Gardening! It’s been a hectic couple weeks with soil and earth deliveries, the fencing contractors, and moving garden to the new site.
The current location of the garden is the brightest location on the original parcel, but it is still mostly shade. I was successful at growing asparagus, chives, horseradish, and liverworts. Crops were prone to mildew and lacked rigor. I did get a tomato from a plant once. And so taters, but disappointingly few.
A lot that shares a corner with the original parcel was clearcut, sadly, several years back. I managed to pick it up in hopes of establishing a garden there. It’s a mess of angelica, rasberries, goldenrod, hay-scented fern and black cherry (wild, not the sweet kind) trying to re-establish. The good part is that it gets a good bit of sun.
I’ve been stomping around there collecting scrapes and ticks from the brambles, getting to know the lay of the place, and have determined the best place to start the garden. This year it will amount to getting 20 yards of compost dumped, putting in a few raised beds and ‘grow bags,’ and getting ideas for the place.
I think a firepit and a level pad for stargazing would be very nice. Also a sundial. I’m considering a beehive, but honestly, I just don’t know if I have the time for the regular maintenance that would take, and so many fail now. I probably have some ignorant neighbors that would be fearful, and… the bears. A modest water feature would be nice in time. I don’t want to bring electricity to the place, so anything needing power needs to use solar, so maybe a couple solar panels in the back.
I’ve planted a lot of trees the past couple days, too. A redbud, a peach, a dogwood (Oh, I LOVE dogwoods!), some native plum, an elm, and some others. Mulching away, the perennial garden looks like it will be a smash with the pollinators with foxglove and bergamot mixed in with the rudbeckia, yarrow, and lupine. Last year the pollinator garden really started to come into shape, but I was saddened by how few pollinators there were to join in on the feast. I am hoping they aren’t spraying the adjacent golf course with something.
I’ll get pictures up soon. My feet are up and I’m looking forward to a good read this evening!