>Oh, there are many…
This entry is included in the World Garden Blog Carnival, hosted by My Little Garden in Japan.
My husband and I have bought an apartment from May 1st, so obviously getting that fixed up will take a lot of time away from the garden in the early summer, but we’re not going to neglect the garden entirely.
The main project for the garden is to install a drain under the lawn. The garden is nearly flat, and as it has a very high water table and very poor soil drainage, it’s really quite crucial to install proper drainage, not just for the plants but also so we have a dry lawn to lounge about on or play croquet on.
A friend of ours is looking into drawing up a plan for a drain, and we’re trying to lure my younger brother and his wife into joining us for a week of drain-digging and barbecues; my younger brother is beginning to set himself up as an entrepreneur, so he can provide some know-how to our own enthusiasm. We’re hoping to do this some time during Easter week when my husband will be home on holiday from his expatriation in Scotland.
Now, while the drain is the most important project – and by far the largest – another project is to get my planned beds created and started. They won’t get completely done this year, since I’d rather have the apartment done than the garden, but I plan to establish them and have at least a preliminary planting in place before we take on the apartment.
There is the vegetable garden. 2-3 smallish raised beds (25″*75″*10″ / 60cm*190cm*25cm) that will be used mainly for “luxury” vegetables. There will be no room for staples, but there WILL be room for snap peas, haricots and lettuce; the sort of vegetables you want to be able to go out and pick fresh for a salad or just a quick snack. It seems that my husband and I share the desire to grow things for eating; something practical that will give us joy while we watch it grow and later when we savour the crops that we grew.
And flowers… I’ve mentioned my Ambitious Border (TM), and that plan is still very close to my heart. With any luck I’ll have the area cleared of grass before we start digging for the drain, and any left-over soil from the digging can then be heaped on the beds to elevate them slightly from the lawn. It will look a bit empty the first year, I guess, since I don’t have enough perennials to plant it fully, but so be it. I will try to sow enough annuals to fill in the blanks, but I suspect I won’t be able to produce enough plants to cover the ground completely. Still, I will give it a jolly good go!
The perennials will be planted according to a “greater scheme”; I have ideas for the colour combinations for various areas of the garden, but the annuals this first year might just be whatever grabs my fancy and whatever I want to try out.
Roses are a must. The husband loves them, so I want to create a rose bed in front of the kitchen window, up against the south gable of the house. When we bought the summer house there was already one white rose growing there, somewhat neglected and suffocated by weeds, and then there’s the rose I rescued from the bulldozers:
It’s the tiny one to the right. Not much to look at, but I literally dragged it out of the ground with my bare hands and stored it in a plastic bag for a week before sticking it in the ground. It’s a rather “standard” red rose, and that’s actually one of my favourite roses. The flowers aren’t very large, but they have a wonderfully deep red colour and velvety petals. How can you go wrong with that? Anyway, it looked healthy up to the frost began, so I hope it has survived the rough treatment it’s had.
There. Those are the most important projects for 2011. Minor projects include getting another pear tree for the area by the drive, finding some climbing perennials or self-sowing annuals for a couple of ugly fences and (dare I say of course?) growing some lovely tomatoes of carious sorts. So a lot of things, in other words…
>You have a very nice view from the kitchen with the white rose. Hopefully you get everything done like you hope for in this year.
>Good luck with your plans for this year. Perennial borders are hard to get just right and normally require making constant changes, part of the enjoyment though.
>I just love your beautiful garden with the pond there looking so serene, I could sit there for hours reading, sewing or just sit!By the way, is that a pond or your garden got flooded? 🙂
>p3chandan: That is the Western corner of the lawn, and while it certainly looks serene with the house and trees reflected in the water, it isn't really ideal for gardening… ;-)Alistair: I know, and the plan is to start off with skeleton planting and then fill it in over the coming years (and move things around and remove things and so on). Malay-Kadazan girl: Thank you so much. To be honest I'll be quite happy if we just get half of it done; as long as the drain gets sorted out the rest can easily wait for another year.
>Your house looks amazing! It certainly looks like the place to spend summer and lounge in the lawn. And the pond looks very inviting.I am sure you will be able to keep your projects going, keep us posted about how it goes.
>Fer: It's not a pond; it's the lawn… Which is the main reason for wanting to install drainage in the garden! 😉
>alohawhat a scary sceen with that pond/lawn, although its very pretty. you can never have enough roses in my opinion especialy if you love scents :)thanks for sharing that and showing us your garden today
>Aloha, Noel! We do intend to get rid of the flooded lawn and also to create a rose bed. You're obviously welcome to enjoy my garden; if yoy're ever near us, let me know…
>That is a very wet garden—you do have a project ahead of you. Or could you just make it into a bog garden with native wet-loving plants?
>Wow! I thought it was half pond and half lawn that got overflowed.Now I understand why you really want the drain.
>A little food growing and roses are garden goals close to my heart! Your plans sound excellent. 🙂
>Fer: Nope, just lawn. And the stream is at the far side of the house in that picture, so we need to just get the water drained down that way and them pump it out into the stream.Appalachian: I don't mind buying potatoes, but being able to go out and pick a fresh crop of peas is priceless. A rose garden is not something I grew up with, but I do like roses and the husband loves them and has them down as one of the must-haves of the garden. And a man has got to give his husband what the husband wants…
>That is quite the project ahead of you. I too wonder if you might consider a bog planting where the water is highest…less work. You have a lovely spot where you are, I can see a hammock with a table nearby for the books and drinks:)
>Patty: Indeed it is quite a project…Especially since that part of the garden is the part where there's actually room for games and frolicking, so we need a lawn and consequently we need drainage. The two trees to the left in the "lake view" picture are actually the ones that hold the hammock in summer (and occasionally a more prosaic washing line), and it IS a perfect place to relax with a book and a glass of something. I did that a lot last summer…
>Love the little snow raised garden what to do with that? good luck…nice blog
>Thanks for the compliment, lani.The little raised garden is one of the frames for the raised vegetable garden. Peas, beans, lettuce and other non-root vegetables are planned, but we will see if the lure of seed packets leads me astray…