A Place For Plants To Heal

Today I thought I'd share a little project I've been working on.  Over the years, several plants have been purchased and planted in areas where they weren't in optimal conditions.  For whatever reason- poor soil, not facing the proper direction, not receiving enough sunlight, receiving too much sunlight- it became apparent that some plants needed a change.

A few weeks ago I started clearing a grassy area of our lawn and preparing the soil to transplant these plants, in hopes of offering them a healthier place where they can have a better chance at not only survival, but a chance to thrive.

(The vine maple was a tree that a friend was digging out and planning to take to the dump.  It's been about 3 weeks since we planted it and it looks very happy.)

(The picture just above is a before picture that was taken nearly 10 years ago when we first purchased our home.  It's incredible to me to see how much the camellia has grown!)

 

The area sits just outside our bedroom window (the same area from this post) and receives a good dose of sunlight.  Everything I planted was either a transplant from our yard, or a friend's yard.  I only purchased two things to add to the area; topsoil with added organic compost (good soil is a necessity, I believe) and a Russian Daphne shrub.

(The small patio and brick walkway are a work in progress)

It's packed full of small clumps of hosta, daylilies, yarrow, peonies, shasta daisies, euphorbia, bellflower, vinca, iris, hydrangeas, linaria, asters and a few others.

Some things may not survive.  Hopefully most will.  I typically shy away from transplanting, for fear of killing things.  But some of the plants looked so pitiful before transplanting them, I figured I didn't have much to lose.  I'm hopeful that with great compost, better sunlight and lots of my love, these plants will do well.  I can already see a happy improvement, particularly with the hydrangeas.  I encourage you to try your hand at transplanting, Spring and Fall are good times to do it, with most plants.  And let me know how it goes!

Thanks for stopping by today!

another front yard project

like amy, i have a semi-neglected front yard. in my case, it's because our back yard gets much more sun, so i've focused more of our efforts there. when we moved into our house two and a half years ago, there were already some decent garden spaces carved out, but it's clear that the previous owners and i have different gardening styles! in our front yard, there are two beds just in front of the house that are mostly a variety of hostas, and some red-colored landscaping rock that i cannot stand. i vow that this year will be the year i finally clear it out! i'm not a big fan of the hostas either and am slowly replacing them with other plants. i've planted a lot of tulip bulbs there as well, so it's really pretty in the early spring.

closer to the sidewalk, our house is on a very small hill, so there is one garden bed on one side of the steps up from the street. i've spent the past two summers slowly replacing the hostas in this space and adding some perennial flowers and herbs (st. john's wort, chives, feverfew, and echinacea). i also seem to be in a losing battle with an aggressive spreading weed that is trying to take over the garden (any ideas what that is? or suggestions on how to fight it? i've tried ripping it up by the roots, but it just keeps coming back!)

my big project for this year is to dig up the other side of this small hill. it's partial shade, so that limits my planting options, but i'm confident that i can fill it up without too much trouble. because it's on a hill, i'll need to do some kind of minor terracing to prevent erosion (there were some attempts at this on the other side, but it's not done very well. i'm working on improving that as well). i'll probably just use some bricks that we have in our garage.

i have some plants in my overgrown backyard that i plan to move to this space: rhubarb (we have a rogue one growing in our raspberry patch!), borage, comfrey, bleeding hearts, yarrow, and a few grasses. any other suggestions for a partially shady hilly spot? bonus points if they're medicinal or can be used for dyes :)

i'm really excited to add this new space and spruce up the front of our house. and i love that amy is working on a similar project and we can check up on each other's progress as the summer moves forward.

transplanting

i don't know about you but we live on a budget. and as much as i would love to spend every penny of my weekly paycheck on plants, i have to try hard to refrain at this time of year.

to stick with our budget i have made a commitment to fill my garden this season with as many plants as possible from other people's gardens.

most gardens are in need of a little thinning of one plant or another (i know i am always looking to give away black eyed susans) so it's usually not hard to find someone looking to share a piece of their garden. heck i have even seen transplants on freecycle and craigs list.

just like thrifting, i love the thrill of plant shopping in other people's gardens. you never know what you will find. sometimes there are just the basics and sometimes you can find the score of your life.

i also like having a garden with a story. little pieces from here and there.

today i went to my mom's to dig up a few simple shade lovers. a french variety of forget-me-not, a ground covering strawberry begonia and a few miniature hostas soon filled my basket. and off i went to give them a new home and my garden another piece to it's story

Some tips when digging up and transplanting:

:: transplant on an overcast day or during the cooler morning or evening hours.

:: be prepared. bring your own tools as well as baskets and containers to hold your transplants. boxes, baskets, crates, trays and buckets work great for transporting.

:: dig deep. dig out far enough from the plant to get all the roots without breaking or damaging them. and include as much soil as possible around the root system to keep the plant from drying out.

:: water your plants lightly as soon as you dig them up. plants can go into a bit of shock when their roots are disturbed. give them a little boost with a drink of water as soon as they are dug up.

:: transplant your plants as soon as you get home. have an idea of where you want your plants to go and if possible have the holes already dug. if not, no biggie but don't leave them to sit out too long or even worse forget about them until the next day.

:: don't bite off more than you can chew. translated- don't dig up more than you can plant. i have made the mistake many a time of digging up way more plants than i realistically had time to transplant that day.

:: water everything as soon as it is planted and then every day for at least a week. the biggest mistake you can make is under watering your transplants.

backyard berries

is there anything better than stepping out your back door* and returning with handfuls of fresh berries?  i'm not quite sure there is. 

at our old apartment, we had a huge raspberry patch in the backyard and driveway.  enough to make multiple batches of jam and fill our freezer (with more than a few to spare for a tasty snack for a certain berry-loving dog of ours).  in fact, that raspberry patch is one of the things i miss most about that place.  our new home came with a very small patch of fall raspberries, but luckily our old landladies were kind enough to allow me to thin out their berry patch a bit last spring.  so i've been working to fill ours in.  slowly but surely transplanting about 10 plants last spring and another 10-15 volunteer raspberry canes that popped up in my community garden this spring and hoping, in a few years' time, to have enough for backyard jam.  raspberries transplant very easily and they spread pretty quickly too.  if you look hard enough, you probably have some friends or neighbors willing to thin out theirs come next spring.

until i have a great big raspberry crop, though, i'll be content with a few handfuls here and there to top of some ice cream or morning cereal.  (or, just straight in my mouth, if we're being honest here!)

how do you enjoy your berries?

{*full disclosure: the strawberries are actually in my community garden, so i have to walk a couple of blocks to pick those. close enough, though, i think}