Lush Heritage

Celebrating a conservation-leaning approach to living well and the DIY spirit.

How to Rejuvenate an Overgrown Flower Garden – Fall

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I am not an expert gardener and don’t pretend to be, but I do own two old homes that are graced with mature gardens that I’m in the midst of rejuvenating. Throughout her life, my mother always had flowers growing all around the house and until my late teens, my parents (and us kids) grew a large vegetable garden each year. While I learned about gardening back then, I’ve had to learn a lot more as I rejuvenate the overgrown flower gardens on my own property.

Here are some simple guidelines for anyone in a similar situation.

Basic Tips

  • Determine your landscaping aesthetic
  • Discover what’s present and what you want to keep
  • Be ruthless and thorough in removing/suppressing all unwanted growth (which doesn’t mean the automatic use of herbicides)
  • Learn the sunlight amount, wind exposure, and soil characteristics in the specific gardening area(s)
  • Apply soil amendments, if needed
  • Find your planting zone
  • Learn what will thrive naturally in your local conditions (there’s a lovely shrub/tree/flower for just about every environment)
  • Select the greenery you want to introduce (there are fall-planted and spring-planted specimens so if it’s too late to plant, it’s never too late to plan)
  • Work really hard
  • Don’t stress
  • Be eternally optimistic

The Reality

As I wrote last month, this year’s main landscaping goal is to rejuvenate the overgrown front flower garden at the main house. It measures 11-13’ W x 106’ L and is probably a bit longer due to the garden’s undulating border. I’ve run into headwinds, as any gardener can empathize:

  • The weeding seems endless.
  • I dread digging out yet more bamboo roots that are as thick as sweet potatoes.
  • I ran out of wood-chip mulch very early.
  • Weeds poked through it just weeks after I’d set out wet cardboard and what I thought was a sufficiently deep layer of mulch. Chopped leaves to the rescue!
  • But that entails a whole other time-consuming (and dusty) process of chopping leaves with the bigger mower, collecting them with the smaller mower with bag attachment, then depositing them.

So, how am I keeping myself motivated to rejuvenate this formerly glorious flower garden?

My Ideal Garden

I keep envisioning a lush, beautiful space, one with a limited palette. Hopefully, it will provide year-long visual interest and attract pollinators, too. A simple aesthetic always appeals to me most – repetitive stretches of form and different hues of a few colors create a calming environment. This works for me even if the colors are vibrant and saturated, like the iconic red tulip. Calming doesn’t mean boring! To achieve this, I selected three fall-planted flowers: daffodils, hyacinths, and peonies.

Then I ordered more than 300 heirloom bulbs, 358 to be precise. 

Why these flowers and why so many?

A Sea of Heirlooms

They’re beautiful, long-lived, hardy perennials that are deer resistant, and some are deliciously fragrant. The cultivars that I chose are cream, pink, or coral. I love these tones in a spring garden, especially coral which I don’t see very often.  Although peonies can take a year or two to settle into their new home, they’re so exquisite that they’re worth the wait.

I ordered 358 bulbs just in case burrowing critters try to spoil my grand plan and also to avoid the appearance of what I call “pimple planting,” the effect of too few plants studding a wide swath of mulch.

Here is what I selected:

  • 50 Romance daffodils (the cup opens peach to coral)
  • 100 Louise de Coligny daffodils (described as apricot, but I consider that to be in the coral family)
  • 200 Gypsy Queen hyacinths (apricot; I wanted to dot them with dark purple hyacinths, but they were sold out)
  • 3 Frances Willard peonies (cream/blush)
  • 5 Hermione peonies (apple-blossom pink)

First, though, I have to finish preparing the bed which is going to be a slog.  And keep reminding myself to be patient since this flower garden rejuvenation is a years-long project. After this week of rain and yesterday’s snowfall, I’ll be out of the garden for the next several days, but that’s okay. My goal is to complete my fall planting by the first week of December.  Fingers crossed that Mother Nature cooperates!

Simply Summer: An Herb Garden and Round Hay Bales

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Although the days have become noticeably shorter, there’s still a lot of summer left to enjoy – and a lot of the growing season to appreciate. My herb garden and the round hay bales that dotted my fields last week are two small ways that I’m doing so.

My Herb Garden

I have grand plans to grow a vegetable garden like the ones my siblings and I helped our parents tend when we were kids. I’ve owned the main house for a little over two years now, but unfortunately, I haven’t had time to plant anything except grass and clover. That’s what I’ve told myself anyway.

This spring, at my sister’s urging, I decided to start small rather than not start at all.  I think any novice gardener could do the same, with great results.

Keeping It Simple

In early June, my sister and I transplanted a few potted, organic herbs that we bought at the supermarket. Basil and Italian parsley are now roommates in a rectangular planter. Thyme, oregano, rosemary, and sage live next door.  We transplanted them into whatever empty containers we found at our parents’ house. Then we topped up their soil with free, organic horse manure from a neighbor and leftover screened loam.

Weeds have invaded the pea gravel driveway. Only the sedum should be growing along the edge – and I’m not even sure about that being there. Another project!

It isn’t the prettiest set up on the stone wall along my driveway, but if I’d given much thought to this herb garden, I would have spent a ton of energy trying to make it perfect before I’d actually done anything. I would have researched for hours/days/weeks the right location, soil, fertilizer, and fencing. Raised beds or in-ground? Oh, and which of the dozen-plus types of basil and thyme should I buy?

Does this kind of over-preparation sound familiar in terms of how you plan too?

The herbs began to thrive almost immediately, especially the thyme. Bonus – they’re low maintenance. Due to infrequent rain, I’ve been watering them every 48 hours or so; potted herbs are much more prone to drying out than ones that are actually planted in the ground. I’ve plucked a few yellowed leaves from the basil and parsley but otherwise left my impromptu little herb garden alone. It’s a small miracle that critters haven’t been chomping on the herbs since they’re in the middle of a deer run and the rabbit population has exploded in the last few weeks.

Intended Consequences

The two biggest benefits:  One, it’s so much more economical to grow herbs than to buy them on a per-recipe basis; I used to throw out at least half of the herbs that I bought.  This summer, I just snip exactly what I need and leave the rest. Two, the addition of truly fresh herbs has seriously elevated the flavor of virtually every savory dish I’ve made since early June.

Just as important, this little herb garden did so well that it’s already encouraging me to think of a bigger venture next spring – even if it’s just one raised bed with some of my favorite vegetables. Cucumbers and summer squash, anyone?

The Hayfields

As readers of this site know, I bought much of my property to prevent it from being developed. Although many areas are still overgrown, the land has a seasonal beauty that constantly re-affirms my decision to conserve it.

Stretches of field grass and drifts of black-eyed Susans swaying in the wind is a lovely sight, but it’s still wonderful to see the hayfields’ contours again right after they’re cut. The hayfield below borders a long flower garden and two lawns. Since the fields are hayed just two to three times a year, haying seems to give the entire property an instant facelift.

I often see a herd of whitetail deer in this field as they emerge from the woods at dusk.
This area borders the field shown in the above photo.
The same field is shown in these photos. I was running ahead of the baler to take the second photo so I’m not in the same position. The grass had grown so long that I dared not venture into Tick City to take true “before” shots.

The father of one of my elementary school classmates has hayed these fields for decades; it’s comforting to have that kind of familiarity and continuity as I care for this land.  He and his crew are so fast that I hardly had enough time last week to take a few photos of their handiwork before they loaded the hay onto their truck.

Love the round bales!

The bale on the right has been speared for loading.

I may not have the vegetable garden of my dreams or own as much land as I’d like, but I enjoy what I have and I’m grateful to have it.

Fresh basil for homemade pesto and freshly cut hayfields for an unspoiled view: simple pleasures, simply summer.