Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

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

Post by Lily left the valley »

One late night, I found myself trying to sketch out a FOH view for Beebe by putting together elements we hope to have over time. Gothichome rightly pointed out that my sketch had quite a few elements that were more Victorian formal than Craftsman grand.

Since then, we've been partly waiting to see what former plantings will peek their heads out while clearing overgrowth in bits at a time and continue to pick up so much rubbish in the backyard it's annoying sometimes. (Broken safety glass in the lawn and bedding is not my friend.)
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Yesterday, as I added some of the celosias we bought out front, I realized that part of why my sketch went that way for plantings was that prior folks here had pretty much done symmetrical plantings in the beds near the porch as well as along the front stairs down the slope. Not all the symmetry survived, but you can see the remnants.
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Yes, that's another challenge, the slope. The front of our property has a rather steep slope. We have minor drainage issues (mostly due to a missing gutter drainpipe), and we have erosion issues on the driveway side, especially near said drainage. I temporarily used rocks and fill from elsewhere to slow that, but it's not very pretty. Sean is eager to build rock retention walls, I remind him it's not yet in the budget.

We also currently do not have a sidewalk that runs along the street, as that's something Gardner is getting to over time. This is an issue for planning the front because eventually what we put there could be taken away by city setback. There is currently sidewalk across the street, but not on our side. I had tried to put in a call to City Hall a few weeks ago to get a reminder on how to figure out the setback, but am still waiting to hear back from them, and I think this week I'm going to have to stop waiting and just walk over to ask. I had the info before, but unfortunately, that was way back when we started looking at 42, and I think the note I made might have been recycled along with all the paperwork for that house.

Here, we have to flag before we call the "Call before you dig" number. I can't flag until I know the set back. So nothing has been done except weeding and mowing on the bottom most part of the front lawn yet.

Getting back to formal versus not. I stumbled upon a blog the other day that has the most amazing gardens surrounding a bungalow in Victoria, B.C. Now, we don't nearly have the land they do surrounding Beebe, but when I saw pictures of that home, that "yes!" voice rang in my head.

Despite that, I found myself dutifully planting two of the celosias in mirror image between the plantings already in place out front. (As seen above.) :oops: Still, until we can come up with a big picture plan for the front, it doesn't make them stand out in a weird way either. I know, baby steps towards asymmetry, but it's hard to get a brain like mine to accept those steps just yet even if it wants the desired result such steps would take.

So instead, in the backyard, the rest of them will not be carefully balanced. The main bed in the back is by the garage, and it is overgrown with all sorts of things, including tree saplings, thanks to the squirrel army in our neighborhood.
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Today I plan to seriously start clearing that overgrowth in earnest. I did a bit yesterday, which only led me to want to do more. Here's a comparison of one shot I took a while back.
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I also have a lot of plants to ID here. Some, I know--iris, holly bush, bleeding heart, birch, and so on. Many others I have no idea what we've got. Time will tell. The first below is a bearded iris in the garage bed. The second is definitely iris, but it hasn't been thinned in a while so it's choking itself and no flowers yet. The rest, I'm not 100% positive what any of them are yet.
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In truth, the yards I have saved images of over time all have more of a woodsy, story bookish sort of feel. Right now, our front looks rather symmetrical overall for a bungalow. One concern is there is a lot of fear of lyme here in MA. I already know one of my neighbors sprays just for ticks. So I also need to be aware of that, and will try to incorporate some tick repelling plantings like rosemary while I also make habitat for things that like to eat ticks too.

I've also long ago started doing research on native species as well as invasive species. Some invasives we do have are already a thorn in my side, like the brush I can't think of the name of it right now near the garage, right by the fence and therefore will be a PITA to dig out. We also have the bleeding heart in the garage bed, which is very pretty, but not native. Lamprocapnos spectabilis
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I had looked at other bleeding heart variants that are natives, like dutchman's breeches
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and squirrel corn
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I won't be yanking that out anytime soon, possibly ever, but it is something I'm still considering. If we do get rid of it, since it's not an invasive, I would try to give it to someone else rather than trash it, as the plant itself is obviously healthy. Still, leaving it is also leaving history, given that I don't have to worry about it being invasive. (Yes, I am totally on the fence about this.)

We definitely do not have the budget for a whole scale "all at once" redo of the front. So I'm trying to find in between stages to work towards an end result. This is our first year here, so I also know it's a time of waiting and observing. Here's one fun reward to doing just that: a hosta that's intermingled with a woodland flower. You can only clearly see one bloom here, but there's probably about four or so that are in there.
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One really sweet spot that unfortunately will all have to be dug up to improve grade drainage is along the west side of the house. There is a rockwall interspersed with various plantings, and look at all the lovely ferns and moss. This will be tricky to preserve in order to get that wall to stop leaking like a seive from ground water seeping in.
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So this thread is my variant of a house project for our yard. I'll try to update as we do, and talk about what we'd like to do, plus ask for lots of suggestions! :D

My three goals for this week:

1. Visit City Hall and find out what local rules are (if any) regarding rain barrels, water features, and rain gardens.
2. With that same visit, find out what the set back is so we can plan with that in mind.
3. Build the three (possible four) compost bins in the back.
--Proud member of the Industrious Cheapskate Club
--Currently pondering ways to encourage thoughtful restovation and discourage mindless renovation.

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Manalto
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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

Post by Manalto »

#1 and #5 are too far away for me to see
#2 is milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) a native and important plant for the Monarch butterfly. It will colonize by runners that go quite some distance, so if you decide to keep it, be aware it will pop up where you don't expect it.
#3 and 4 are daylily (Hemerocallis sp.) - non-native, but H. fulva, the tawny daylily, has been around since colonial times. (The clumps of orange trumpets by the roadside you see in June.) It's supposedly sterile and the reason you see it growing along roadsides is because before roads were paved, wagon wheels would pick up a piece of the root and drop it further down the road.
#6 is rhododendron

The UMass Cooperative Extension should be able to help you with native plant choices:
https://ag.umass.edu/extensionoutreach/ ... sachusetts
You can also call UConn Home & Garden Education Center:
http://www.ladybug.uconn.edu/

Contact information is in both links.

James

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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

Post by Lily left the valley »

Manalto wrote:#1 and #5 are too far away for me to see
#2 is milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) a native and important plant for the Monarch butterfly. It will colonize by runners that go quite some distance, so if you decide to keep it, be aware it will pop up where you don't expect it.
#3 and 4 are daylily (Hemerocallis sp.) - non-native, but H. fulva, the tawny daylily, has been around since colonial times. (The clumps of orange trumpets by the roadside you see in June.) It's supposedly sterile and the reason you see it growing along roadsides is because before roads were paved, wagon wheels would pick up a piece of the root and drop it further down the road.
#6 is rhododendron

The UMass Cooperative Extension should be able to help you with native plant choices:
https://ag.umass.edu/extensionoutreach/ ... sachusetts
You can also call UConn Home & Garden Education Center:
http://www.ladybug.uconn.edu/

Contact information is in both links.

James

Thank you very much, James. I'll try to take closer pics of the others tomorrow. I already have the UMass link bookmarked in my garden folder, but I'll definitely look at the UConn one as well.

I'm a little surprised at the daylilies on that side. It is the east of the house, but because of how close the tall fence and bungalow next door are, the closer you go the side stairs it's in the shade for a lot of the day. My Nana always had those in full sun, though, so perhaps I just assumed full sun only, when they can do fine in partial sun/shade. I did, despite what I already feared, bring a small cluster of yellow daylilies I had bought last year and planted at the apartment, but I think my fears were correct in that the boyfriend of the house owner herbicided them to death. :eh: They haven't shown any sign of recovering yet. I'll give them another year and maybe a little food in the meantime and see what happens. They're in the garage bed presently.

I am very excited to have the milkweed. Now I won't need seeds. It already has popped up a few places, and I'll keep an eye out for more as well. I'll read up on transplanting since some of them are in the middle of nowhere in the yard. All shot up since I mowed the back last week. We have some more rain incoming this week, as well as the steady climb to the temps again. So who knows what will pop out.

I've never had a rhododendron before, so I'll look that up and see what I can do about the browning.

We have two more smaller low growing flowers that have started to unfurl (both of a purple color) in the garage bed. I think we might also have some joe-pye weed scattered about.

I also forgot to take a picture of one flowering shrub in the shade in the back. I'll try to remember to do that tomorrow as well, weather permitting.

The south area where it is has a lot of the metal mechanical garbage. I tossed a bit after the snow finally melted, but there was more but I was distracted away from the yard doing other things. It's already overgrown like crazy, and I'll have to dig my way through there again to keep unearthing the metal bits. We also have quite a few saplings of various types back there--some as tall or a bit taller than me, and I'm trying to figure out which to thin and which to leave. The back is very woodsy, and we love it that way. Yet we also don't want a ton of trees competing either.
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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

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The weeds to watch out for are oriental bittersweet (the kudzu of the North) and a new - and frighteningly aggressive - one, Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata). If you let them go to seed, you're sunk. And don't throw the plants you pull out of the ground (they also have an annoying habit of breaking off at the root) into the garden or woods. There's a tricky thing successful plants have developed called "pregermination" which means the flowers on the uprooted plant will use the remaining energy in the stem to develop viable seed. Sneaky, huh? I throw my pulled-out garlic mustard into a bucket of water and leave it there for several days, until it starts to rot. Then they're safe to compost. It looks like this:
ImageGarlic Mustard by James McInnis, on Flickr

It's nice that you're aiming to have a natives-dominant landscape. Another one to look at is the native columbine (Aquilegia canadensis). They're in bloom now here in Connecticut. They self-seed in a well-mannered way and will surprise you with new plants next year. An old-timer told me that it used to be a roadside weed before they started using so much salt.

Joe-Pye weed is wonderful.

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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

Post by Lily left the valley »

Manalto wrote:The weeds to watch out for are oriental bittersweet (the kudzu of the North) and a new - and frighteningly aggressive - one, Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata). {snip}

It's nice that you're aiming to have a natives-dominant landscape. Another one to look at is the native columbine (Aquilegia canadensis). They're in bloom now here in Connecticut. They self-seed in a well-mannered way and will surprise you with new plants next year. An old-timer told me that it used to be a roadside weed before they started using so much salt.

Joe-Pye weed is wonderful.

Thanks for these tips. I would have never thought to drown a weed before composting. I'm actually bag baking a few now. One bag for dandelions, one for random other things that creep and I don't trust to not sprout in the compost.

The columbine has some fiesty colors to it--I love it! I'll keep an eye out around town when I do my daily walk to see if I can spot any.

Gardner really is an interesting diverse plant area because of the hills, and also because of our waterways. We're at one of the higher points in town, which although it's a bit of chore errands wise when I walk, the view is worth the uphill trips with groceries.
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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

Post by Lily left the valley »

I just read a bit up on the columbine and noticed the poisonous aspect. That brought to mind where I had read a bit ago about a greenhouse that only grows poisonous species, I think it's in England. When I read that, I joked with Sean about having a "poison" bed in the garden. :lol:
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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

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Castor beans! Certainly not native - they're tropical - but oh, so satisfying; they can grow 10-12' tall in a season, with HUGE leaves. Remember the poison powder that was mailed to Congress a few years ago? Ricin - from castor beans. Deadly. (twirling mustache, sinister laugh)

You're in a beautiful part of Massachusetts with lots of plants to choose from. I like to visit Tower Hill Botanical Garden for inspiration. It gets better there every year. (Can you tell I'm a fan?)

ETA: An afterthought about weeds - all weeds aren't bad, in fact, there's one I've been having in an omelette for breakfast lately - lambsquarters (Chenopodium album). I've got a bumper crop this year that came in with goat manure I got from Beltane, an 18th century farm in Lebanon, Connecticut. Rather than toss the weeds, I rinse and steam them. They're tender and mildly flavorful, similar to spinach. I'm not a forager per se, but this one is so good I seek it out. One nice thing about it is that the tips of the plant can be harvested when it gets large and they're just as tender as the young shoots. Reputed to be nutritious, too. Here's an article and photo from NY Public Radio:
http://www.wnyc.org/story/last-chance-f ... st-greens/


James

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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

Post by Lily left the valley »

Sooo...we've had some rain. Any time I might have had more than ten minutes to spare, rain. :sad-darkcloud: Not heavy, but kept happening enough I was starting to consider donning a rain coat because the backyard especially was getting crazy. I even went outside the scheduled budget and bought a grass whip because I knew some of those thin grasses would just bow out of the way from our push mower, and I was not going to be hewing them all by hand with the grass shears!

Still, had I donned the coat, some of what is below might have been given an early demise before showing itself. So now I'm thinking, should I not have bought the whip? :shhh: I might have to do selective culling afterall. :doh:

Progress is slower than I'd like, but one day at a time, and it will happen eventually. Not this year! Yet, eventually.

Now I'm totally stymied about what to do with the "lawn" portion of the backyard because things just keep appearing.

Yesterday, we finally had chance to make use of a 20% off any bush/shrub coupon, so when we bought our blueberry bush (which, incidentally, was given a name by the Floor Manager which I was not ready for), the coupon almost made the bee balm free. Woo! :dance:

I also made my first attempt to transplant something I think I once knew the name of, and since forgot. I hope it survives.

Embiggen images for my usual banter if desired. I put the three garage images all together at the bottom because...yes...that much rain. The iris is already folded up, much to my dismay.

I still have a lot of thinning to do with all the pip crowding and thorny creepers. Thorny creepers all over. *sigh*

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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

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You've got milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), shown in bird's-eye-view above the second garage photo. It's is an important plant in the life-cycle of the Monarch butterfly, but it will quickly overwhelm the hosta (next photo to the right) in that spot.

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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

Post by Lily left the valley »

Manalto wrote:You've got milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), shown in bird's-eye-view above the second garage photo. It's is an important plant in the life-cycle of the Monarch butterfly, but it will quickly overwhelm the hosta (next photo to the right) in that spot.
Yep, that was one of the ones you had ID'd before, much to my excitement. Now they're just further along. They have sprung up all over in that area, including between the concrete slab and the foundation. We are planning to lift the slabs because they settled towards the house, but we're not quite there yet. I found my new old twin pry bars though! Half way there.
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