I'm garden-obsessed again. Our new yard is just so big, I think I've been paralyzed about where to start. One Sunday a couple of weeks ago Kurt and I just decided to go for it and rip out the old dance floor/deck that took up most of the yard just outside our back door. We're still digging out the posts that were set in concrete (I'm trying to tackle one a day), but I'm about to pop to start putting plants in. We've left the swing, thinking we could encourage Rosa Dortmund or Lady Banks Rose to travel up and across. Too twee? I like this swing just there. Even when it was the dance floor, I'd set my bookbag down after school, sit down, and lean back to watch all the wildlife in the live oak behind our house.We're going to dig out the boxed out azaleas you see on the left side of the photo and spread them out in the back yard. Then I'm thinking herbs, tomatoes, roses, maybe a little fruit tree and a modest water feature. It should be a great place for all that as it gets full sun and we can easily create a raised bed there. Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait to get started.
Meanwhile, we are still enjoying surprises in our yard as the season unfolds. The camellias have bloomed steadily since November or December, and they are just now finishing. I was so excited to find that the huge azalea by our back gate is a George Tabor, and it seems to be blooming from the bottom up - just the best greeting as you come and go from the carport. It's the azalea I fell in love with years ago on a garden tour in Charleston. I tried one in Virginia, but the winter did it in. So - wonderful surprise.
Still no sign of life from many of our tropicals. The split leaf philodendron, which are in the most grotesque state right now - huge prehistoric looking dead things. I've cut much of them back, as one or two seem to be coming back from the ground nearby instead of from the old plant. The Queen palm is the one that is the most distressing. It was beautiful and tall and delicate outside our bedroom window and it looks uniformly brown. The elephant ears have not reappeared but the banana plants are sending up new shoots and the lemon tree is blooming (we even had three lemons this winter!) Everyone promises me this hasn't happened since a similarly cold winter in 1958, so I'm hoping we've seen the one bad winter in 50 years.
4 comments:
It's so exciting to see what you're up to and read your plans! Can't wait to see what you put in!
Me, too, Becky! You are very ambitious, digging up a post a day - but I agree that the result should be beautiful!
Early flight back from St. Louis today and a beautiful day here, so I just started digging. Nine posts out and six to go! (tub soak followed)
So glad swinging is in your future, that the posts are up, that the camellias have been sprayed, and that you have a list of new plantings to make. You do indeed bloom wherever you are planted.
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