Let's get it started.

(Spring 2014) New house, new yard, new ideas.  This Spring marks the 1 year anniversary of our move. I spent the year watching the sun and choosing my favorite parts of the yard.  Now, it's time to accessorize!!!

The possibilities are overwhelming.  I have heaps of magazines,  gardening books and multiple Pinterest boards, each giving me their own wave of inspiration.  I need a plan.

This is my backyard a few weeks after we moved in.

Backyard of new house (looking South)

Backyard of new house (looking North)

  

I knew I should have been busy unpacking, but I finally was blessed with the a view of the yard from my kitchen sink.  The cursed side of that, was that the view looked at a fence.  A naked fence.  NOT acceptable.  I made more than a few trips to the nursery and put a small list of plants in the ground, just to give me a starting point.

Perennials: Limelight Hydrangea, Cardinal Flower,  Salvia, Dianthis, Spider Wort, Creeping Sedum, 2 Clematis Flowers, Orange Asiatic Lily

Planning the small garden

I wanted to pretty up the fence and break up all the straight lines in the yard.  I laid the plants out, and wanted to leave room for pots & bird feeders, then drew in the bed.


In comes the Big Guns...

We have mostly clay soil.  My husband agreed to borrow a tiller and rough up the garden area for me.  The sod is extremely stubborn.  I was not used to using this kind of muscle to get into the ground.  The earth on the South side of Springfield is apparently much softer!  When I mentioned using a tiller, my hubby rolled his eyes and said "Where are we going to get a tiller: nobody we know owns one."
He was adamant about not renting one (and, i think, secretly did not want to do it).
I put it out on Facebook, and by that evening we had this guy perched and ready to go!  Thanks to our friends, Linda & Dalton (hugs).

This is MUCH harder than it looks.   That puppy bounced around and was actually very scary.  I am so thankful to live in a time where we don't' have to do this behind horses or livestock.  I can't imagine doing this  along an entire field!

I would have loved to go down the entire fence line - but this project is just to satisfy my view from the inside for a season until the master plan in created.  Plus - I still need to be moving in on the INSIDE of my house.
Besides, this small strip took awhile.  My hubby walked away with some blisters and probably a few tweaked nerves!  I'm thankful for the small strip of upturned earth.


Fast forward a few days….

The new bed is ready!  Our grade is way off, so we added a mini retaining wall at the end of the fence. We bought the brick from Lowes, and it took Jeff a few hours to put the edging/wall together.  I bought some soil to add to the bed as I plant to help amend the clay.  I didn't check the soil needs of each of the perennials I bought, but I see them all over the area, so I think they should be ok.

So, almost everything is in the ground.  I'll put some annuals in the pot for now.  It's ugly (but it was free and came filled with dirt from Freecycle), so I'd like to cascade some plants.  The purples in the Salvia are so vibrant, and do a great job of showing off the pink Dianthis.  Can't wait to see them grow into each other.
The first Clematis plant (on the trellis) is growing like CRAZY - but no blooms yet.
The green bushy plant at the bottom right of the bed is my Limelight Hydrangea.  It seems very happy here.

This bed gets sun from about 10am all through the day until around 6.  I  need to add mulch to help with weeds and moisture - but I'm out of cash.  So It will have to wait a few weeks.  Unitl then, I go pull unwanteds every day!

This is a few weeks later, getting into some heat now!

The Hydrangea (bottom right) is really taking off.  Clay doesn't bother this guy one bit!!
I planted the pot with sun loving impatiens and creeping Jenny.  I added a few other plants (I just can't stop) that I will try to name in another photo in another post. Right now I can't find a front view of the bed, but the difference was enough for me to enjoy the view from my kitchen sink.  I had birds on the bird feeder, fighting with the chipmunks and squirrel all summer so there was always a show gong on outside.
My nephew wanted to water with me, so Drew and I spent some time with the watering hose.