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