Small Improvements

I'm a bit of a late starter when it comes to gardening.  I have all these ideas, but it takes me a while to actually get started on them.  Sometimes I just need help with the heavier work, and that extra help is not always available.

 

I recently saw a cute idea over here of making a garden feature from a broken shovel.  I instantly thought of a useless garden rake I have.  All the tines have been badly bent in and you just can't use it for raking anymore, so I was going to pitch it out.  But when I saw the broken shovel idea, I knew what I would do with the rake.  I have a clematis (again, Mom's) that is still fairly tiny this year, but it has grown past the small bamboo stake I had in the ground for it last year, and the ends were all hanging in mid air.  I dug a small hole beside the plant, and pushed the rake handle in as far as I could get it and propped the rake up against the fence.  Instant clematis trellis!

I know that next year the clematis will have outgrown this rake, and I'll be forced to put up a proper trellis for it.  But for this year, the tiny vine can wind its way around the rake ... I think it'll look cute.

 

Another area that I've wanted to change for years is this spot under my white pine.

 

I really love collecting rocks, and a few years ago we had to have the weeping tiles repaired along the back foundation of our house.  In digging up half of our yard, a lot of pretty rocks were unearthed, and each night after the construction crew left, I wandered around the piles of dirt and lugged what rocks I could into my gardens.  The crew thought I was a bit nutty.  Especially when I saw a massive rock (about the size of an ottoman) lodged in the side of the hole they dug and asked if they would dig it out for me (they refused).  

 

I placed some of the rocks around the base of the pine and the rocks and pine needles remind me of the great Canadian Shield just a bit north of us where we camp.  But what I really wanted to do was plant hostas around the base of the tree as I had seen a neighbour do under their pine tree many years ago in a different town.  So on the weekend I scraped away the pine needles, lay some triple mix dirt around the trunk, added some black edging to keep the dirt in place and split some hostas I already have and planted them around the tree.

 

 

I hope the hostas will survive here, because it does get some fairly intense heat in the summer for about 3 or 4 hours.  I'll keep it well watered and fingers crossed.  It doesn't look like much now, but next year (all being well) the hostas should fill in nicely and maybe hide the edging a bit as well.

 

The back corner that I fixed up a few weeks ago with some ferns, hostas, rocks and bark nuggets is coming along nicely.  This is what it looked like just after I planted everything ...

 

 

And this is how it looks now ...

 

 

I've found a few more ferns sprouting up in odd areas around the yard, and I'm going to transplant them to this new spot as well.  The variegated hosts do really well in my yard ... so much so that I have to split them and end up throwing out the extras because I'm running out of room for them all.

 

My next garden chore will be my son's pond.  He's not taking much interest in it this year, which is a bit disappointing.  He drained all the winter water out of it a few weeks ago, but then left it unfinished and it's full again now with rain water.  We've had quite a lot of rain this spring.  So I've told him that if he doesn't sort it out this weekend, I'm taking it over.  This is what it looks like right now ....

 

 

This whole area is my sons' sort of secret garden, and I try not to interfere too much with it.  The pond itself needs cleaning, pump put in, rocks straightened and fish returned (we have shubunkins).  The garden surrounding the pond also needs attention.  It's difficult to get to the garden on the left side of the photo (below), so I want to cut back the bush there and plant some perennials that'll do well in a very hot dry spot ... maybe some slow growing ground cover would be good.

 

 

 Last year I planted love-lies-bleeding around the pond and they did really well and looked great all hanging over the water.  I've started some seeds (very late!), and this is what they look like right now ...

 

 

I'll have a bit of a wait to get them transplanted (they're teeny tiny red sprouts that you can hardly see!)

 

So those are my gardening chores ... some finished and some waiting.  I took the camera around the yard yesterday in the sunshine and snapped a few of my flowers (back to rain today) ...

 

 

Thanks for stopping in!

 

Wendy

 

 

Linking up with Fishtail Cottage's Garden Party!

 

 

and Rooted in Thyme Sweet & Simple Fridays!