Not quite. After a year (a year!) or tarping-over the raised bed in front of the house, I laid down permeable barrier cloth and began to commence to start over -- about two bags of topsoil short of the mark! There was enough to start the solitary herb that will live among the flowers (rosemary) and to cover most of the barrier.
Tamara, who already provided the rosemary, will pick up a couple more bags of topsoil today and with any luck, I'll be planting mixed-wildflower seeds this evening.
Meanwhile, the hostas and ditch-lilies flourish, the stonecrop is doing well (and I'd like to add to it, more stonecrop and possibly tall yarrow at the back) and the wild violets are running wild and the little white flowers that carpet the front yard have passed their peak. The little patch of mint is doing all right but might like a bit of the topsoil to help out. This is gardening-by-default: I'm growing what grows mostly on its own. The stonecrop and mint are additions that have worked out; the rest was already here.
First mowing of most of the front yard was last week and the rest of it it will have to be tonight or tomorrow night, ahead of predicted rain Wednesday. I'm always reluctant to get too aggressive as long as the little wildflowers are blooming; grass and weeds are one thing but it seems wrong to be buzz-cutting flowers.
NO!!! No yarrow!
ReplyDeleteWe made the mistake of planting some that had come in a packet of "mixed wild flowers". It's one of the nastiest weeds you'll ever see. Spreads everywhere, and once it gets into the yard it's insidious and harder than heck to root out.
I'd rather pull up miles of Creepy Charlie tendrils than try to root out a piece of yarrow.
Up here in Minnesnowta we still don't have grass long enough to mow. Maybe next week I'll take a first pass at it if we don't get snowed on in the meantime. My friend up in Bemidji (about 200 miles north of the Hive) just had 2 to 3 inches of snow over the weekend, and we're supposed to be right around the freezing mark by the middle of this week.
Midwest is cutting time/ Kids brought a new old reel mower with them. Applied so lube to the blades and the thing does a bang up job. Hard to mow anything other that grass with it.
ReplyDeleteGood luck on your garden, sparse as it is.
Paul: Alas, the grass is too tall for a reel mower at present. My electric deals okay with it, though I am overdue to sharpen the blade.
ReplyDeleteBlackwing1: Really? I grew yarrow at the back of my smallest, worst-soil section of flowerbed, where the stonecrop grows. It did okay the first year, came back a bit less the second...and that was it. Tallish, kind of fern-looking leaves, big red flowers. I liked the look of it but it seemed less hardy than any of the other perennials in my gardens.
ReplyDeleteMs. X:
Yeah, that's the stuff. The leaves look like miniature fern leaves from a central stalk. We originally had it in a very small(2 ft. x 3 ft) wildflower garden to the side of the back walk mixed in with a bunch of Brown-eyed Susan, echinacia and columbine. It spread over the little plastic curb into the yard, and then in the second year spread itself (seeded?) into the yard on the other side of the sidewalk. When it's in the grass it doesn't get tall and stalky, but stays pretty flat and stealthy. I've now this spring discovered patches of it all through the back yard, and it's darn near impossible to uproot...I have to use a dandelion tool to get the root up in any semblance of one piece.
Maybe it's a regional thing, or has to do with soil type, so I have no idea why it can adapt in our yard to being an invasive species through the lawn. I just hope yours stays put.
And joy, our forecast for tomorrow is rain possibly mixed with some snow showers.