Everything's greening up here on the mountain. The ferns are unfurling, lime-green leaves are popping on trees, jack-in-the-pulpits are poking up through the dirt. I wander around taking note, and all I want to do all day long is play in the dirt. I close the calendar and forget about whatever it is I'm supposed to be doing.
The other day, I straightened up our log wall and decided we needed a new garden. I scavenged the property's former gardens for plants (an iris here, a lily there), moved them into the new patch and covered them all with compost mulch. Then, I decided the garden needed a pop of color, so I stopped by the local nursery and added some annuals.
The new garden is pretty and cost almost nothing to install...but I'm always touting native plants that feed our native pollinators and wildlife. The irises and lilies and peonies that I've scavenged from old gardens on this property are not native to this land. Clearly, that meant I needed to put in another garden. So, this new one, taking over one of the slopes that we don't want to mow any longer is 100% scavenged and 100% native.
One of the benefits of tearing out so many exotic invasives (multi-flora rose, garlic mustard, stilt grass, etc.) around here is that we have more native plants popping up. For the new native garden, I found wild geraniums, cut-leaved toothwort, eastern woodland sedge, violets, bloodroot, wild strawberries and many more. I'll add more sedge and ferns from the forest...and...voila...another garden.
But that's not the end of this story....While working on that garden, we came to the realization that our oldest vegetable garden won't make it through another season. So, we'll take that one down and build new beds—on another slope that we don't want to mow. Stage One is complete: laying down tarps to kill the grass where the beds will go.
Naturally, the remaining vegetable garden demanded a little attention, as well. We spread our food-scrap compost over the beds and planted seeds. Can't wait to see the wee tomatoes, peppers, squash, lettuce, carrots, onions, cucumbers and all the rest emerge.
So, if you need something from me, and you don't hear back in a timely fashion....Come, join me in one of our expanding garden spots.
The other day, I straightened up our log wall and decided we needed a new garden. I scavenged the property's former gardens for plants (an iris here, a lily there), moved them into the new patch and covered them all with compost mulch. Then, I decided the garden needed a pop of color, so I stopped by the local nursery and added some annuals.
The new garden is pretty and cost almost nothing to install...but I'm always touting native plants that feed our native pollinators and wildlife. The irises and lilies and peonies that I've scavenged from old gardens on this property are not native to this land. Clearly, that meant I needed to put in another garden. So, this new one, taking over one of the slopes that we don't want to mow any longer is 100% scavenged and 100% native.
One of the benefits of tearing out so many exotic invasives (multi-flora rose, garlic mustard, stilt grass, etc.) around here is that we have more native plants popping up. For the new native garden, I found wild geraniums, cut-leaved toothwort, eastern woodland sedge, violets, bloodroot, wild strawberries and many more. I'll add more sedge and ferns from the forest...and...voila...another garden.
But that's not the end of this story....While working on that garden, we came to the realization that our oldest vegetable garden won't make it through another season. So, we'll take that one down and build new beds—on another slope that we don't want to mow. Stage One is complete: laying down tarps to kill the grass where the beds will go.
Naturally, the remaining vegetable garden demanded a little attention, as well. We spread our food-scrap compost over the beds and planted seeds. Can't wait to see the wee tomatoes, peppers, squash, lettuce, carrots, onions, cucumbers and all the rest emerge.
So, if you need something from me, and you don't hear back in a timely fashion....Come, join me in one of our expanding garden spots.