This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

talk about all the gardening

Hi Carleen,

It sounds like you have a beautiful place.  Our house is in a suburban
*lot* with a fenced in back yard.  The people that lived here before us,
had no sense of landscaping or placement, they just stuck things
wherever.

It is an OK sized back yard, but everything is placed stupid.  Our back
yard faces the west and we have a small deck off the kitchen.  To the
south of the deck is an oak tree, not very big but not young either,
just big enough to shade the deck.  As you look across the yard, there
is a huge sand box (about 20'X10') with a wooden play structure in it. 
The sand box is about 4-5' away from the fence and right up against the
sand box is a lilac on one end and a soft maple on the other.  Last
summer when we had some strong winds (not even a storm) it blew a branch
down, so we plan on cutting that tree down, I'm thankful my 18 mo old
son was not near the sandbox at the time.  To the south of the sandbox
in the corner of the fence there is a raised flower bed that is in a
triangle shape.  I don't know what was in it last year, I didn't
recognized most of the plants, I think that they were wild flowers.  So
I'm just going to see what comes back this year.  On the north end of
the yard is another corner, raised flower bed in the NE, cherry tomatoes
were in it last year.  Then along the fence is a clothes line, at the
end of the clothes line is the uglies metal shed you have ever seen. 
Right now there is raspberries on the east side of the shed.  I want to
move these and put in rambling roses to cover the ugly shed.  I don't
know where to move the raspberries too, I thought about putting them
along the north end of the fence, but didn't know if the clothes line
would be in the way.  I want to start a compost pile and I thought that
I could put it between the fence and the ugly shed, there is about 6'
between them.  I think that the perfect place for a garden would be
where the ugly shed is, but it has a cement floor, I don't even want to
think about trying to get that out.  I also need to leave space for my
son to run in, I don't want to keep chasing him out of my gardens.

The front of our house has no curb appeal, it needs sprucing up.  It is
a white ranch with brown shutters and a small deck going from the
driveway to the front door.  It is stained the same color as the fence
and the back deck, but it looks like they got tired of painting, they
did an awful job.  Maybe they were running out of stain and didn't want
to get another can, it is full of brush marks and it looks like the
stain didn't even cover it.  There is a flower bed from the deck to the
other end of the house.    Last year it just had a few impatience and
one huge geranium in the middle, so it is empty this year.  Along the
south end of the house is where the air conditioner is, to hide it they
planted an evergreen bush.  It is almost 6' high, to high for me to
prune and it would probably take three people to reach around it and it
is ugly.  I would like to rip it out and plant a mock orange.  I would
also like to plant hydrangeas along the fence that faces the street, it
would get all day sun.  That would be a good side to plant roses, but
they only people that would enjoy them there is our neighbors garage.  I
planted peonies along the deck (about 15').  A friend had about 5 old
plants that she wanted moved, so she gave me several divisions.  Looks
like at least six have survived, they already have shoots poking out of
the ground.

So I guess I don't even know where to start.

I bachelor bought our old house, so I dug everything up and gave it
away.  I drove by the house this past summer and it looked awful, I'm
glad I took everything.  I took our bird bath along.  My husband had a
fit, but I love it.  Our neighbors were going to through it away, so I
asked if I could have it.  It is cement and weighs a ton, but it comes
apart so it is easier to handle.  My mother-in-law stored it for me, so
now I just need to get it from her and find a place to put it.

Any advice that anyone has it is appreciated.

Michelle
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index