I have had my house for a while now and I love that I have room to garden. I tried an experiment last year. Instead of following the standard cut everything down before winter and covering it I left everything alone. I did not cut my roses back, I did not trim my hydrangeas and did not cut down my vines on the trestle. I left it all alone and you know what it was the best thing I could have done for my garden. I have what are called perennials (they come back every year). I have slowly over the years added flowers and plants for all seasons. It has been a process but I feel like my gardens are finally getting to where I want them. Here are some of my pictures in this spring season. Please ignore the bare ground in all the pictures. Ryan stopped to get wood chips for the gardens yesterday and we will be spreading that around this weekend.
I have a ton of chives in my garden. My cat and dog love to eat them. If you do not have little goat pets like me you may need to trim them frequently. This is easy if you love eating chives!
Also word of caution they do spread fast so be mindful of this. They are relatively hardy and do not need a ton of maintenance each year.
It has taken me years to figure out how to get my climbing vines to really climb well. The first year I did not even know what they were until I saw them trying to climb up the house. Added the trestle's and stopped trimming them and they happily climb now.
Last year I had planted some tulips and alliums. The tulips did well but I felt the alliums looked strange with only like 1 or 2 giant balls. So, last fall I planted more tulips, alliums and daffodils. They are all slowly coming up and looking great. Even with Luna (my husky) digging in the garden during the winter.
Here is the daffodils this year. I did not realize the size difference. Some are really large like a tulip and some are tiny. I like their bright yellow color.
They have the perfect little flowers.
Here is my greatest success story so far with gardening. I was so disappointed two years ago when I planted this hydrangea and it was tiny each year. I mean it was thin and had maybe 3-4 blooms a year. This year no matter what I was not going to cut it back. I left it completely alone and as you can see it has the largest leaf growth.
Random add unrelated to the garden. Do you see my lazy lawn ornament of a husky in the background?
This are original to the house when I moved in. I have not moved them and they signal spring each year. They are the first thing to come up.
Here come the hosta's! Some people think they are boring but they are perfect greenery for under my pine tree. They will literally grow in any climate (shade/sun) and are really hard to kill. I have a couple varieties (avocado, fragrant etc).
I have literally no idea what this plant is. It was original to the house and I have researched forever to figure it out. You can sort of see a rope in the background. This plant gets so large it has to be staked up with a rope and piece of wood. It is really a pretty black/purple color when grown.
ROSES! I love my rose bush. I have a knockout double red rose bush. It is the easiest and low maintenance rose you can buy. I make sure to dust it with sevin bug killer every once and a while. That is all I have to do to keep it growing up and gorgeous. I made the mistake when I first planted it of cutting it back before winter. That is why the center of the plan has some dead growth which makes me sad but reminds me to leave the plant alone.
Had to save the large beast for last. I got this rhubarb plant from a little old lady at the farmers market one year. The last two years it has exploded in size. It grew to this size in a week! I need to get out there and harvest some for baking. Make sure when harvesting you twist the branches out and do not cut them. Also, the leaves are poisonous so only eat the stalks. I have the sour variety so I need to eat/bake with sugar or fruit.
That is my garden so far this year. I cannot wait to do more this year. Ryan is going to work on the wood chips this weekend so that will make the gardens look even better.
Until next time~
XoXo Emily
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