Thursday, February 26, 2009

Summer 2008 Inspiration - March Posting - little revision

I'm going to post this subject a couple of days early. This is my "Summer 2008 Inspiration muse idea." It's a little untimely as far as the early seeding subject, but it's never too late for Next Year's Plans! :-)

The subject for this month is early seeding and looking ahead at upcoming landscaping plans.

Early Seeding


I've enjoyed SO many helpful and informative posts by other garden bloggers with regard to Winter seed sowing, plant propagation and starting seeds indoors. I've never before done any early seeding and feel like a real Greenhorn! (Better than a bluehorn or a purplehorn?) ha.

At any rate, Kylee at Our Little Acre has shared her Winter seed sowing techniques annually. The first time I spotted her illustrated instructions was during the 2007/08 winter. I was so pleased that she posted again This Winter! :-) This link takes you to this year's post, which links to others.
(This is the little revision of which I spoke in the title)
I hope this works, I hope this works, I hope this works!
Experiment a la Kylee!

Patsi, at Garden Endeavors, recently posted Very Helpful illustrated instructions on indoor seed starting... I've not gotten to this yet, but anticipate trying very shortly (or at least, next year!) :-)

I know there are others that have posted helpful instructions, including Doug Green at his gardening-tips-perennials.com

Just look at Jan at Thanks for 2 Day! or Mr. Brown Thumb, who has several inspiring posts - including this one!

There are also seed swappers, including Monica at Garden Faerie's Musings

***I know I've missed a lot of great gardeners and their informative posts...
please add additional links in your comments!!***


Landscaping Plans

Now, as far as landscaping plans... I Really want to work on a little fence for the raised bed gardens. I am definitely looking forward to beginning 4' (or so) sections (soon!) that can be put in place once the posts are set after the ground thaws! Hopefully you'll get the idea before long. :-)

The stone walkway I started last fall needs to be finished. This means I need to forage for more rocks and purchase a few as well. Both ends of this little walkway are unfinished. And I need to fill between the stones with a lot more (sand?) between the stones. Any suggestions?


Of course, I need to continue working in the Woodland Walk; readjusting the stone path, adding a little more dirt, compost, a few more items, etc.

Starting from the west and walking east, towards the backyard, these photos were taken at 7:00 p.m. May 29, 2008. Click on all the photos below. Some enlarge more than others.








Do you see the ligularia in the bottom left corner? (The Rocket)

Now we've reached the east end and looking back westerly over the path we've just walked.












Here's a broader picture, looking west. This is another photo taken at 7:00 p.m. May 29, 2008.

Here's a photo taken at 7:00 a.m. on July 15, 2008.
You can see the bench is now in place!
The plant in the foreground is 'Lightning Strikes' tricyrtis.
The white and green hosta is 'Night Before Christmas.'
Heartleaf Brunerra right beside the bench and Ostrich ferns behind it.

One more project would be to create something out two small beds in the front yard. The following pictures were taken May 22, 2008. The "clump Shagbark Hickory" (allowed to grow this way, but why??) was removed in August 2008.

I want to plant a (Crimson King Maple?) tree a little further to the right and a tiny bit closer to the bushes back there. The woodland out here is chiefly a variety of oaks and a few shagbark hickories, so something a little different might be nice.
These two beds aren't as far away from each other as they look. I can visualize several interesting plants here, as well as a smallish water feature of some type. Not a pond, but some recirculating water. Any suggestions?

Have a great day! As you can see, the month of April really gets us into Spring! Yea!
Nothing "shady" here! ;-)

18 comments:

Monica the Garden Faerie said...

I'm also an avid winter sower, with photo links here and here. :) YAY! Seed starting!

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

I just love how your Woodland Walk looks. I think your path is coming along very nicely. Do you plan to plant in between the stones? We used topsoil to fill in between our stones because I wanted to plant ground cover there.
It'll be fun to see what you come up with!

Gardeness said...

That's a great area already. You're doing a lovely job. I'm going eagle eye what you add as I have a (much smaller) shady area I'd like to finish this season.

Gail said...

Hi Shady, I am going to mull this over....I like the notion of combining two smaller beds to make a larger one, but not certain what to suggest! Thinking! I will get back to you!

I have a big landscape project in the lower GOBN that I want to link here...I did have a first part a few weeks ago...They keep postponing it for rain. Maybe next week...they will finally start!

I do like your woodland garden and trails and the bench area is great, too!

Gail

Anonymous said...

Beautiful piece of land you have. It looks so peaceful.

If it were my decision I would research shady, drought tolerant plants. And deer resistant? Plants that are evergreen like Aucuba japonica or Skimmia (red berries in winter). Even a dwarf English laurel. (I have these plants growing under my towering, thirsty sweet gum tree so I can vouch for their shade and drought tolerance. Anyway, just my two bits. Please let us know how it's coming along.

Joyce said...

I see you like hosta, also. It does so well in our shady front yard.

The stone walkway you're making looks lovely.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog. :)

Shady Gardener said...

Grace, It is Very peaceful out here. I do miss the trees in the front yard... however the Sunny Front bed is getting Much more sunshine, now. :-) I'm going to look up your plants as I'm unfamiliar with them. Thanks for the suggestions!!

Joyce, Thanks for your visit. (I do like hosta!) And thanks for the compliment... I'm going to see if a couple of my h.s. neighbor boys wouldn't like to help me out a little this summer! :-)

Anonymous said...

Lots of good stuff going on here Shady Gardener. I remember when you first posted about the stone pathway. I have sand in-between my flagstone pavers but I wasn't planning to plant (like Catherine suggested). Little stepables would be nice in yours maybe?? I start seeds too but don't have any posts about it so far. I've enjoyed many of the ones you linked to. So much information out in the blogging world, isn't there? Have a good weekend. I can't believe we will welcome March already on Sunday! Yippee. That means we'll all be in the garden soon. :-)

Shady Gardener said...

Hi Kathleen, The stone pathway beside the house is in a Very shady area. I'm not really happy with the idea of using all sand between the rocks. This area is so shady, that grass (and even moss) doesn't grow. I wonder if perhaps Chocolate Chip ajuga might grow here. This seems to be a smaller cultivar, and generally ajuga seems to grow everywhere! ;-) A pretty good thought, I think!

Anonymous said...

I love all of the areas your showed. The woodland walk is beautiful, and would be a nice quiet area to sit out and enjoy. I can picture a succession of woodland plants. Some trillium would look beautiful there.

I think those two areas in front would look great joined together too.

You have a wonderful property for gardening.

Shady Gardener said...

Northern Shade, Thank you. I really enjoy living here. :-) The good thing about visiting each others' blogs is that, even though most of us may never meet in person, we have met online! And visited each others' gardens. And given helpful advice and suggestions. :-)

Kylee Baumle said...

My goodness, woman! Everything looks great already! You are full of great ideas. Nine times out of ten I design as I go. I'm just a horrible designer.

And bravo for the winter sowing! I didn't do any this year. I may regret it, but I don't think so. We'll see, when it's time to fill in the empty spaces.

I'm glad I could be of help! :-)

Anonymous said...

Hi Shady, I was just looking at all of your posts and want to add something to this conversation. I was just reading, don't remember where, that the best mix for in between stones like yours is sand with some portland cement mixed in at a rate of 8 parts sand to one part cement. It will give stability to the shifting that occurs during winter of the stones. It sounded like a good idea to me. I am all for the combining of smaller beds into larger ones too. It saves time mowing between them and looks better too. I am sure you will come up with wonderful plantings but would use hellebores in there. They can take quite a bit of sun.
Frances

Rosemary said...

You are certainly going to be busy, what a challenge to do the walk. Looks wonderful already, makes one wonder where does the bend take one, what mystery lies ahead.
Your centipede poem and muse day are giving me pause , yep I am musing!

Shady Gardener said...

I wonder where a couple of my comments went?? They were there for awhile after I composed them! I'll try again:

Monica, Wow! You have really inspired me to greater heights next Winter! Thank you so much for your helpful information. :-) May I print them??

Catherine, I'm not sure that I'll put dirt between the stones. Absolutely nothing (not even weeds) have grown in this pathway in the past 6 years! So... I might try a little ajuga, just as an experiment. I have a new cultivar, Chocolate Chip, that is smaller.

Gardeness, Keep watching!! And perhaps we can help each other? :-)

Hi Gail, Always fun to have you visit. I'll take any suggestions. :-) Thanks for the compliments. I'm sure YOU are busy right now!

Shady Gardener said...

Kylee, I'm pretty much a last-minute designer... but as I've worked in one area, I've given thought to the others. And it's all a matter of being patient. :-) (I believe this whole gardener/garden blogger experience is a matter of being a mutual admiration society!)

Hi Frances, Do you know - I've heard that too... about adding some portland cement to sand. I've given it some thought, but I'm just so unsure as to what the finished product should look like. It certainly wouldn't allow weeds to grow, it wouldn't "track in" much (hopefully), and much less... As far as hellebores, I hadn't even thought about putting those out front. I'm going to give that some good thinking time! :-)

Hi Rosemary, I'm glad for your visit. While I muse, you're probably cooking up another wonderful batch of delicious... ? :-)

Anonymous said...

Ambitious projects and visions of spring... sprung - thanks for the inspirations! /Deb

Shady Gardener said...

Hi Deb, It's getting closer and closer to the time I'll want to be outdoors All the time! ;-) Your classes are getting very near! Are you excited?