My Ornamental Garden Plans

When we first viewd our new home, the garden that accent the front and sides of the house as well as the perimeter of the back yard appeared lush.  When we moved in, we quickly realized thistles were quite problematic in most of the garden beds.  The plantings were ecclectic, and too much.  Once again we resigned ourselves to ripping out the gardens and starting fresh with the look we wanted.

There is a small garden bed between the sidewalk and the west side of the garage.  There was a large Rose of Sharon that was quite lovely but blocked being able to use the sidewalk without battling branches.  It was simply too large for that location.  We cut it down shortly after moving in.  In the spring, this little garden started coming to life but it certainly wasn't what we wanted.  It was too cluttered.  Adding to the cluttered feel, the previous owners had placed a one row brick retaining wall partially onto the sidewalk pavers around the entire little garden.  A matching but higher wall (not shown) on the other side of the garden runs the width of the house, wrapping around to contain another tree that is too large for its location and then abruptly ends with jagged rock taking over to define the side garden bed.  We are ripping it all out!

Once the garden bed was completely cleaned out, we installed a red cedar trellis.  I have two more of them to be installed either on the west wall of the house or the east wall of the garage.  I planted a clematis that will give a nice impact of colour without impeding sidewalk traffic or damaging the siding.  I finished off the bed with red cedar mulch.  I like the clean, uncluttered look.  I may add a decorative element but want to see how the garden looks once our steps are refinished and the front garden bed is redone. 

We are being hampered by weather between heat waves and storms so not much is getting done in the gardens.  Well, we are getting things done but it's slow going.  I keep puttering away at the ornamental garden beds.  The front garden bed is going to be a lot of work with the removal of a tree, two shrubs and moving all of that brick for the retainer wall.

Happy Gardening! 

Garden Gnome
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