Landscaping Views

Time in garden: 2 hours

Yesterday I worked on my Zerioscape area. I have determined to make it one of my focuses for the summer.  The area faces street side and up until a few weeks ago had fallen into a state of partial neglect. About 15 years ago I converted the area from grass to landscape cloth covered with a mixed blend of  rocks. The lawn was in rough shape and I thought it was best to convert it to a low maintenance area . Scrubs and plants were added initially complemented by the addition of 3 planters a few years ago.  This year i decided to make the area more like a zen garden. The transformation will probably take a while.

Yesterday I purchased 4 large bags of rocks from our local landscaping centre. I needed to finish off the area around my sidewalk that I had prepared earlier. More rock is required.

Spring Clean Up

Last weekend I loaded up a couple of large waste containers with debris from the garden making sure to leave enough cover to prevent frost damage to the budding plants. Early morning is definitely my favorite time to work in the garden and the work flowed well...

New Garden Plot on the Horizon?

My daughter and her boyfriend are in the process of buying an older home in an established neighborhood and I believe they are receptive to my wife and I taking over the vegetable garden for the season. The backyard is very large and I believe the garden plot covers much of the area. I think this will be a wonderful opportunity for a number of reasons:

1) Particularly that I understand the elderly owner (who recently passed away) was an avid gardner and we are very curious to see what he had planted (what the perennials look like) and the condition of the soil.

2)The house is a fair distance from our home which will provide an excellent bicycle riding destination.

3)Perhaps our presence will encourage my daughter to take up gardening-one never knows??? Our present garden plot is not too large so having more square feet to garden in will be a bonus.

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I have set an intention of spending more time gardening in 2012. The main focus being the "ongoing" attention to the care and feeding vrs our typical "gung ho" approach at the beginning of the season with diminishing attention as the summer progresses and then intense attention at the end of the season...

Talking with a Friend-Weeding etc

My wife and I had a friend over for dinner yesterday and the topic of gardens came up. We agreed it is exciting to contemplate the upcoming planting season and all it represents. My wife stated that "we" always start off our gardening season with gusto but our enthusiasm starts to drop off as the season progresses and the weeds start to take hold?? It will be interesting to see if we approach the season with awareness around our tendencies outcomes will be different?

Planting/Planting/Planting

I have moved lots of soil in the last few weeks to prepare for this year's planting rituals. My wife finished off a majority of her planting last night and as I wander through the garden I am impressed with all the work that has been done and the degree of order I witness in the garden. There are still some areas of uncontrolled wildness to address but overall it looks good. The next big challenge is going to be to stay focused and keep the garden "tended" for the season. Fortunately we plan to be around home for most of the summer so the hours will be available to us for "tending"....

The Pots..The Pots...The Pots

I have been "managing" compost for the last week or so in order to create potting soil for the myriad of pots that became available to us last year. Satisfying work for sure...

Little by little the 2011 garden is coming together...

Prepping the Pots

Last evening I spent a couple of hours filling our patio pots with soil. My wife is back in town and she is going to make her annual pilgrimage to the nursery (or nurseries) to get what she needs to make the pots colorful and vibrant... . It was satisfying to get the task finished...