Sorry there are no "before" shots. I just got in there ripping, hoeing, cutting until I had conquered it. So let me tell you a bit about this spot. Once upon a time, about 4 years ago, this spot at the back of our property, behind our garage was the original spot for M's first garden. It's one of the few spots with any sun in our back yard. It quickly became overgrown with weeds and ambitious tomato plants because, being out of the way as it was, it was easily forgotten. So very quickly M relocated her garden to the side yard where she'd have to pass it daily so as not to forget about weeding and watering. Next came the berry patch. About 3 years ago we planted strawberries and raspberries back there.
In this picture if you look all the way to the back left, that's where we planted the strawberries and then the raspberries a little closer in. Well, just as the tomato plants became overly ambitious and prosperous, so too did the raspberries. There's something in that soil that makes them go absolutely nuts! Anyway, very quickly this entire area towards the back was overgrown with raspberries that choked out the strawberries and was so thick and overgrown, you couldn't get back there to pick the raspberries without climbing through a jungle and getting many scrapes and scratches on yourself. So this weekend I took my tools and went to work. I cleaned out the entire right hand side of weeds, put down black plastic and put in the bricks, stepping stones and gravel. Next I trimmed back the raspberries to a respectable level, transplanted about 9 strawberry plants a good distance away from the raspberries, and last fall we added two blueberry bushes, and a week ago a black berry bush. We added mulch and voila, the berry patch is now under control, each plant has a fair shot at survival and there are berries on the strawberry plants. We haven't seen that since year one, and the blueberry bushes have flowers on them. I know the path isn't level yet, but we're expected rain all week and I figured I'd level it up next weekend after the rains.
In addition to the berry patch, we mulched every flower bed, bush bed and tree all over our property. We still have a bunch of mulch left in our driveway from where the original load was dumped, so maybe I'll start clearing and mulch a spot for the grapes I'll be planting in the Fall. In the mean time, enjoy the photos of everything in bloom in our yards.
9 comments:
I want that 3rd one from the bottom. Its beautiful... LOL.. They all are but I love that 3rd one from the bottom the best of them all..
Yeah, I like that one too, a riot of flowers and colors. It's hanging by our back steps so I pass it multiple times a day. A local nursery sells these hanging baskets of flowers each year and they're not too expensive ($20) and last quite a long time.
Gosh everything looks so pretty ... I hate to garden, I use to love it but everthing I grow dies, no matter how hard I try. Now the knees are feeling to bad to kneel for a long time so I thought I would try a container garden! OH and I sooo look forward to blueberry season!!
Very nice, did M find a place to put some of the garlic in ground last fall? It should be pushing up thru ground about now, Ours is up, about 4 inches. The place where garlic feast has been held the past few years, was where the gunman, killed all of those people a month ago, and Civic Association, has cancelled that activity for this year, along with a lot of other things that were scheduled. They have temp.quarters in a church that is next door to The Civic Association Building. That has the pontial for being a large loss for us, as we sold a lot of garlic there. At least we are not suffering like other families, that lost loved ones, so senseless that act of violence.
Hi Pat, no we didn't get the garlic planted last Fall. I've still got the garlic braid hanging up. Can I plant the garlic from that this Fall?
Your garden is soooo very lovely....Everything Blooming...God, I love Spring, and Your Gsrden looks like an 'English Garden', which are The Best!
You are going to have lots and lots of Fresh Berries---How Exciting!
OL, we went out there this morning and have a single red strawberry. We're going to let it go one more day before picking it. The blueberry and raspberry bushes are loaded with new berries that will take some time to mature.
What's all that bloomy stuff? Maybe we'll get bloomy stuff...someday..if it ever quits snowing! :(
NICE path! I'd like to do something like that, but it's too hard to shovel off in the winter.
We just spent 20 yrs digging the wild raspberry bushes out of our side yard. For years they spread faster than we could dig them out!
Tshsmom, yeah, these raspberry bushes are quite prolific too. In 3 seasons, they took over half of this entire space where the garden and path are now located. I cut them back severely and dug up a lot of the shoots they sent out so I could put in the path.
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