Winter refuses to give up this year. Would someone please tell the polar regions it can have it’s vortex back. Seriously, dude. Our hands are drying out and I’m slathering my kids with heavy-duty moisturizer every day. We need the rains of spring for more reasons than one.
This week I’ve been thinking of warmer days and daydreaming about landscaping on our hill.
I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned our hill before. When we moved in I had grand plans to have it revamped that first year. Um, yeah. The weeds grow faster than you think and are harder to manage than I ever thought possible. Everyone keeps telling me to put down a seed killing compound so they can’t go to seed, but I’m having a hard time using chemicals in case I want to put in veggies some day soon.
Yeah, about that. The soil is clay so I argue with myself every summer (like 2 now) if I should take the time and spend the money on making raised beds. So should I?
Because we have deer. And when I say we have deer, I mean we have deer in the plural sense. I’ve seen as many as 8 deer grazing in our SUBURBAN back yard at one time. For some reason our backyard is their path from the neighborhood behind us to the woods behind the row of houses that face our from across the street. They come through my yard all the time. And they eat whatever is in their path. So I hesitate with the vegetable garden.
I’m not even going to start with the fact that we have chipmunks. I supplied a chipmunk with tomatoes all summer from a my townhouse garden in Virginia in roughly 2001. I’ve been traumatized ever since.
So I’m contemplating and have decided to take it one tier at a time…. this spring will be our top tier. For Christmas I asked to have it cleared by someone other than me. By the time I get a tier cleared of weeds, I’m too tired and have run out of time to actually plant anything. So it becomes overgrown again. So Merry Christmas to me. The overgrown forsythia and thorn bush are gone.
I’m trying to decide if I want to do some edible landscaping by putting in some blueberry bushes (do I fight the chipmunks, deer, birds?)
or if I just want to make it easy on myself and put in some low maintenance plants. Like this inspiration picture – lots of ornamental grass…
homedesignlover.com
I love this one…
The Christian Science Monitor
and then maybe some small hedging mixed with lavender and russian sage?
gardeninginthemud.blogspot.com
and this beauty that blooms in the spring before the lavender and russian sage
….. we’ll see. I need to decide soon though. Spring’s a comin’.
Comments (6)
The blueberries will also fall prey to the wildlife, I’m afraid. Mom and Dad have had to build a large cage type structure around theirs and sometimes the little boogers will dig under and strip the bushes in a day’s time!
You wont have to fight the deer, birds, chipmonks, THEY WILL WIN hands down. Ferns and shrub bushes that bloom would be pretty. I really love the russian sage and other cover bushes.
You know what will help with the deer and chipmunk problem? Get a little puppy 🙂
I say plant the pretty stuff. Nobody got time to deal with animals especially you haha you got other stuff to do… you’ll be so happy to look out at the pretty plants and you won’t have to worry if the animals are eating your hard work 😉
We have three blueberry bushes in our back yard. Though I hesitate to call them bushes. Because they’re more like bare twigs sticking out of the ground. Spare yourself the money and frustration. The ornamental grasses are beautiful!
The ornamental grasses look pretty…for the first year or two. Then they take over. They get hard to control if you don’t take the time to cut them back and thin them out regularly. Trust me, I know this. It’s awful! But that inspiration picture sure is tempting!!!