Friday, March 17, 2017

Starting From Scratch In The Garden



January 1st of any year

Moving to a new city, apartment or house

Starting a new job

Beginning  a new school year


All these things have one thing in common...

They are new starts- filled with hope for good things to come. Of course you know there's some work ahead, but new beginnings are always exciting.


That's how I feel about the backyard at our new house.

It's raw and the previous owners didn't do anything to it.





MLS Photo

MLS Photo
So where do you start?

I start by writing it down and listing what we want.



What we want is beautiful, but easy to take care of.



The gardens of our last home were beautiful and spacious...












but  they were a lot to take care of.

Every Spring, these gardens needed lots of work; 360 bags of mulch needed to be spread, plus 1 yard of chips for the path ever other year. 


That's a lot of work in the Spring! Gardens like that also need tending every week, especially after a storm.



Because of that, we want something a little smaller and easier to take care of.



If we want space, we can always go to our 3 1/2 acres at our Mountain Cottage.





Last Fall Mr. DIY and I cleared out a lot of the underbrush and overseeded the backyard lawn. We plan to cut down some of the pine trees to give us more space. The backyard goes back a ways down the hill and while the pines are beautiful the size they are now, in future years they will become very large and tower over the house. We'll wait to cut down the larger pines until the the pines farther down the hill grow up a bit so we don't lose too much privacy.







Last Fall we also added some mulch around the house and a few weeks ago I planted some broccoli.
Can't wait to have fresh veggies growing in the garden. 







We plan to clear out a bit more at the edge of the natural area, but we'll do it a section at a time, bringing in good soil and mulching a bed only 3 - 4 ft wide along the back edge of the lawn. When we're all through there will still be a lot less mulch to apply than our last house. This past Fall, we spread 32 bags....
A lot easier than 360!




 It will be awhile before we get to get some flowers and pretty plants in, but this time around, the plants will have to be easy to take care of. Cleyera will be the main shrubs, and we'll add an easy to take care of Camellia, hydrangeas and some flowering perennials among the evergreen pine trees.
Mr. DIY might eventually install another circular cobblestone patio with a firepit like the one we at our last house.


That's the plan- pretty and easy to take care of- and of course, it won't break the budget.



Little by little, the landscape will get finished. 


If you have any suggestions, I'm all ears!

Pam




3 comments:

  1. Sounds like you have a good plan started for your new home's landscaping. I know you two will do a good job with whatever you come up with. I always loved your other home's landscaping- it was amazing! 360 bags of mulch is a lot! It's wonderful that you have the mountain cottage too- what a great getaway! I was thinking about the cottage the other day when staying at a kitchen with some open shelving.

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  2. I am sure it will look beautiful as your former gardens were stunning!!

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  3. I loved your old yard, especially that circular patio in the trees!! But what a lot of work! Ouch!! I know you'll do something great with the new yard but I don't have any advice. I'm not much of a gardener but I try!

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