Green thumb, brown knees

One of the things I was very excited about when I moved into the new place, was the ability to garden from scratch. The old place, as you may remember, had the roses from hell out front. There was a small plot of garden out back, but it was so sandy, and got so little light, that nothing would grow but some orange day lilies.

The new place has three places just waiting for planting, as well as space to do so much more in the years to come. Today I set to work on the first steps to my new green spaces.


By the front step, there's a lovely little bare spot. Dad was thinning out his orange day lilies, and filled up a whole bucket full for me.

 I love  orange day lilies. When I was a kid, I use to call them country lilies, or ditch lilies, because they grew in all the ditches around our old house. Not only are they pretty, they are hardy, and spread like crazy once they get established. This year, I'll plant some annuals to fill things out, but in a year or two, I won't need to.

Come fall, I'm also going to plant some daffodils and other spring bulbs here. The plan is to have this garden totally self-sustaining.

 If you look closely, down the side by the step, you'll see some tiny reddish buds poking up. My grandpa's girlfriend gave me a bunch of bulbs - she said they were "big red lilies", and from my internet sleuthing, I suspect the are Cana Lilies. If so, I'm probably going to have to move them after this year, because those suckers are big! But we'll see what happens. I've got a spot down the side of the house I can plant them if I need to.

Elsewhere in the front, we have a tree on our lawn, and there's a nice little box around it, just waiting for flowers.

It needs a couple of bags of soil before I can go crazy, but this is going to be my annual garden, because the tree roots make it tough to do anything that needs to be too established. Here I'm planning on pansies and dahlias and whatever else strikes my fancy!

Out back, I have a little spot against the house that's just perfect for a veggie garden. I'm going to start small this year - just some tomatoes and beans, but eventually, I'd like to add peppers and peas. Dave loves fresh vegetables, but I suspect we'll end up feeding the neighbourhood bunny more than anything.

I didn't do much work in the back yet, except for a little pruning. There are two unidentified shrubs back there - my internet sluething has led me to believe at least one may be some type of Viburnum....

 

But if any of you gardeners can tell me - that would be awesome. This one is just starting to flower, and the flowers are tinged with pink. The other has flowers coming as well, but not as many, and I'm not sure what colour they are.

Both shrubs are growing up in tall canes. The verdict is out on whether these are staying right now. One of them has a Manitoba Maple entwined with it pretty good - I was pruning it, but it will need to be pulled out of the ground entirely come fall.

Ideally, I'd like to get a Lilac and a Butterfly bush for the back yard...and some tea roses too, but those will have to wait until next year.