Garden Ideas for a Spring Project

Garden Ideas Come in Steps

OK, this is only Part I, but I am feeling really good about the progress we have made in this renovation.  Just when the clocks got set forward an hour, our weather seemed to jumped forward one season.  Seventy and eighty degree days really got my juices going. 

Spring clean-up took several days, and three trips to the yard debris center our City of Kettering provides.  Raked and cut down perennials onto tarps which we piled into the pickup. 

Burning the ornamental grasses saved us some time and energy.  Kept the hose ready, but thankfully, we didn't need it.

 
After we lost the pine tree last season, we decided to reclaim some lawn area.  Here Charlie is spreading organic fertilizer onto the cleared bed, and then he followed up with a thin blade fescue seed.  This seed is designed to take foot traffic, and is drought tolerant, once established. This spring project is timed well to put down grass seed.  The rains are here, and the nights are cool - ideal for germination.

This cocoa fiber mat is moistened daily and works as a great mulch for the grass seed, that is peeking through after a week.


This area was cleared of pachysandra and pine needles.  The stone border will be planted eventually, but we need to monitor the sun patterns in this north-west side of the privacy fence. This monitoring will let us know if we need shade-loving plants, or sun-loving plants.  Remember - right plant - right place!

Since this area was under the tree, we added top soil to the area for a more desirable seed base.

Just waiting for the grass to fill in before we work on the border along the fence. 
Several more garden ideas are going to require more work, in this major redo. 
 
This bed has daylilies but the wild onions have taken over.  I’m going to dig up everything, move the daylilies, and Roundup the area. The idea is to expand the turf into this section of the yard.

Epimedium

Bleeding Heart

Forsythia and Daffodils

And just so I don’t get too discouraged, I have taken time to enjoy the fruits of my labor.  The Epimedium, bleeding hearts,  daffodils, and forsythia are really putting on a show.  Yaaaayyy. Spring!

As my landscape ideas become real, I'll bring out my camera to share more of this renovation.  Thanks for stopping by.