To Dig or Not to Dig

4/27/2015

As the weather warms up, my inner gardener begins to speak to me.  Of course, my inner gardener also knows that the body (mine) isn't exactly attuned to doing laborious work.  And, unfortunately, my ship of gold hasn't arrived yet, so there is no "outer" gardener to do the work for me.  

Last spring I bought myself some "real" gardening tools.  No lightweight, bright pink, flimsy shears for me - nope I bought manly shears and also manly long shears, for the really big jobs!  Also last spring I bought myself a series of plants, which since I don't have a green thumb, had to baby along most of the spring and into the summer.  I'm happy to report that said plants have begun to rise from the ground - will miracles never cease?

Since I insisted last year that Jeff "trim" the Leyland Cypress trees in the backyard, our yard is somewhat exposed.  I thought and still do that the trimming was a good idea, because these trees are shallow rooted and over the course of 29 years have become quite tall.  Okay, once the trimming was finished, more of our backyard was exposed (horrors) and that's where new plants came into play last year.

While we lived in California, we grew roses.  The temperature was right and the winters were mild.  We haven't tried roses here, because they do need some work and our winters can be downright nasty at times.

I don't want to plant annuals, because if I am going to go to the trouble of messing around in the dirt, I for sure don't want to have to plant something new in that place again next year, etc.  Nope only perennials for me.  Plop them in the ground, give 'em some water when they're new and then I pretty much forget about them.

I'm a bit interested in something called a Hummingbird Vine, which looks pretty and who doesn't love those little birds.  I can also buy plants that attract butterflies - or - always an option - buy a plant that doesn't attract anything!

If I could (a) afford it and (b) more importantly physically able, I would love to have the ground around our fence line covered in all manner of plants, both flowering or not.  I do have a little shovel (it's for kids actually) that I used last year to dig up the ground for my new plants.  I'm thinking about an Azalea plant because they are very colorful and become quite large over time.  

Since my time spent in the garden is dictated by how good I feel, there is no danger of my ever being able to fill out the fence line with back-to-back plants.  I can, however, get one or two plants and get them into the ground and watch with great satisfaction as they grow.

P