The Side Gardens

We've had the most beautiful weather this past weekend - a long weekend - and we made the most of it by spending it almost entirely outside.

While the property at our new home is much smaller than our last, there are a great deal more gardens. Thankfully Ryan has developed more of a love for being outside in the dirt, and has started to enjoy it as more of a hobby than an obligation.

These are the gardens on the South side of our property. A large part of the beds are filled with herbs, something I love about them! There's an abundance of Mint, Thyme, Oregano, Sage and Chives. There is also a bed of Lavender in the middle of the brick walk.

These are before photos of the beds. As you can see, they are in need of some serious attention. While they look a little sparse now, a lot of this space fills out with Echinacea and other things later in the season. As well, up until this point, we hadn't touched them yet this Spring.

We went through the space, removed large rocks, picked out the plants which would remain, and then started removing the rest.

There weren't too many that stayed, but it gave us a clean slate to work with.

Here we've turned over all the soil, and are removing smaller debris. The one thing we were amazed at is the richness of the soil. It's due mostly to the care and attention of the previous owners I think, as it's unlike a lot of the sandy soil in other parts of this neighborhood.

It was quite the job!

At this point, the beds are ready to be planted, and we've started browsing our local nurseries. So far, we've selected and planted two Sarah Bernhardt Peony shrubs, a Little Lime and a Candlelight Hydrangea, and two varieties of Vibernum bushes in the corner of the property to eventually add some privacy to the yard.

Waiting to be planted is a large pot of a smaller variety of white Anemones, and some Woodruff for shaded ground cover under the tree. I also picked up two large, round Boxwoods for the urns at our front entrance.

Looking forward to showing more of it's evolution.