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planning my garden for the spring
Jan. 20th, 2024 03:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rafiwintersSo we just bought a house, and moved in in November. I don't know what the previous owners might have planted, since it was so late in the year when we moved in. But I have a cunning plan!
... wait and see what comes up when spring comes. Then plan the rest of my garden around those things.
I've been thinking in the meantime, though. It's a small yard but with plenty of places to plant and nourish things. We have a dozen shrubs that I have yet to identify--harder in winter when there are no leaves or flowers left; but I downloaded one of those apps where you take a picture and the magic electrons tell you what you've got. We'll see if that works.
We have a small weeping tree in the front yard, also not yet identified, but I should be able to do that with the app. Same with what I think is a hydrangea and something that seems to be two plants growing all entangled with each other--one is a rose but I don't know what the other is nor why they are growing as they are.
There's a big lavender plant in the side yard and a couple of something-evergreen plants in the front by the weeping tree.
I know what kind of garden I want to plant, though it will probably have to be done over two or three years. I want a combination of: herbs, snowdrops, crocuses, perennials, pollinator-friendly plants, easy-to-care-for plants, native/non-invasive plants. I know there's a certain amount of overlap here.
I want to plant trees, but my impression is they take a lot of work and care and I'm not sure I have enough energy for them. Also I don't want any more leaves to rake than we had when we moved in. And trees can drop leaves in the neighbors' yards and I don't want to get off to a bad start with the neighbors. (But if I had my druthers I would want a copper beech. Just sayin'.)
Probably not a lot of vegetables, except maybe tomatoes in some pots. And the herbs need to be happy wintering over outside, as we don't have much indoor space to keep pots of them. There is one windowbox, by the kitchen window, which we might put some mint in, mint being hard to control if you plant it in the ground.
So! Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome. We are in Rhode Island, U.S. Zone 6.
... wait and see what comes up when spring comes. Then plan the rest of my garden around those things.
I've been thinking in the meantime, though. It's a small yard but with plenty of places to plant and nourish things. We have a dozen shrubs that I have yet to identify--harder in winter when there are no leaves or flowers left; but I downloaded one of those apps where you take a picture and the magic electrons tell you what you've got. We'll see if that works.
We have a small weeping tree in the front yard, also not yet identified, but I should be able to do that with the app. Same with what I think is a hydrangea and something that seems to be two plants growing all entangled with each other--one is a rose but I don't know what the other is nor why they are growing as they are.
There's a big lavender plant in the side yard and a couple of something-evergreen plants in the front by the weeping tree.
I know what kind of garden I want to plant, though it will probably have to be done over two or three years. I want a combination of: herbs, snowdrops, crocuses, perennials, pollinator-friendly plants, easy-to-care-for plants, native/non-invasive plants. I know there's a certain amount of overlap here.
I want to plant trees, but my impression is they take a lot of work and care and I'm not sure I have enough energy for them. Also I don't want any more leaves to rake than we had when we moved in. And trees can drop leaves in the neighbors' yards and I don't want to get off to a bad start with the neighbors. (But if I had my druthers I would want a copper beech. Just sayin'.)
Probably not a lot of vegetables, except maybe tomatoes in some pots. And the herbs need to be happy wintering over outside, as we don't have much indoor space to keep pots of them. There is one windowbox, by the kitchen window, which we might put some mint in, mint being hard to control if you plant it in the ground.
So! Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome. We are in Rhode Island, U.S. Zone 6.