I’d gotten awful sick of looking at this mess every time I went in and out the front door. This is the West of Steps garden, and behind it is the South garden.
This side was even worse. The weeds were so dense in there, this is what I found when I pulled them out:
There was an enormous mound of fresh dirt and beyond it a very large hole.
The hole ran along the foundation all the way back to where it joined the other foundation. A young woodchuck made a bad housing choice. It dug all the way to discover it would never have a back door. The hole was only 2” – 3” under the surface and collapsed easily when I stepped on it. I cleaned out the weeds and filled the hole back in. Fortunately there weren’t many flowers along the foundation, so no real damage was done.
I had started by cleaning out this bed first and then planting it. It has portualca, snapdragons, and 2 dianthus planted. The pansies, maiden punk and chrysanthemum were already there. The markers are where I planted bulbs in April.
In this New West garden I planted a pink evening primrose, sweet William, wallflowers, Calibrachoa, snapdragons, marigolds, and portulaca. In the back are pink lily of the valley, coltsfoot, ferns and white lily of the valley. There was a lamb’s ear, dianthus, and white iris already planted. I had a pot of red tulip bulbs and I planted them in the ground.
The thyme and violets lining the walk have done very well. I had the carpenter pick me up a bag of peastone to put under the downspout, but it got too hot and humid to finish.
In the East of Steps garden (which you can just see some of) I put more dianthus, portulaca, and snapdragons.
So now the entry is a little nicer to walk into and hopefully the poor plants that spent so long in the cold frame will take off and be lovely by the end of the summer.
Saturday it’s supposed to rain off and on. I need to start cleaning up the vegetable gardens but don’t know if I’ll be able to this weekend. If not, hopefully I will get the clean room organized and start cleaning out the laundry room. My son is supposed to be here and start getting the wood into the shed.