Garden History - Chapter 6

Early Front Yard Photo

This is a snapshot of our Craftsman home about 4 or 5 years after we moved in. When we planted the Italian Cypress in the front of the house it was only four feet tall. The other tree (I believe a different type of Cypress) on the left was very “gnarley” when it got older and we finally had to take it down. I replaced it with a Gardenia (something I will be able to maintain).

A former owner had planted a Blue Spruce tree on the property line between the two houses and it had grown toward the sun. It was unsightly with its “L” shaped trunk so this was removed and we replaced it with a tiny, maybe a foot tall, Cedar tree that a friend of ours gave us from the golf course.

At the base of the driveway we planted a low growing Juniper. It would never be too big to impair my vision for exiting the driveway but would forever be green and needs very little water. Plus, visitors entering and exiting the driveway can drive over it and it will come back! Dogs and cats don’t like it much either, lol.

We bought all the, salmon colored, Azaleas from the GEAS Club we belong to. They sold them for cost that year, left overs from a parade. That is what you see all along the driveway path. There is a hydrangea at the base because the neighborhood pets kept urinating on the azealeas. hydrangea seems to resist the pet problem better. I put the hydrangea and azealeas on the other side of the lawn as well.

It just occured to me if you are new to this blog and are reading this post it might look a little weird if you cannot see the first 5 chapters. Since this blog moves pretty quickly I thought I would insert some links to my previous posts.

Chapter 5 CLICK HERE

Chapter 4 CLICK HERE

Chapter 3 CLICK HERE

Chapter 2 CLICK HERE

Chapter 1 CLICK HERE

I, also, have a few extra Signature Golf Balls hanging around in my OLA House. To see them click on this banner.

Spring 09 City Gardening

March, 2009, Spring is just around the corner.
Thank goodness the weather was in the 70’s today. What a glorious day, around here you just never know what you are going to get from one minute to the other! Just 6 days ago we had snow on the ground.

The birds have been chirping all morning and I got up early, opened all the windows in the house to air it out, put on my duds and headed outside to dig around in the yard. I might be a little stiff tomorrow because the Hubs and I have been hibernating all winter. *giggles*

I pulled weeds in one of my azalea beds and turned over the pine straw before I did anything else. I took a lot of breaks in between because I was sweating so much. It is always better to take things a little slower when you have sat idle all winter. Then I started to think about where to put some seeds and just what seed I had that could be planted this early in the season.

I told you in the previous post that I had to remove some bushes, so I decided to plant some lettuce, parsley and radishes in this location until I figure out what type of long term plant I want to place there. Why waste good space? Seeds are in the ground and I covered them with some leaves. We still might have some cold nights.

The Hubs put the makeshift cold frame up (recycled golf cart windshields) and made it a little larger this year. I put the Kohlrabi in there. If we have another cold snap we will be able to protect them after they have germinated.

I promised a friend that I would post a picture of the leaf lettuce that I planted last November. I covered them with leaves in the late fall and now they are doing beautifully. They survived our cold winter months! I can’t wait till I get to pick some. Next to that row of lettuce I just planted three rows of radishes. I have to be very careful of where to plant things this time of year because certain spots in the garden don’t get full sun enough hours in the day.

The plum tree, as much as I have worried about her over the years, still stands and is getting ready to open in full bloom any day now.

Last, but not least, are the empty pots at the base of the lattice. I plopped some pretty Morning Glory seeds in those and when the weather warms up they will climb up and over the lattice and bloom every morning.

If you would like to view some pictures that I took today you can CLICK HERE and look for Chapter 18 in my garden journal.