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Not really a gardener
Apr. 28th, 2008 09:15 amWhen I was young, my family didn't garden. My mom kept a small plot of tulips and we had a huge strawberry patch. That's about as far as my gardening experience takes me. My mother-in-law, on the other hand, is practically a master gardener. She knows everything there is to know about plants. So I'm glad she's around when I'm trying to do things with my flower beds. I'm hopeless in the garden. I can't tell a weed from a flower most of the time. My 8 years in the arboriculture industry has given me the ability to know an ailanthus when I see it, but that's about it, though I've been promised dendrology lessons and help getting ISA certified.
I'm really proud to say that I cleaned out my flower beds this weekend. And I did the worst one all by myself! There were dozens of strawberry plants (an inedible variety), a few stinky ailanthus trees, and a couple maple saplings. My neighbor loaned me a garden weasel which made short work of tilling around my barberry bushes and tulips. I pulled out a dwarf rose bush that was half dead, some strange tall blue flowers and most of my beautiful purple creeping phlox. The phlox will be replanted next spring, but everything but the barberries have to go. This summer the flower beds will be begonias, marigolds, climatis, and (if I'm feeling up to it) one climbing mandevilla. I'll also leave the peony my in-laws planted our first summer in the house. This fall, everything but the barberries will be pulled out and a long trench will be dug. I intend to plant hundreds of tulips and daffodils. I want an explosion of color next spring. I hate the winters here and the thought of daffodils is one of the things that helps get me through it.
I'm really proud to say that I cleaned out my flower beds this weekend. And I did the worst one all by myself! There were dozens of strawberry plants (an inedible variety), a few stinky ailanthus trees, and a couple maple saplings. My neighbor loaned me a garden weasel which made short work of tilling around my barberry bushes and tulips. I pulled out a dwarf rose bush that was half dead, some strange tall blue flowers and most of my beautiful purple creeping phlox. The phlox will be replanted next spring, but everything but the barberries have to go. This summer the flower beds will be begonias, marigolds, climatis, and (if I'm feeling up to it) one climbing mandevilla. I'll also leave the peony my in-laws planted our first summer in the house. This fall, everything but the barberries will be pulled out and a long trench will be dug. I intend to plant hundreds of tulips and daffodils. I want an explosion of color next spring. I hate the winters here and the thought of daffodils is one of the things that helps get me through it.