Garden Map - Bird Sanctuary, Fence side of path...

All areas of my garden have gone through big changes this year. Normally, I update my old maps of each area, marking what winter-killed and what was moved in or out. This year I had to draw new maps because marking the old would have made them unreadable and I like to keep the old maps legible so if anything comes up down the road that I don't expect, I can usually figure out what it is by checking what has been planted in that spot over the years. A good example of that is my new poppy in the Sun Garden. It is either 'Chocolate Ruffle' or 'Miss Piggy' because those were the only poppy planted there. However, both were planted there in 2009 and this is the first I am seeing of either. Just waiting for it to bloom now. Today I finshed moving and planting everything I had that was to go in the Bird Sanctuary on the fence side of the path. Once that was done, I turned the sprinkler on it and made a new map (above). This is a shade garden and includes my hosta garden. Although I have hosta strewn throughout the garden, this spot contains the largest part of my collection. I love hosta. Also here are wood violets, spirea 'Snowmound', solomon's seal, columbine in three varieties, phlox, lily-of-the-valley and lamium 'Herman's Pride' that I brought back from Linda's last year. The columbine patch was added today and the ostrich fern patch was moved from Judy's backyard this year as well. I have moved a few hosta around in this area this year and added hosta 'Carol' but the rest of the plants are all returning from last year. I will have to do an overlay for tulips and daffodils if I put any here but there are only one or two spots that get enough sun for them. I may not plant any here. I dug hosta 'Carol', 'Wolverine', bonus dark, 'Dream Weaver', 'Christmas Candy' and purple/yellow columbine to send to Linda today as well. It was a great day for gardening even if it was a little hot at +32!

To Mow or Not to Mow

Only my husband would suggest that a garden under the trees is easier to maintain than mowing the area.  (Perhaps because the maintenance shifts from him to me?)  We have a 12' wide strip of grass on the west side of our driveway, about 80' long.  Kelly has been meticulously trying to get grass to grow there for 4 years now.  It used to be like a woods, with lots of roots to trip over.  When he decided to level our front yard, he cut up every piece of weedy sod and moved it under the trees on the west side.  This year it's finally starting to look closer to what a lawn should.

Apparently this year it's also become a bit difficult to mow around the few hostas and shrubs that he planted there.  So now the Plan is to get rid of the grass and have a mulch-covered area with lots of shade plants and a pathway running down the middle.

This is not an easy feat, as you will know if you have ever tried to dig a hole under large mature trees. I tried once and made it 6 inches before calling for help.  So it means the planting will happen by trial and error.  Lots of holes will be started and not as many finished and filled.  (A lot of hard work for Kelly!)

Another challenge will be to get rid of the grass.  The Plan calls for covering it with tarps until it dies.  I’m still a little uncertain about this strategy.  The other challenges in that area will be shade, dry soil and caterpillars.  For now I'm convinced enough to start drawing up a planting Plan.