, shrubs, etc., are coming out of dormancy, it is evident how little care they took of them.
That isn't to say care was absolutely necessary. Many of the plants and trees on our property are low maintenance. They'll do better (we hope), once they're properly pruned, and all the muck (pine needles, leaves, mulch, trash) that has built up for years is cleaned out from under and around them.
It was hard to tell what some of the plants were back in March and April. Thus with spring, comes discovery. On a positive note, there is beautiful lilac budding that I can see through the kitchen window. Three or four other lilacs (we think) are in various stages of budding and dying. The dying part is sad, but at least we know now what we're dealing with.
The burberries have come alive better than I imagined. The four that were planted in the small bed near the garage have been thinned to two, with grasses, rock roses, spireas, and penstemons planted around them. Part of our progress is doubling the size of that bed and clearing out the rest of the area to put in a flagstone patio.
My primary job this weekend has been pine needle clean-up. Again, it doesn't appear they did so very often. I think there are at least twenty bags of needles out front, and more than twenty bags worth still to be raked.
The yucca plants are my biggest challenge. There are years worth of leaves, needles and trash clogging them. Not to mention the dead stalks. We probably have twenty scattered around the front and back yard. When they're healthy, I don't mind them. The way they look now, I detest them. It'll likely take me most of the summer to get to them all, and I may not this year. That's what next year, and the year after that are for.
The most unexpected development, the most exciting for me, is that we've carved out a niche for a vegetable garden. There is a raised bed with a southwest exposure that is narrow, but long. It gets a decent amount of sun throughout the day, but especially in the afternoon. It will give the vegetables the heat they need. If the somewhat small bed is successful, there is plenty of space in that area for us to build more raised beds and expand our crop next year. Another bonus is there is a drip system already in place that will merely need to be tapped into.
I love gardening. It's likely apparent by this post. My grandfather had a vegetable garden the size of a football field. It was perfectly tilled, planted, and harvested each year of my childhood. The gifts that garden gave our family were not only those of nourishment. They're memories. There wasn't just a vegetable garden, my grandfather had various other gardens scattered around our property. The rock garden was one of my favorites. There is the beginning of a rock garden here too.
I told Doug today that the front of the house was looking very "garden-y" (in a good way, I added). There are containers set here and there, filed with perennials, annuals and herbs. There is a new tree planted just outside Charlotte's study window. It's a service berry, and if you've never seen one, google it. It's beautiful. In a couple weeks the "manicured" bush in what will eventually be a terraced bed, will be replaced by a multi-trunk maple. I'm hoping by the time the tree is delivered and planted, the blue jays nesting in the manicured bush will be ready to leave it. If they're not, I'm not sure what we'll do.
There are so many unexpected "discoveries" with this house. I knew I loved it the first time we looked at it, but every day there is something new uncovered that I love even more.
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