Getting Closer

Posted: April 12th, 2010 | Filed under: Landscaping | Tags: , | 6 Comments »

The weather has been cooperating lately, so we’ve started filling the beds with dirt, staining the new front steps with the hog panels, and installing a bit of drama in the way of landscape lighting.  I told you we’ve been busy!

We plan to build a separate fenced (deer proof) vegetable/herb garden later on, but for this year, I’m using the new side beds for edibles.  I’m playin’ it fast and loose…livin’ on the edge…risking their very lives.  I HAD to…you see, I haven’t had a garden of any sort other than this for TWO YEARS.

You either get this affliction or you are baffled by it.  Digging in the dirt and growing stuff is something I pschycologically need.  Once you’re addicted, these little pots of methadone don’t cut it.  AT ALL.   My whole lettuce crop in this pot is wiped out by a single salad for 4.

I planted many basic herbs and scattered a few seeds to get things rolling…..IF they survive.  It’s been almost a week and the deer have not bothered them, YET.  I’m planning an elaborate redneck screening device involving bird netting and thick wire in case things go as the CC predicts.  Dill, cilantro and lettuces need the cool of early spring so I HAD to go ahead and plant..out in the open….dain-jah, DAIN-JAH!!

OK…I know I sound like a crazy person, but it is, what it is.  In addition to dangling my herbs out in plain view of the local fauna, I discovered a very welcome surprise in the yard.

Hiding in the scraggled, neglected vinca minor, dead leaves and bare clay…

Is this.  Hint…3 leaves and NOT poison ivy!

Prairie Trillium.  Wahooo!  How could I have missed this last year?!  It’s a pest to some…NOT HERE.  I won’t go on, except that finding something salvageable, let alone exquisite, in THIS yard has been a rarity.  Amongst the miles of poison ivy and dead trees, we have a few of these gems scattered in the forest.  THANK YOU plant fairies.

My horsetail has been ordered for the front bed and should arrive any day, but I was afraid the dogwood will have leafed out by then, and it needed a moment.  So, until a bigger tah-dah is available for the front, I give you a mini-tah-dah sneak peek on the lighting featuring said dogwood.  More to come, I promise.

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6 Comments on “Getting Closer”

  1. 1 erin@designcrisis said at 9:47 AM on April 13th, 2010:

    Holy swizzler, your yard and house are insane! I am super jealous. Where do you live? Nashville? I want to live there, too!

  2. 2 admin said at 11:46 AM on April 13th, 2010:

    C’mon up! There’s a lot to like about Nashvegas.

  3. 3 lisa said at 8:53 AM on April 14th, 2010:

    lucky duck. trillium AND dogwood. plant envy from so cal…

  4. 4 nkp said at 7:57 AM on April 19th, 2010:

    You’re amazing and I love seeing all of your progress.

    Your dogwood is so beautiful. They are native here as well and can be seen blooming all over this time of year. Unfortunately the new varieties are nothing like the natives. We tried planting two a few years ago, but they just didn’t take and didn’t have that beautiful organic widespread shape.

  5. 5 Megan said at 4:35 AM on April 23rd, 2010:

    I followed a link over from design*sponge and wanted to share a tip for keeping deer away from your garden w/o any sort of fencing – redneck or otherwise. In my first garden I attempted to deter deer using a horrible smelling spray, which seemed to work fine until one morning, just as my tomato plants were beginning to set fruit, I woke to find that they’d disappeared. The deer had eaten everything, right down to the ground! Last year I installed a motion activated sprinkler and actually witnessed it scare deer away on a number of occasions. They’re not cheap, but then sitting in your yard crying over chomped up tomato plants isn’t fun either. :-)

  6. 6 admin said at 5:11 AM on April 23rd, 2010:

    We hope to get an irrigation system in place down the line…sounds like a handy feature we should include!!