Check Out These Pages, Too!

"Possibility and promise greet me each day as I walk out into my garden. My vigor is renewed when I breathe in the earthiness and feel the dirt between my fingers. My garden is a peaceful spot to refresh my soul." Meems






Welcome to my Central Florida Garden Blog where we garden combining Florida natives, Florida-Friendly plants, and tropicals.

Sunday, July 5, 2015

Promises We Make to Ourselves

Do you make promises to yourself about your garden that are difficult to keep? When you get the chance to start a new garden after being in the same one for 30 years there are certain promises you might make to yourself.  Mostly promises about what you will or won't repeat in the new garden. You know what I mean? Some promises have to do with lessons learned from all those years of experience. Some are just simply new choices you promise to make based on the level of maintenance you think you want to sustain.
Pathway to the north. Perennial Peanut Groundcover encroaching into wide open pathway last week. 
I wrestled with what to do about the groundcover taking over the pathway. It is so lush and healthy as it creeps its way from one bed trying to reach the other.
Pathway to the north. Perennial Peanut Groundcover shaped with weed wacker a few days after photo above.
The mulched pathways in this area of the garden were large swaths of St. Augustine grass last summer when we moved here. In July/August I layered the grass with cardboard and covered it with 3-4" of pine bark to eliminate it. The new pathways created a unifying floor of mulch that connected 4 distinct spaces: the 2 sunny gardens, the Birdhouse Garden and the fire pit. The #1 promise to myself about the new pathways was to keep them wide and open (there's another one to the right also, see photos below). The one in the above photo leads north; the other (below) east, both with some curves along the way.

July 1, 2014, view from west to east BEFORE pathways.


Pathway from west to east AFTER pathways, photo July 2015.
They are each 10-15' wide at various points. In other words, I have to deliberately consider each installation along the borders in order to keep my promise to myself and not to allow whatever I plant to encroach into the open space. That's not an easy discipline for a plant/design/garden lover!
8.2.2014 I layered the entire pathway with cardboard and pine bark. Same pathway as first photo, only this photo is north to south. Same direction as photo below.
Almost a year later. Same pathway as first photo, only this photo is north to south. Same direction as photo above.
Recently, I trimmed the perennial peanut groundcover (Arachis glabrata) because it was creeping its way past the middle of the pathway (as you can see in the first photo). The Florida-Friendly perennial peanut was one of the few plants already growing in this bed when we bought this home, but it was barely surviving and weed-infested. I made the decision to keep it even though I had no prior experience with it. It is a lovely mat of soft green foliage and bright yellow flowers. It's easy enough to trim, but I've broken a promise. A promise to myself not to have any groundcovers in this new garden that needed regular maintenance like trimming with a weed wacker. I had to trim the groundcover in order to keep the other promise. I really do want those pathways to stay wide and open! With that confession, I will say I am sticking to most of my personal vows about this new garden trying to keep maintenance low (ish).

What about you? Which promises do you make about your garden and keep? Break?



**** Come hang out with me and other gardening friends for daily updates from Hoe and Shovel on Facebook... here's the link: *** Hoe and Shovel on Facebook **

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you've just arrived to this page as a new gardening friend or perhaps missed the back story about how we moved from our home and garden of 30 years to the house next door you can catch up here... http://www.hoeandshovel.com/2014/07/a-new-journey-bitter-and-sweet.html 


All material © 2007-2015 by Meems for Hoe and Shovel Gardening Blog. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

20 comments:

  1. Meems, my promises are always being broken, mostly because I'm at a "sandwich" time of life -- responsible for both an elderly mother 2 1/2 hours away from me and for some grandchildren care, along with being a pastor's wife. A lot of "human" garden to take care of. But I read your Facebook posts and blog because I really believe that one day my 4/10 acre will get more attention than it's getting now, and you inspire me. I have a question about the peanut ground cover. For now I have a yard man who comes weekly and who would do the trimming if I planted it. Would it survive direct summer sun in any exposure?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Peggy, You have your hands entirely full! Every season has a purpose and one of these days your garden will get more attention. The people and relationships you are nurturing now are much more important. Perennial peanut *requires* direct summer sun. Keep your eye out for it in your city/county... you might see it being used in a median or parking lot. Planners are getting smarter about right plant/right place. :-)

      Delete
  2. I won't go so far as to say 'promises', but my good intentions have run amok. Years ago , I grew a lot of old garden roses, but most of them turned into huge shrubs...way too much work. I told myself, when we were digging those monsters out, never again. This spring, they had some beauties at our local Master Gardeners' Spring Festival, that's when my good intentions went out the door. Do I regret it? ABSOLUTELY! This winter, there will be serious editing in my gardens...again.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oops, I'd be remiss if I didn't comment on your lovely space, it's just stunning. I love all your tropicals, the entire shade area looks so peaceful and inviting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Janice. I'm feeling very much at home here in my new garden. I miss my Louis Philippe roses from my other garden. Here, I have some pretty ancient 'Old Blush' roses. Those things want to become a small tree I think. I just keep snipping at the branching. Oh, and I've made cuttings. Right now the new bushes are small. :-)

      Delete
  4. I love that The City of Winter Haven uses perennial peanut downtown instead of wasting time and money growing grass.

    Love your curves!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love seeing it in medians and parking lots more often these days too Daisy. Smart.

      Delete
  5. I havent seen an update on your new place - it looks really lovely. i knew you would create some lovely paths with beautiful edges as that is what you do so well!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Awww... thanks... and so nice to hear from you.

      Delete
  6. I may preach about repeating plants, and to plant in odd numbers, and not to plant singles about, but do I follow my own advice? Not always!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LOL, Robin ... I always proudly tell myself I don't buy plants until I know where they are going. Ha. Sometimes I don't listen to myself.

      Delete
  7. Meems - does the perennial peanut "choke" out any plants in the beds? I've been contemplating a good ground cover, but I don't want my existing plants to have to compete.

    This past year I promised myself to design (re-design) my garden in a manner that I am capable of handling 100% by myself since it's my passion and not my better-half's. It's a promise I intend to keep . . . after he helps me with all the hard projects. ;-)

    Your garden is always a source of inspiration . . . simply beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Eli,
      Great question. I wasn't sure how it would do in that regard since I had no prior experience with it. I watched it as it crawled underneath the other plants and shrubs I was planting in this area. It doesn't try to crawl UP trunks and branches although some of the soft branching of the peanut reaches up 10-12" as it matures(if that makes sense.) Other than the weeds that get lost in it (which I DO NOT like having to purge) it seems to be friendly to all the other plants growing in the same bed. It makes a carpet underneath them. There are a few of the shorter plants like the dark purple joseph's coat clumps where I'm trimming the perennial peanut *around* it just to be sure. (Another too-high-maintenance chore :-) )

      I do all the gardening. I am the only passionate gardener here, too. Hubby is my greatest support and he loves to enjoy the results of the garden, but that's it. I can always count on him to remind me of the promises I made when we moved here. lol

      Delete
  8. Gosh, your design skills are amazing. All these pictures are so beautiful.

    The promise I make to myself is that I won't plant anything unless it's the proper planting season--and then I go and buy a bunch of plants in July. I just can't help it. It's too tempting!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Leslie. I don't know about you, but I think every season is planting season in Florida. I love to plant in July because I appreciate the summer rains helping me get things established. Is there a wrong season to plant? :-)

      Delete
  9. Something you may consider:
    My paths are covered in Florimulch. I do not know if it is the theorized allelopathic properties of the mulch, but it has really kept my Sunshine Mimosa, another rampant spreader, from invading my paths. When I used to use pine straw (big mistake, breaks down way too fast for a path), I was constantly fighting the mimosa, but now I maybe have to lance a shovel blade along the edge of the path once every two or three months to keep the edge looking relatively sharp (something that I am not too hung up on as I prefer softer, naturalistic edges).

    ReplyDelete
  10. Pine straw definitely breaks down too quickly, Nysson. I love the way it looks, but in pathway situations I'm really happy with the pine bark. It lasts a very long time and doesn't have to be replenished as often as any other mulch I've used. I do like my edges clean while I let the shrubs and plants display a more naturalistic appearance.

    ReplyDelete
  11. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Loved looking around your blog Meems. Your garden is absolutely beautiful and so inspiring! I think the promise I make to myself is, despite the hot and rainy weather we are having right now, to get out and do something in the garden everyday. That way I can stay on top of things until the weather cools down some..then I'm out there all the time!
    Thanks for sharing!

    Kate R

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A little at a time goes a long way towards keeping up Kate. You are wise to stay with it even in the summer. I time my gardening around the cooler parts of the summer days. Once I get started it's never as bad as I imagined and my body acclimates to the heat.

      Delete

Have a blessed day,
Meems


September 2010

Back Garden: October 2010

Louise Philippe: Antique Rose

Tropical Pathway