After losing nearly four years of summer gardening opportunities due to a return to school (including a summer for recovery), my backyard looks like a junkyard slum. It is overgrown with weeds and wildflowers, an untidy, unattended compost pile, piles of wood from two homes that had trees removed and that still need to be cut and chopped, and piles of junk/scrap/recyclable items that came from the remodeling of our kitchen and sunroom.
This beautiful new sunroom looks out over all this mess. Consequently, there is hardly a day that goes by that I'm not reminded of the mess.
NO MORE!! This is the summer to clean up the back yard. In May, I opened my front yard gardens. I weeded, planted, Preened, and mulched. I planted annuals that were likely to need very little care like impatiens and pansies next to mature perennials. I figured with a little care thoroughout the summer, they would hold their own while I focused my energy in the back yard.
I considered the big picture. What did I want it to look like at the end of the summer as well as by the beginning of next spring? I decided upon "zones" of improvement over a three season effort (think Excel spreadsheet).
Zone 1: Vegetable Garden (southwest corner of yard)
Zone 2: New Northeast Garden (by the barn)
Zone 3: Wildflower Garden (northwest corner)
Zone 4: Compost Pile (far northwest corner)
Zone 5: Logs and Brush Piles (all along north yard and far southeast corner)
Zone 6: Retaining Wall and Pond Garden (along the house on the s-east)
While all this activity is going on, my husband is working on the barn and greenhouse. Conveniently, when he needs me, I can help him and vice versa.
My list is in a sequential order of completion. The vegetable garden is nearly finish. It has been doubled in size to accomodate my herbs from the retaining wall that will be removed sometime this fall or next spring. All those plantings need homes this summer while that corner of the yard along the back of the house is renovated next year.
I would like to attach pictures - especially "before" and "during" pictures - a recording of my progress as this project develops through out the next few months. (Hope my lovely sister will be able to talk me through that operation!)
