My Gardens: An Introduction
Gardening has been part of me from the start... from being my mother's helper to my first small (failed) garden at my first little townhouse to tending to my current home gardens for the past 9 years. Still, I consider myself to be a beginner. There is just so much to know about gardening that there's no way that I have even scratched the surface.
Of course, I have learned a bit along the way and I am excited to share my knowledge with you all, as well as learn more alongside with you.
Together, my husband and I have created quite a few large garden/landscape beds on our property around our home, as it was mostly a blank canvas when we first moved here. A few were made by hired landscapers under our direction and the remaining several were made by myself and my very handy and ever-willing-to-work-on-my-endless-projects-husband.
If you're interested in a step by step blog post on how to create raised landscape beds or how to edge and mulch said beds, please leave me a message letting me know. If there is enough interest, I will be happy to work on that.
I also have a few weeding techniques that I have combined into what has become my CHEMICAL-FREE weeding routine. For a blog post on that, please send in a request. I have battled everything from Virginia creeper to poison ivy and come out the victor and I am happy to share my tricks.
This post will outline what I currently have living and growing in my gardens today. Any interest shown by readers in particular plants will be followed up by more detailed posts.
That daffodil notebook above is my gardening notebook. It was purchased for $5 from the Target "you will never really need this" bins at the entrance of the stores. Any notebook will work, but I highly recommend a good place to keep all of your information organized because, again, there's just too much to retain otherwise.
I have all kinds of info in there. My Tia Elma (Aunt Elma) is what I consider a master gardener and my mom and sister garden as well. Before my mom's MS started taking its toll, we gardened together often. So, all of the word-of-mouth advice that I've received from them or my local nurseries get jotted down. I also have seed placement information, zoning notes, and I throw plant tags inside as well.
I live in a suburb about 40 minutes outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the zone here is about 6b/7a with the last frost somewhere around mid to late May.
Now onto the plants!!
This particular bed was handmade by myself about 8 years ago. There are 2 (currently sick and being treated) Endless Summer Hydrangeas framing each end.
In the center are 2 Allium Millenium. They are super easy to grow ornamental onions that attract tons of bees. See that little guy down there happily sipping and buzzing away?
Between the Hydrangeas and the Allium Millenium are 2 ornamental grasses called Variegated Liriope which will bloom purple flowers in September. The leafy dark green plants in front of them are Peonies in their second year. This past spring they gave me 2 gorgeous flowers which quickly made me realize I did not stake them properly. Don't repeat my mistakes, here is a nice article on how to stake Peonies: https://getbusygardening.com/peony-supports-and-growing-tips/
There are 2 perennial Dianthus plants which are in their second year also. You can see them under the bird bath with small, pink, serrated flowers. They bloom heavily in spring and continue throughout summer, though not as profusely.
In the center of the garden is a very pretty, first year purple Viola King Henry and it is surrounded by many pink Vincas. Vincas are my favorite annuals that I use for filling in dead space in gardens and also in pots with petunias.
As you can see, I have gone with a pink and purple color palette in this garden and I think it is working nicely. Sometimes I like contrasting colors, but in this bed with how busy I let it get, I like to keep the colors complimentary.
That's it for this flower bed! Next up will feature and detail the backyard flower beds that were planted with fence buffering, privacy making, and bee/butterfly attracting in mind. They are pretty and feature several flowering trees, so you won't want to miss that!
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