It’s hard not to talk about the history of projects when you live in an old house,... as I first started typing this, I had about a page and a half of back story before I was even able to caption the first photo… I’ll get to all the details and back-story eventually, but for now, here’s the (still long winded) Cliff Notes version of the aforementioned Secret Garden – in progress.
A neglected portion of the side yard (a tiny bit of property on our side of the line between the house and neighbors side) needed to be dug up – as years, if not decades of strata was overtaking the house – rotting out the lower clapboards and sill. Repair work done, Lilies of the valley saved, I began working on a granite path from the back corner between the house and neighbors lilacs, and up to the front corner of the farmers porch.
For her birthday that year, I took my wife to the garden center. She picked out a quince for it’s lovely pinkish-orange blossoms, and various herbs for sights and nice smells. This spot will also include a place to sit, for people, and birds. And will have a lovely bit of curb appeal for the neighbors, as well as something nice for the cats (and people) inside.
quince, and some lily of the valley
I got right into the hardscaping, (years of watching dad build walkways and walls) mostly salvaged granite from our property and elsewhere. Working mornings and mid afternoons – much nicer when partially shaded – and intended to finish by Memorial day 2006, then get into doing the plantings… My ambitions (and energies were curtailed a bit by the blazing sun, family and other house related obligations. Here’s where I left off by the end of that HOT summer:
And here’s what it looked like last summer:
It pretty much rained every single weekend. I didn’t do a thing except weed a bit. The wolly thyme was planted for groundcover, everything else just showed up.
Further up on the left past the quince, are some small roses that are doing Ok. I may have to move them to the backyard, the roses that grew up out of the woods are doing great (despite years of mowing them down to nothing, as they invaded the garden… if they’d only shown their colors, I’d have known what they were sooner… at least they were well established enough… I can only think (like the tiger lilies that have taken off) that they were just carelessly cast into the woods by someone without a green thumb.
-- southern NH. - smack dab in the middle of 5a and 5b - with lots of shade and full sun, in all the wrong places.
9 comments so far
Damocles
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805 posts in 361 days
hardiness zone 5
posted 354 days ago
Lookin’ good! I like the start on your pathway; those can be incredibly difficult to make. There’s something about building a footpath that saps the energy faster than an afternoon of pulling weeds! I look forward to reading about your progress!
-- Living on the square...Metro Detroit
scottb
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167 posts in 386 days
posted 354 days ago
For sure… I’d read about the old stone masons of yore who tried to ONLY move the stones six or seven times! That’s a lot of fitting and re-arranging (and pulling back up to shim with more sand)... These are big, heavy buggers…
I’m looking forward to completing this before summer gets to unbearable – with all the snow were having so far this fall, I’m hoping for a more “normal” year, weather wise. The past two have been “off”.
-- southern NH. - smack dab in the middle of 5a and 5b - with lots of shade and full sun, in all the wrong places.
Treefarmer
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45 posts in 506 days
posted 354 days ago
I feel your pain Scott. I have about 250 ft of stone walls. Only took me 10 years to build them.
-- Bob, Carver MA USA, Zone 6b, Annual Rainfall 48" http://capecodbaychallenge.org
MsDebbieP
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3811 posts in 507 days
hardiness zone 5b
posted 354 days ago
and it’s gorgeous!
when our snow disappears (we haven’t had snow at this time of year in a long time.. so maybe it won’t go away until spring) I’ll have to take pictures of the paths that I worked on this past summer/fall.
I love the “natural” look of the path with little dots of green here and there. Beautiful.
-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)
Treefarmer
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45 posts in 506 days
posted 349 days ago
You should sprinkle a bunch of lemon thyme through it. A fragrance of lemons when you walk the path.
-- Bob, Carver MA USA, Zone 6b, Annual Rainfall 48" http://capecodbaychallenge.org
Damocles
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805 posts in 361 days
hardiness zone 5
posted 349 days ago
It’s said you don’t know patience until you’ve weeded a bed of thyme. :)
-- Living on the square...Metro Detroit
scottb
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167 posts in 386 days
posted 349 days ago
Lemon thyme sounds good…
What, in general would you recommend for a set-it and forget it kind of guy? I’m good with planning, prep, and all the hard work to get something going… keeping at it is the challenge. That old 90/10 rule rings so true.
-- southern NH. - smack dab in the middle of 5a and 5b - with lots of shade and full sun, in all the wrong places.
Damocles
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805 posts in 361 days
hardiness zone 5
posted 349 days ago
Well, IMHO, you’ve already got the makings of a nice low-maintenance garden. Really, any hardy perennial is going to serve you well…you just need to determine how much sun that spot of dirt will get, and (with an eye toward design) how high do you want a plant to grow?
In other words, planning for a moving garden, which is one where the viewer moves, you need to make sure that low-lying plants can be viewed at some point in the trip from A—>B.
-- Living on the square...Metro Detroit
scottb
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167 posts in 386 days
posted 346 days ago
Thanks D… coming from you, that’s saying something.
-- southern NH. - smack dab in the middle of 5a and 5b - with lots of shade and full sun, in all the wrong places.