I was out of town and offline for a few weeks on vacation and it was truly restful to have the space away from garden and work. In the garden, I think I burned myself out with 2 major projects in spring: installing hoops in the veggie garden raised beds, and prepping and planting the new front entry garden (including removing countless wheelbarrow loads of red shale mulch! It just about killed me...), and I hadn't been feeling very motivated to do much else.... until now.
After the first week of holidays I was ready to think about gardening again! There is much I want to accomplish but I don't have a lot of time this fall, so it was time to make lists and prioritize. What would make the most sense to get done first, and what can be accomplished in my limited spare time? Some areas need thinning, and others need re-working (for example because I have a new colour scheme in the front garden), and other areas are still in early development.
Above: this area of the Adventure Garden has barely been touched since planted in 2008, and needs some thinning. That poor, crowded blue oat grass cannot be seen in its full, symmetrical, blue glory!
Primarily, I will be moving some plants around to get ready for some more major projects next year. Fall is a great time to move plants because the weather is getting cooler so it's less stressful on the plants, and there's still plenty of time for them to get their roots established before winter. Not only that, but it's much easier to place plants in fall when they are big, rather than trying to remember in spring how much space that tiny, newly growing plant is going to need! So get out there and make some changes this fall!
Here's my list, and I've already started:
- Move festuca glauca from front welcome garden to under trellis (done)
- Add a 'Sem' sorberia shrub
- Move some lily of the valley from front of house
- Stain chairs
- Clean north patio and prep for building a new patio next year
- Move one rosa glauca from back shade garden (done)
- Move pink yarrow from front welcome garden (done)
- Move mini asiatic lilies from front (done)
- Move some yellow creeping jenny to back shade garden & orchard (done)
- Add 3 dogwoods, weeping crab and 3 Russian cypress
- Move epimediums and bugloss in front shade garden (done)
- Move yellow loosestrife from front welcome garden (done)
- Move goat's beard from back shade garden (done)
- Move arch and re-route downspout
- Re-route path under arch
- Remove purple campanula glomerata, the nasty spreader! (done)
- Edge front sidewalk to prep for laying brick edging (next year) - use soil for planting junipers
- Move nannyberry and deschampsia to front near rain barrels
- Move paprika yarrow to new location
- Move more blue centaurea montana from back garden
- Move pink cranesbill to back of adventure garden
- Weed (I haven't done it in AGES)
- Thin bearded iris (anybody want some?) and move some Siberian iris
- Remove wild rose (spreads like crazy!), move a piece to back alley by compost
England (the main edible garden area)
- Remove raspberry by compost, move to back alley by downspouts
- Transplant 2 columnar junipers from Adventure Garden
- Re-space cherries and honeyberries
- Edge lawn by bench
- Replace and stain arch at entrance to England
At first I thought you had one of those awesome lists where pretty much everything is done! Keep an eye on the centaurea montana - I spent a lot of time digging it out last year. It spreads by seed and worse, underground.
Posted by: Paula | August 16, 2012 at 07:21 AM
LOL, Paula! No, I just got started on the list before I had a chance to post it!
Thanks for the warning about centaurea montana. I debated for a while about this spreader but it will be in a spot beside a spruce tree where the soil is fairly dry and thin so hopefully that will slow it down a bit! It is blue after all, so I just can't help myself!!
Cheers,
Janice
Posted by: Calgary Garden Coach | August 16, 2012 at 09:55 AM