Whenever we come and go, we do so through the garage, so I don't really
see the front yard very often. This past week, however, I've had to park down the street while our cul-de-sac was being resurfaced, and this gave me the opportunity to see what others see when they approach our house.
When I stopped to get a good look at our yard, I was a little ashamed! How could I be spending so much time working in the back, planning ("planning" since nothing is actually "growing") to grow beautiful things that only we will see, and be doing absolutely nothing about the part of our home that
everyone sees? Yes, the lawn is green, but the section between the lawn and our house is just sad looking. Something had to be done with this mess. Good thing the back yard and garden are on vacation right now...
With the exception of that speck of sun that quickly travels from the middle to left of the plot, this 12'x7' section is all shade.
These rocks are between the above section and the walkway leading to our front door. The little green that was growing, and the brown covering the rocks were "
baby tears." Baby tears looks like mini clover all clumped together.
I visited the
GardenWeb's Perennial forum for guidance on what would grow well in full shade, wouldn't be too invasive, and wouldn't take a lot of maintenance. I received many great suggestions, and took a list of my favorites to the nursery with me to see what the gardener would suggest for my specifications and our climate.
One small trunk and front seat full of earthy smelling soil amendment (I need a few bags for the back yard--oh, and a minivan too, please), and one flat of vinca minor later, I was ready to start work! Okay, the soil amendment has many different types of poo in it, so "earthy smelling" is a bit of an understatement, and it left my car smelling stinky for two days, but I digress.
The vinca minor will have very pretty periwinkle flowers in the spring, and nice green foliage the rest of the year. It also does well with low water usage, and full shade.
Let me just tell you that breaking up 84 square feet of dry soil with concrete like qualities by hand is back breaking! It didn't help that on Friday I did the first THIRD of the plot using a flat edged
bleeping spade! Oye! After the two arduous hours I spent breaking up dirt which resulted in me barely being able to hold my toddler because my arms and shoulders wouldn't stop twitching, I had to think of a different plan.
After a strong cup o' jo on Saturday morning (and a few more aspirin), I headed to the store for a nice, pointy shovel. Oh, baby. What a difference a little point on the end of a shovel makes! I was able to finish breaking up the rest of the dirt, go back and redo Friday's third of a section, AND start adding the amendment in less time than it took me to do everything else I'd done up to that point!
Look at the difference between the amendment and soil. Day and night, if you ask me...
It's a good thing I bought a flat of plants... All 48 of the little buggers were all twisted around each other, growing into their neighbor's cell packs, and a pain to separate. While practicing the difficult virtue of patience, I was imagining the looks I would've received from the gardener if I
had asked for less than a flat. Ah, the things we think about to keep ourselves going...
Once I had the cell packs separated from each other, I then had to trim and break each section of roots. Needless to say, gloves were not acceptable for this task. I needed to be able to get in there without my sense of touch being hindered by blue fake leather gloves that are too big for my hands. *Note to self: Clip nails before working gloveless in dirt.*
Well, here are the results of it all!
I forgot to ask how far apart I should plant the vica minor, so I went with about a foot between each plant and 16-24 inches between rows to get 4 rows.
Hopefully they won't take too long to fill in the dead space...
I hope you enjoyed your visit to our front yard!
Have a wonderful Labor Day!
With the exception of that speck of sun that quickly travels from the middle to left of the plot, this 12'x7' section is all shade.
These rocks are between the above section and the walkway leading to our front door. The little green that was growing, and the brown covering the rocks were "baby tears." Baby tears looks like mini clover all clumped together.
I visited the GardenWeb's Perennial forum for guidance on what would grow well in full shade, wouldn't be too invasive, and wouldn't take a lot of maintenance. I received many great suggestions, and took a list of my favorites to the nursery with me to see what the gardener would suggest for my specifications and our climate.
One small trunk and front seat full of earthy smelling soil amendment (I need a few bags for the back yard--oh, and a minivan too, please), and one flat of vinca minor later, I was ready to start work! Okay, the soil amendment has many different types of poo in it, so "earthy smelling" is a bit of an understatement, and it left my car smelling stinky for two days, but I digress.
The vinca minor will have very pretty periwinkle flowers in the spring, and nice green foliage the rest of the year. It also does well with low water usage, and full shade.
Let me just tell you that breaking up 84 square feet of dry soil with concrete like qualities by hand is back breaking! It didn't help that on Friday I did the first THIRD of the plot using a flat edged bleeping spade! Oye! After the two arduous hours I spent breaking up dirt which resulted in me barely being able to hold my toddler because my arms and shoulders wouldn't stop twitching, I had to think of a different plan.
After a strong cup o' jo on Saturday morning (and a few more aspirin), I headed to the store for a nice, pointy shovel. Oh, baby. What a difference a little point on the end of a shovel makes! I was able to finish breaking up the rest of the dirt, go back and redo Friday's third of a section, AND start adding the amendment in less time than it took me to do everything else I'd done up to that point!
Look at the difference between the amendment and soil. Day and night, if you ask me...
It's a good thing I bought a flat of plants... All 48 of the little buggers were all twisted around each other, growing into their neighbor's cell packs, and a pain to separate. While practicing the difficult virtue of patience, I was imagining the looks I would've received from the gardener if I had asked for less than a flat. Ah, the things we think about to keep ourselves going...
Once I had the cell packs separated from each other, I then had to trim and break each section of roots. Needless to say, gloves were not acceptable for this task. I needed to be able to get in there without my sense of touch being hindered by blue fake leather gloves that are too big for my hands. *Note to self: Clip nails before working gloveless in dirt.*
Well, here are the results of it all! I forgot to ask how far apart I should plant the vica minor, so I went with about a foot between each plant and 16-24 inches between rows to get 4 rows.
Hopefully they won't take too long to fill in the dead space...
I hope you enjoyed your visit to our front yard!
Have a wonderful Labor Day!
