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Garden projects
Apr. 10th, 2008 10:46 pmI keep wanting to post pictures of various garden projects, but while everything is coming along, nothing is quite done.
1. We built frames for the back garden beds. The hard part was realizing that we had to create optical illusions of rectangularity, because nothing (fence, garden, patio) are truly rectangular, so the beds couldn't be either. We finished the frames, but I'm still in the process of leveling the dirt (it became obvious that the garden as a whole was much higher at one end than the other), restoring the irrigation, and spreading mulch on beds and paths. But I did plant potatoes today in one bed I finished!
2. I painted a pair of ceramic chimney liners I got at a salvage place and placed them on either side of the center column of the pergola, having cleaned up that area and filled it with blue-grey pea gravel. Today we filled them 2/3 up with rocks, rubble, and sand. Then I'll add potting soil and plant with succulents. I could propagate ones I already have or go visit the cactus & succulent society sale on Sunday. But I really can't take a picture of them yet, because without plants, and especially filled with rubble, they look like a pair of dark blue trashcans! They'll be gorgeous with the succulents dripping over the edge, I'm sure. But not quite yet.
3. We have a table/bench that we've never quite known what to do with. It could be great for lounging if only it had a back, I thought. If I could put it up against the fence somewhere, that would work, but there's nowhere available. Say, those raspberries in the corner always get too shaded by the brugmansia. I should move some of them so they're all against the sunny part of the fence, where they'd be easier to keep tied up. And then, look, the bench can go against the fence where it will be shaded by the brugmansia! Instead of fighting the shade, I'll be taking advantage of it!
So I moved the raspberries, painted the bench with cedar stain, leveled the dirt for it, found pavers to support the legs, and moved the bench. Already we love it. But I want to put a cushion on it, and here's where I'm hung up, because it's 30" wide. Most ready-made cushions are only 24" wide. I could get a block of foam and make a cover myself (assuming I could find some appropriately tough material and that my sewing machine could sew it), but foam has gotten absurdly expensive. What to do, what to do?
4. Also in the moving plants vein, I realized that I could move a burgundy salvia away from the red salvia (S. microphylla) that it clashed with horribly (all I can guess is I was confused about S. microphylla's color when I got it) and replace the blueberry bush that wasn't thriving with the lovely burgundy salvia. The blueberry might go over by the raspberries, where it could either thrive or get overrun; at this point, I hardly care. I rescued two more plants that were being overrun by the S. microphylla while I was at it, who are in pots awaiting new homes now. Another salvia (Berzerkeley) that had to be moved for the framing went to the front yard where a lovely Salvia guarantica had died. Except it wasn't actually dead; it had just died back to the roots. So now it's in a pot awaiting a new home where I won't be bothered that it's not evergreen. I checked the culture requirements on the Chilean guava (Ugni) and decided it could live nicely next to the front water faucet which desperately needs something nice and green to block it from view. Primroses were moved from windowbox to pedestal planters, where they can stay until I get around to putting something more permanant (and tough, probably succulents!) in them. White alpine strawberries go into the newly vacated windowbox where they are blooming their little hearts out, yum.
So you see, lots of work accomplished, many plants moved, much progress made, but nothing settled yet. Sigh.
Suggestions welcome, especially on the cushion question!
1. We built frames for the back garden beds. The hard part was realizing that we had to create optical illusions of rectangularity, because nothing (fence, garden, patio) are truly rectangular, so the beds couldn't be either. We finished the frames, but I'm still in the process of leveling the dirt (it became obvious that the garden as a whole was much higher at one end than the other), restoring the irrigation, and spreading mulch on beds and paths. But I did plant potatoes today in one bed I finished!
2. I painted a pair of ceramic chimney liners I got at a salvage place and placed them on either side of the center column of the pergola, having cleaned up that area and filled it with blue-grey pea gravel. Today we filled them 2/3 up with rocks, rubble, and sand. Then I'll add potting soil and plant with succulents. I could propagate ones I already have or go visit the cactus & succulent society sale on Sunday. But I really can't take a picture of them yet, because without plants, and especially filled with rubble, they look like a pair of dark blue trashcans! They'll be gorgeous with the succulents dripping over the edge, I'm sure. But not quite yet.
3. We have a table/bench that we've never quite known what to do with. It could be great for lounging if only it had a back, I thought. If I could put it up against the fence somewhere, that would work, but there's nowhere available. Say, those raspberries in the corner always get too shaded by the brugmansia. I should move some of them so they're all against the sunny part of the fence, where they'd be easier to keep tied up. And then, look, the bench can go against the fence where it will be shaded by the brugmansia! Instead of fighting the shade, I'll be taking advantage of it!
So I moved the raspberries, painted the bench with cedar stain, leveled the dirt for it, found pavers to support the legs, and moved the bench. Already we love it. But I want to put a cushion on it, and here's where I'm hung up, because it's 30" wide. Most ready-made cushions are only 24" wide. I could get a block of foam and make a cover myself (assuming I could find some appropriately tough material and that my sewing machine could sew it), but foam has gotten absurdly expensive. What to do, what to do?
4. Also in the moving plants vein, I realized that I could move a burgundy salvia away from the red salvia (S. microphylla) that it clashed with horribly (all I can guess is I was confused about S. microphylla's color when I got it) and replace the blueberry bush that wasn't thriving with the lovely burgundy salvia. The blueberry might go over by the raspberries, where it could either thrive or get overrun; at this point, I hardly care. I rescued two more plants that were being overrun by the S. microphylla while I was at it, who are in pots awaiting new homes now. Another salvia (Berzerkeley) that had to be moved for the framing went to the front yard where a lovely Salvia guarantica had died. Except it wasn't actually dead; it had just died back to the roots. So now it's in a pot awaiting a new home where I won't be bothered that it's not evergreen. I checked the culture requirements on the Chilean guava (Ugni) and decided it could live nicely next to the front water faucet which desperately needs something nice and green to block it from view. Primroses were moved from windowbox to pedestal planters, where they can stay until I get around to putting something more permanant (and tough, probably succulents!) in them. White alpine strawberries go into the newly vacated windowbox where they are blooming their little hearts out, yum.
So you see, lots of work accomplished, many plants moved, much progress made, but nothing settled yet. Sigh.
Suggestions welcome, especially on the cushion question!
