We decided this past Columbus Day weekend that the garden, as we know it, simply wasn’t working for us. The original design that was sketched for us (thanks Natalie!) had pathways and tidy little plots each dedicated to a particular vegetable, herb or flower bed. In reality what happened is we never clearly defined the pathways; plants were simply planted helter skelter, and the rest of the garden slowly but surely became overrun with weeds.
So working off the original drawing we set out to divide the garden into sections by laying down some pressure-treated wood to create walkways and then putting down some plastic weed-blocker and covering it with small stones. We started with 5 bags of stones, then went back to the store and got 12 more. We realized we had totally underestimated the amount of stones (and wood) we needed but we got a good portion of it done.
A New Garden Design
Unfortunately, some of the plants (marigolds in particular) I had planted in the spring needed to be moved, but I think they’ll survive.
Hearty Marigolds (Hopefully!)
The biggest accomplishment this weekend was the planting of over 100 cloves of garlic, 70 tulip bulbs and 20 daffodils. My mom was gracious enough to buy me the flower bulbs, and Lynn and I went to a garlic festival a few weekends ago and picked up a couple of different varietals, notably the Purple and Hardy kind. (I think that’s what they were; I’m kind of new at this garlic planting so I’m really winging it.)
Tulips from Holland
Lovely Daff's
I started by digging holes into the garden and afterwards thought it looked like a gopher had been there!
Where the Garlic Is Going To Go (and Hopefully Grow)
These were the bags of garlic we had picked up from the festival. Hope they work!
German Hardy and Purple Garlic
I then carefully separated the cloves trying to keep them as intact as possible. What I noticed right away were these cloves were difficult to pull apart, in other words not like the other garlic that we normally get from the supermarket (from China no less) where the cloves separate very easily.
Cloves To Be Planted
Then I went outside with my colander filled with cloves (don’t worry I didn’t wash them I’m not an idiot, it was just a handy way to carry everything outside!), and one by one I put one clove, pointy side up in the ground.
Hope this Works!
The soil was a little dry since it hadn’t rained in a while but I did water after everything got covered up, and I even made sure I put a little straw over my plantings to give them a little layer of protection. I’m hoping that at least half of what I’ve planted will grow and also hope that the bulbs I’ve just planted are not dug up and eaten by the increasing number of deer we have on the property.
By the way, if anyone reading this knows I’m totally doing this ass-backwards, please please drop me a note!
Meanwhile, the leaves have started to change a bit on the sumac trees, which are quite lovely this time of year.
Leaves Turning
But I think the bees were confused by the warm weather we were having since they seemed perfectly content to be buzzing all over the place and trying to grab that last bit of nectar out of every last flower that was still blooming on the property.
Doesn't this look like something from National Geographic?
After all the planting, I did try to clean up some of the garden and filled the wheelbarrow with weeds and the various dead plants (tomatoes and eggplant) that didn’t grow too well.
No Need To Go To The Gym After Doing This!
I also discovered a small new crop of arugula that may make 1/2 a salad…
Late Arugula
Until Lynn stepped on it, that is.
I also planted two new rose bushes that were on sale (5 bucks each) after the window guys had trampled the previous ones.
Baby Rose Bushes
So we’ll see what the fall brings and what spring blooms.