The Garden Project (Part 2)
Posted by Gail | Filed under Gail Pleasures
Because my little experiment with the thyme worked so well, I decided to repeat my success (hopefully) in the backyard. I bought myself two big pots of a groundcover I particularly like. The two pots cost me $9.99 each – I certainly couldn’t thoil using this groundcover if I had to buy it all. But if I grow it myself, well then I could have what I wanted at a fraction of the price.
I dug out an area in the backyard about 1 x 3 feet, lasagna-ed it, and split the one big pot of the groundcover into 4 (using a sharp knife to cut through the plant evenly). Then I planted in this new, experimental bed. I had another spot in the backyard under some shade that I used to plant the second pot, also cut into four pieces. My plan is to grow enough of this groundcover to be able to use it all over the backyard when the time comes for its renovation. By trying the groundcover in full sun and in shade, I’ll see how it grows in both environments.
Planning ahead to save some money on plants make sense so that I can use more of the money I’m saving monthly in my Garden Account to buy the things that really cost big bucks: flagstone, the materials and labour to redo the deck,
I have a couple of different experiments going on in the backyard right now besides the groundcover. I have a row of bushes growing against the fence that I’m not overly fond of. They bloom beautifully in the spring and then are so damn boring I can’t stand it. So I came up with the idea of planting clematis below the bushes to grow up into the bushes and provide some colour. Last year I bought 5 inexpensive clematis ($5.99/ea) and planted them. Then I took some groundcover I had in a bed and planted around the clematis’ feet because they like their roots to stay cool.
So far things are going as planned. The ground cover has spread beautifully and I have a lovely mound (some of which I’m going to split up and plant up front to cut down on my weeding. And all the clematis survived the winter and have now started winding their way through the bushes. Fingers crossed for solid growth and loads of blooms in a couple of years.
When Foster did the front yard, there was a bit of topsoil (triple-mix) left over, so I had those hard working boys (Foster now has two crews… look at his biz grow!) take it around to the backyard and dump it on… you guessed it… a mess of newspapers!
That Monday morning with a mountain of dirt in the yard and threats of a thunderstorm, I was outside by 4:30 a.m. (with the mosquitoes) shoveling the dirt to where I wanted it to be. While Foster was off using his discount as a landscaper to buy me my plants (yes, he passed the discount on to me, lovely boy), I had him pick me up some lupines for the backyard. I planted those in the new bed to see how they do. (Y’know, he paid $5 a piece for those, and I subsequently saw them retail – I’ll admit, at a pretty expensive place – for $15 a pot.)
What’s next? Patience. Lots of watering. A decision about whether to use just groundcover plants or to also mulch. Hours and hours and hours of joy as I watch the plans come together and learn from my experiments.
Rome wasn’t built in a day and my garden won’t be finished in one summer. I wouldn’t want that. I like the anticipation of watching it evolve. And I love experimenting.
June 27, 2012 at 5:45 am
Lupins are one of my favorite flowers. We travel out to PEI every summer (39 days till this years trip) and lupins grow like weeds out there, well they are I guess
June 27, 2012 at 6:37 am
I’m from the East Coast and we’re lucky that lupins grow wild here and they are beautiful. Just a word on mulch. The previous owner of our home was crazy for mulch, she mulched every where, she had lovely borders all over and all the beds are mulched. We’ve found it’s quite an investment to renew the mulch every few years and we’ve had to be selective with how much mulch we keep moving forward as we have a large lot. I love the look of fresh mulch but sooner or later it needs replacing.
June 27, 2012 at 8:39 am
I love Lupins as well, unfortunately so does do the rabbits around my place, can’t seem to keep any around!!
June 27, 2012 at 9:35 am
I’m a big fan of mulch – the cedar variety. When we bought our current home, the front flower beds were topped with a sturdy wood chip mulch and while it looked okay, it didn’t do much for keeping moisture in and weeds out.
This Spring, we built 6 raised beds in the back for our fruit and veggies and used cedar mulch on top. The plants are thriving – we’ve already had our first harvest of onions and radishes – and there are almost no weeds. I do pull these teeny-tiny weed-lets every few days (about 1 cm high). And the moisture levels are just right. The only thing I had to do at the onset of laying the mulch was leave enough space free around the roots to aid with watering / germination.
I contrast this with our front flower beds which we just rebuilt and the planting / transplanting has been ongoing the last few weeks. We have the bags of mulch sitting in our front yard and since the planting is not complete, I haven’t laid it yet. I was in the garden last night doing some more transplanting and the volume of weeds is crazy! And since we overseeded our lawn with clover, I now have patches of clover in my flower beds! And clover sure takes root!! So I have much more work this week to finish weeding the front and hopefully lay down the mulch soonest.
Gail – I hope the clematis continues to take against your shrubs. Such a lovely flower! Based on your previous gardening post, we took some of our herbs (all in containers and nearby on the deck off the kitchen) that are fourishing and are using a few (thyme in particular) as ground cover along the front of our flower beds. They look great and I’ll know in a few days if they’ll thrive there.
June 27, 2012 at 11:57 am
I love your gardening posts! I’m such a cheap gardener and I love learning new ways to save money in my garden and spending money on items I can’t get for free. I love lupins too and bought some from a sale the local college was having last year… Unfortunately, the bugs around my place love lupins and when my neighbour came over and saw the infestation, she said the same happened to hers. I don’t like using anything artificial in the garden to kill bugs, so I had to dig up my beautiful flowers and dispose of them. Ihope you have better success where you live.
And for the record, I’m a clematis lover too. Ours are on their second year and doing splendid.
For those trying to garden cheap, try free cycle or kijiji to see if people are giving anything away or selling plants cheap. We have gotten so many plants this way. The best part is, if they don’t work out well, there is o guilt in getting rid of them.
June 27, 2012 at 11:59 am
While I have never grown lupines, I am an avid gardener. Mostly roses. I but the ‘rescue’ mini roses that the big box stores would just throw out or ask for discounts on the broken plants. I bought a clematis for $2.50 because it was broken, doing great now. same for a half dead mini-rose. I use blood meal to fertilize my plants.I usually use bone meal but box was mis-labelled (darn, forgot to ask for discount) It works wonders to keep the wildlife from munching on my plants. The smell is a deterrent.
But the results are wonderful!
June 27, 2012 at 12:01 pm
Lupins grow wild all over Nova Scotia. They are so beautiful along the highways this time of year.
As for mulch – it sure can be expensive. If you have a utility trailer or a truck you can use, you can often go to landscape companies and buy it by the load. We bought over 200 sq ft for $57 this year. Had I bought bags, I’m sure it would have been a lot more.
Gail, could you please post a picture of the thyme? If I understood correctly, you have planted it between the flagstone?
June 27, 2012 at 12:03 pm
For cheap plants – watch for community plant sales. Here in Nova Scotia they are held a lot as fundraisers. People dig up their extra plants and it’s fantastic!
I bought to “very baby” Japanese Maple trees for $5!
June 27, 2012 at 12:03 pm
Lupines are incredibly easy to grow from seed, probably the easiest in my opinion other than Sunflowers- don’t waste money on the plants. They usually bloom the same season if you start them in March or April. Buy a pack of “Russel Lupine” seeds from the store (can get a pack of seeds for $1.69.). Put them in pots on a sunny windowsill. The seed germination rates are easily over 95% in my experience. You can have many, many blooming plants the first season- and continue to collect those seeds to germinate other parts of your garden in subsequent years. Those are the easiest perennials to grow.
I would never, never buy Lupine plants for this reason.
June 27, 2012 at 12:16 pm
Gail, research your clematis varieties, some can strangle and choke your existing plants. So for a while it will look nice until your existing bushes bite the biscuit!! Then you’ll have to start over….which might not be a bad thing!!
June 27, 2012 at 12:32 pm
A note on mulch, some recycling places sell some much cheeper than the garden centres if you are not too picky about colour. I paid about half the price for it. I always plant small perenials and wait for them to spread, it works out cheeper, it’s less work than planting annuals every year and they don’t really need watering. Once they get large you can divide them. Though I planned my garden so that I would have tons of perenials and ground covers so there would be less weeds. I did plant a few shrubs so that in the winter it doesn’t look so stark.
June 27, 2012 at 1:36 pm
I would say that if you can’t afford to mulch your garden, don’t put in a garden. The work at keeping the weeds at bay will destroy your love of the garden. But as Cass said, some recycling places do have less expensive mulch, and certainly buying in bulk saves you a ton.
I will second the lupines grown from seed. Even seed directly into the garden (that’s how they grow naturally). There are many things that can be easily grown from seed, including the thyme, basil, snapdragons, foxgloves. Talk to people who you like their gardens. Often gardeners will offer you a plant or two.
I wait for the big sell off at the grocery store garden centre (it’s on right now), and I buy buy buy. Especially those ground cover plants at $1.00 per pot right now. I rarely buy anything full price for my garden, and I’m a plantaholic.
June 28, 2012 at 10:31 am
I think you should post some pictures of your garden. I would love to see the results of your clematis experiment.
July 2, 2012 at 8:55 pm
The cheapest and best (in my opinion) are the plants given to you by friends when they need to divide some of their own overgrown plants. As I walk around my garden I see Gord’s hosta, Ray’s delphinium, Cassie’s roses and Jen’s sedum. I love those plants best of all.