Adventures in the Garden: Breaking Ground

A lot’s been going on in the garden this week, although you probably wouldn’t be able to tell by the looks of it.  Squeezing in time to get outside means doing things in short bursts, 20 minutes here, 45 minutes there.  This week I’m proud to have:

• bought supplies (with Nathan in tow)
• changed out my flat wheelbarrow wheel for a new one
• weeded my herb-turned-kitchen garden
• almost finished replacing the chicken-wire fencing on my kitchen garden with a nicer-looking wire fencing
• dug up, moved and replanted two Russian sage plants (they were big, and the work was sweaty)
• and taken down the deer fencing in the area that used to be my vegetable garden.

That last one was seriously hard work.  I hope I start losing weight soon!  With the help of my local tiller guy, this area will now be turned into a cutting garden, where I’ll plant zinnias, Mexican sunflowers and I’m not sure what else.  Maybe overflow herbs from the kitchen garden, but definitely not veggies.  Not with all these deer around and no fence.

Today the tiller guy tilled and my mom helped me cover my new cutting garden with black plastic to keep the weeds at bay:
 

The cutting garden is almost 300 square feet of plantable area.  I can't wait to see how many zinnias, Mexican sunflowers and hummingbird-attracting cleome plants I can cram in here from seed.

And my mom and I ripped out weeds, dug up wild raspberry bushes and pruned back dead branches in the spot under my Indian Cigar Tree, where I’ll plant a shade garden and host what I hope becomes a well-used and lovely sitting area:
 

I seriously regret not taking a “before” photo—this cleared area looks so much better than it did before.  I can already imagine the soothing space it will become once its planted.

Nathan is in the photo for scale.  It's a small area, but once the tree's leaves come in, I hope it'll have a room-type feel.  A baby-sized adirondack chair and a few adult-sized ones with a side table will make it complete.

The funny thing is, I don’t have one new plant to plant yet.  This is really odd for me for this time of year.  Usually I do things out of order and buy more plants than I know what to do with and before I’m quite ready to plant them.  This year, I’m trying harder to do things in the “right” order and am resisting the thrill of buying new plants at every turn.  Well, now I’m thoroughly ready for a thrill, and just in time for a special annual local plant sale on Saturday.  Going to the sale with my friend and her family has been a tradition for years—and I can’t wait to do it again this weekend.  Let the planting begin!!!!  Breaking new ground is so exciting.