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!