Lopsided Holly Bush...
After living in a dark cave of an apartment for many years, my dear family moved to a house with a very blank yard.
There was a tree in the backyard that was severely damaged, most likely by the Ice Storm of '95 that was the home of a family of squirrels. We had neighbors with trees that provide some shade.
In the front of the beige/white/brick home was a bleak yard barren of shrubs and flowers or even grass.
Upon second look, the green of the lawn is prolific weeds. We inherited a lopsided holly bush (I'll include picture soon) and a strange oak-type tree planted 2 ft (not exaggerating) from the carport post.
There was a rusty concrete post right next to the mid point of the driveway (most likely an ex- basketball goal). The former occupant had put a metal birdbath type construction over it, but the copper bowl kept falling off. The metal stand that rested around the ugly pole settled lower than the pole causing the bowl to not be able to sit flush in the stand.
We inherited a lopsided white, rusty stained mailbox as well.
We are renting the home so I had to consider that in any future plans. I do not want to put anything into it I won't mind leaving behind in a few years when we buy our own property and anything I planted had to be tasteful and easily cared for by future tenants.
At first the task by a novice gardener seemed daunting. As I worked through the planning stage over the winter I realized I was just having too much fun. Having a blank slate to work with was actually inspiring. In October, I added a lasagna garden bed around the concrete pole/bird feeder to stablize it and plant tulips. I created another lasagna bed around the lopsided mailbox which I have now painted blue. I planted daffodils, hyacinths and crocus that were cheerful against the blue mailbox in early spring. Recently I pulled the bulbs out for summer storage, planted sweet william seed in the bird feeder bed and lavender seed in the mailbox bed. Now we wait...And of course tackle the vegetable garden. A sweet cultivator's work is never done.
There was a tree in the backyard that was severely damaged, most likely by the Ice Storm of '95 that was the home of a family of squirrels. We had neighbors with trees that provide some shade.
In the front of the beige/white/brick home was a bleak yard barren of shrubs and flowers or even grass.
Upon second look, the green of the lawn is prolific weeds. We inherited a lopsided holly bush (I'll include picture soon) and a strange oak-type tree planted 2 ft (not exaggerating) from the carport post.
There was a rusty concrete post right next to the mid point of the driveway (most likely an ex- basketball goal). The former occupant had put a metal birdbath type construction over it, but the copper bowl kept falling off. The metal stand that rested around the ugly pole settled lower than the pole causing the bowl to not be able to sit flush in the stand.
We inherited a lopsided white, rusty stained mailbox as well.
We are renting the home so I had to consider that in any future plans. I do not want to put anything into it I won't mind leaving behind in a few years when we buy our own property and anything I planted had to be tasteful and easily cared for by future tenants.
At first the task by a novice gardener seemed daunting. As I worked through the planning stage over the winter I realized I was just having too much fun. Having a blank slate to work with was actually inspiring. In October, I added a lasagna garden bed around the concrete pole/bird feeder to stablize it and plant tulips. I created another lasagna bed around the lopsided mailbox which I have now painted blue. I planted daffodils, hyacinths and crocus that were cheerful against the blue mailbox in early spring. Recently I pulled the bulbs out for summer storage, planted sweet william seed in the bird feeder bed and lavender seed in the mailbox bed. Now we wait...And of course tackle the vegetable garden. A sweet cultivator's work is never done.
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