Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

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Lily left the valley
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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

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Trying (and finally succeeding) to open the south west cellar window today led me to confirm that that strip of our property needs to go down at least a few inches before I can even be where it used to be to further level down. :-( Not sure if the "Call before you dig" folks will be answering phones tomorrow, so I might not get an appointment with them until next week. We'll see how that goes.

Two follow up shots for the transplants.
--Today's E&G is a bad shot, sorry for that. I was really tired after the window wrestle. Where it started, first move, second move because it was downright burnt, and now you can see the burnt pinky color is fading. What you can't see is the gloriously healthy undergrowth. It's also loving being near that wall, as you can see it reaching with several new tendrils. I need to make a trellis for it soon! I also realized I planted both of those too near the porch. That bed needs to be widened (shot #3), which I hope to get to later this week. I think the E&G will be ok with a third move, as this location is obviously way better for it.
Image Image Image Image

--The rhododhendron moved from the east to west. From spotty and mangled to well on its way to recovery. I waited a bit to pinch the sick leaves off after the transplanting to give it some time to adjust before further stressing it. Seems like that was a good thing.:
Image Image

Still lots to do, but it's a blossoming garden, so not news, really. :mrgreen:
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Manalto
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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

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Lily left the valley wrote:...I planted both of those too near the porch.


It's a common mistake to forget the eventual size of a shrub and plant it too close to the foundation. I like to be able to walk between my foundation plants, even after they're fully grown, and the house. (I know it looks absurd when you first plant that 1 or 3 gallon shrub 10' from the house, but in a few years it'll make sense.)That way, there is no hassle painting, doing maintenance, or (ha, ha) washing windows. Also, look up. The overhang of a house (or even its position close to the house) can mean that your plants could be getting cheated in the rainfall department.

Nice to see things recovering!

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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

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So I got an idea when walking around town yesterday when I noticed an older home corner property with a slope similar though larger (longer top to bottom) than ours. They had planted a lot of pips and bulbs right on down the slope, and let the rest go wild, as it's one of those older areas with no sidewalk, and a less traveled road. It looked rather nice. So we're thinking of transplanting a bunch of the so crowded they are strangling each other pip plants that will do well on a north side with lots of sun E/N/W and scattering them about the slope. We're trying to decide whether to do it now or later. Some are starting to bloom now, some may not bloom at all this year due to how thick they are clumped from the lack of tending. I'm going to look up what I think each type is and see what is recommended.

We still also want to get a small tree for the front yard, likely a fruit, but we're still undecided on what kind. Every time we do our walk around and I look at that corner, I keep seeing a smaller sized but helping shade the porch tree there in my mind.

We also talked again about having a natural willow retaining structure for the driveway side. I have to sit down and go back to the one site in Vermont, I think it is, for prices so I can see if there's a way to budget that this year or not. I know some of their stock is limited, so we might not have a choice as to whether we start that this year or next.

We are still debating where to move the princess hollies to. He's leaning more as to use it as a natural hedge for the gap between the stone wall and the end of the property, I'm more thinking of using it across the front, as the potential width growth for each will eventually take up quite a chunk of that space in time. Since we have so little land between the house and our property edge on that side, I'm not keen on planting a hedge that will ultimately eat up most of it, especially if we do put the main front rain garden there. I think he's starting to understand, given how high they can grow, why my plan might be a tad wiser. We just both know they must be moved this year. They're already encroaching too much because of poor planning when they were planted.

Even though we had a brief shower that wasn't prognosticated by the weather folks last night, the rest of the week is still predicted to be fairly rain free. So we'll see how the rain barrel holds up as the week progresses, and we do our daily water rounds.

I'll try to post a bit tonight in my rain garden thread about plans we've discussed that will directly affect the front rain garden.
Manalto wrote:
Lily left the valley wrote:...I planted both of those too near the porch.


It's a common mistake to forget the eventual size of a shrub and plant it too close to the foundation. I like to be able to walk between my foundation plants, even after they're fully grown, and the house. (I know it looks absurd when you first plant that 1 or 3 gallon shrub 10' from the house, but in a few years it'll make sense.)That way, there is no hassle painting, doing maintenance, or (ha, ha) washing windows. Also, look up. The overhang of a house (or even its position close to the house) can mean that your plants could be getting cheated in the rainfall department.

Nice to see things recovering!
Thanks. :) We took another look at things today, and likely not tomorrow, but sometime this week I will rope out a few possible depths. We only have 5' of property there between our porch and the next door neighbors, so I need to go back and read up on the Emerald n' Gold to see what the spread can really be if let go. If it's more than I think, we may have to completely relocate it to the backyard or just give up and give it away once the burn has faded completely. I do recall you mentioning how it can go crazy, and I think that's why I'm leaning towards giving it away once it's healthy again. It's pretty, but I'm a lazy gardener.
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Manalto
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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

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The variegated form is not too difficult to keep under control if you're not shy about hacking it back once or twice a year. It's the solid green form that can be aggressive. Sometimes the variegated form can revert to the green form. For a small space like that sometimes a dwarf conifer or a perennial that's limited in size is the more prudent choice

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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

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Manalto wrote:The variegated form is not too difficult to keep under control if you're not shy about hacking it back once or twice a year. It's the solid green form that can be aggressive. Sometimes the variegated form can revert to the green form. For a small space like that sometimes a dwarf conifer or a perennial that's limited in size is the more prudent choice
Thanks for the info. I'll keep it in mind going forward with the planning.

I admit I'm a bit nervous about the dry creek plan. I'm hoping that by being careful in the removal of the sod level and patiently picking out all the mossy bits and ferns growing there that I can incorporate as much as possible into the edging of the project. I hope for that to keep down opportunity plants in there a bit. The hardest bit I think will be the constant acorn watch, given the oak that's among the paper birch there. That oak still concerns me, really. I'm more than a bit concerned that when we start digging to properly grade, we're going to hit oak roots. I don't know if the other property owner put in a root barrier at the time of planting, but I am hoping. Still have to ID the Oak too. If my worst fears are right, and it's only as small as it is because it's still considered young...I really don't want to have to contact the home owner to tell them the bad news of why planting it there was a mistake.
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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

Post by Lily left the valley »

I am oddly pleased that all the lilies should not be moved until fall or it can hurt them.

Sometimes doing things the right way turns out to be a convenient schedule in the not too distant future when currently I'm buried in a sea of catch up. :mrgreen:

At least all the grass whipping on the slope this year should be the last year for such a need!
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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

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It's a good rule not to move plants in the summer; it's too stressful on them.

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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

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Called the "Before you digg" folks today. Apparently there is no check box for "all" on the property, even though that's how some companies do it. The person I talked to wasn't sure how to classify "re-grade", but she wrote it in next to landscaping.

Within an hour of putting in our notice, I received two e-mails from the 5 names that were given as ones that would matter for our property. Both Verizon and Unitel (sp?) e-mailed to say there was nothing on our land of theirs below ground. Still need to hear back from our local DPW, Fitchburg Gas & Electric, and National Grid. I was told that the latest we should hear back was Monday, July 10th by 3pm.

MA does not require putting out markers for landscaping, but encourages it. I took some twigs from our wood compost, clipped them down to size, and cut up a plastic grocery bag that had holes in it, so couldn't be re-used for garbage. Sean put the flag pieces together, and I placed them mostly along the driveway line, across the front near the bottom of the slope edge, and at our 5' mark along the rock wall to the west. Now we wait until we hear from everyone we're supposed to, and we can begin.
Image

Shoobie had some berries drop the other day, so we tasted them and we're pleased. The rock wall raspberries started turning rather dark as they ripen, so now I'm wondering if they are, in fact, raspberries. Hmm. Apparently black raspberries are a thing. They looked very much like this picture I found: Image

The daylilies along the east side of the house are budding a lot. One stem started flowering outright.
Image
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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

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So today is D-day for when we're supposed to have all our answers about what's where on our property so we can start what digging is safe and wise for now. We did hear back from Fitchburg Gas & Electric last week, which also gave us an "all clear". Of course the only two agencies that have not contacted us are the ones more likely to have conflicts. :lol:

I've been trying to get out and walk a bit more in the neighborhood of late, and Sean and I have been trying to take unusual routes home from chores so we can get a better sense of what other folks have done in their gardens.

As I posted in my main Beebe thread, we did make a start at cleaning out the front gutter, which yeilded some very lovely lush moss, in clumps bigger than my fist. I'm trying to pick a spot that will get similar sun and water, and thinking if not on the edge of the creek bed, then maybe near the water barrel overflow spout. I did forget to take pictures. (There were ladder issues, I got distracted.)

Oh, and since we started talking about the dry creek bed as a management technique, I am now noticing natural rocks all over the place, and restraining myself greatly from theft because that would just be wrong no matter what the devil in my brain keeps saying. C'mon Craig's List! I know you'll come through eventually. ;-)

I don't recall if I mentioned that I went to our local hardware store about getting an actual downspout top, and all they had was plastic. :| So back to plan A: two cans metal worked and welded together and screwed on so we can finally install the rain chain. I really, really, really hope to have that done this week. It would be nice to get that off to the ToDo list, and stop the drumming.

I'm sort of glad at this point that I did not wholescale rip up all the wild strawberries. Little flowers have been popping up all over, and at this point, if they taste as good as is claimed, I welcome the free food. Tight budget, and all to boot makes it more worthwhile. After we reap the crop, then I'll figure out what to do with all the areas they are smothering.

Saw an interesting article which I promptly forgot to bookmark about making accessible gardens for later in life. Kinda makes me want to pursue keyholes and higher than what most folks think of as raised beds even more. (Family history of bad hips and knees--not bothering me yet, but could some day.) We know we are getting willows, it's just a question of when we can fit them in the budget. Still not looking good for this year, though.
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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

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Oh, and talking about oaks in Gothic's thread reminded me of something.

We do not have a walnut tree in the back. It's some sort of apple tree, likely crabby. I knew the bark seemed off for a walnut, and yesterday when we were doing our watering rounds, Sean found what I thought was a husked nut on the ground, and he tried to open it up. Smelled like apple, and had a prominent young apple seed for such a small fruit. Soooo...that was a bummer, but not the end of the world. Very fuzzy on the outer skin for an apple though, and the crab apple trees my grandparents had when I was a kid where very smooth.

What we also found, though, when we went back there to take a look at it was a lot more black raspberry bushes as well as what looks to be a few blackberry bushes (or one that had sprawled out) that are just starting to fruit as well. We picked quite a few of the raspberries, but none of the blackberries were ready yet. It seems like we chose the right berry bush to buy without even knowing it! The blackberries were just about at F in the chart below.
Image

The weather was finicky, and looks to be the same today. The good news is we finally got the markings for the sewer and water. They're pretty much where I thought they'd be, but now we know for sure. The funny thing was it rained after they sprayed, and it seems the paint they felt they had to put on the entire cover of the water access didn't dry, as I noticed that you could see the reverse imprint on one of Sean's car's tires. It was very easy to make out the mirror word "WATER". :lol: We have no idea when that might wear off.

We've got a rough idea of which parts to start on when, and I'm actually sort of glad for the rainy week ahead. Easier digging, even if heavier dirt.
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