Screeeeech, slam on the brakes and back-up a few months

Category: FRED - the garden | Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 6:23 pm

Last fall, I believe it was, before I found my fence panels I devised a front yard plan that wouldn't need them and would still close off the yard. Then I found the fence panels and that plan changed because it just didn't work with the panels.
But part of the original plan is being added back in.....a raised Rose bed. The other part of that plan was using shrubs with year round interest as a living wall, but that part is changing but I have some plants that will planted between a couple more of the fence panels to close the gap.

We are going to build it between two fence panels along the front sidewalk and hopefully in a trapezoid shape or possibly a parallelogram ....depends on which one I can talk my live-in carpenter into making for me. I have three rose bushes that need more sun than they are getting now that I can move from their pots into the bed and hopefully pick up another one if needed to fill the shape of the bed.
This fall I am going to scatter wildflower seeds over it so they will grow up in early spring and bloom before the roses even start to leaf out.

Oh, wow, I just remembered that the fenced in herb bed is another idea from last year that I thought I would have to forego when we couldn't find the fence panels. An 8ft x 8ft square, one panel will be made into a gate. Shelves along the in side of two of the panels, stopping 2ft from the end opposite the gate. There will be planted two Comfrey plants and an Apothecary's Rose. The shelves will hold pots of herbs for cooking, salves, lotions, and for making candle and soap scents. I might want a couple of shorter shelves on the outside of one of the panels too.

Something else I have wanted for a long time is a Medicine Wheel type of garden bed. I have a 9ft circle marked off and will divide it into 4 sections. Each section will be planted with plants that bloom in the color for that section...i.e. North- White, East - Yellow, South - Red and West- Blue. The plants will also represent the four seasons, there will be plants symbolizing the birthmonths of Randy and I, our kids and grandkids (the birthmonth garden I tried out back was a resounding failure because of the trees growing and spreading too much shade) And some of the plants will be chosen for their meaning in the language of flowers.
I already have some of the flowers in the backyard, some I have been buying when I find them and some I have started from seed. A few will have to be ordered and planted this fall....i.e. Red Lilies,to bloom next spring.

I will need to use Randy's compass to get the sections positioned correctly, but first I have a lot of grass/weed digging up to do. I need to find an inexpensive source for smallish stones to use around the outer edge and something natural and flat to create the 4 sections that I can walk on for reaching the center and weeding. I would like to make a Peace Pole for the very center, I think that will be an over the winter project.

From one angle the front yard looks way too big for me to handle, then I start fitting in all these bed ideas and it starts looking sorta small. But I think in a year or two I am going to be really happy with it all..exhausted but happy..I hope

I am hoping that these ideas come out better than the ..'make the backyard into a vegie garden' idea ..I bit off more than I could do in one season on that one but I will still be working on it. Also, the planting of the H*** strip between the street and sidewalk isn't coming out as planned either...but it is also one to continue working on.

And yes there will be pictures as things are done. I think we will be putting up the fence panels for the herb bed some evening this week. And I will start digging out the circle bed in the morning.

The plants in the Medicine Wheel type garden are.....

North - White
Moonflower vine
White Mum - cheerfulness
dwarf Holly - Winter/Dec (oldest grandson)
Dusty Miller- respected Grandmother
Water Lily - healing and July (Randy and youngest grandson)

South - Red
mini Red Rose - Love and June (oldest daughter)
Cockscomb - humor
Red Lilies - faery favorite and April (me)
Red Morning Glory - peace/happiness and Sept (son-in-law)
Red Sunflowers - Summer

West - Blue/Black/Purple
Lavender - healing
Blue Morning Glory - greeting the day
Lamb's Ear - healing
Blue Pansies - Spring

East - Yellow
Black-eyed Susan - fairness
Lemon Balm - health
Yellow mini Rose - joy/happiness and June (youngest daughter)
dwarf Sunflowers - Autumn

I also found some really neat quotes to paint onto plaques for each section too.

"Show me your garden and I shall tell you what you are" -- Alfred Austin
"Everything in nature invites us constantly to be what we are" --Gretel Ehrlich
"Who bends a knee where violets grow a hundred secret things will know" --Rachel Field
"We can talk," said the Tiger Lily "when there's anybody worth talking to" --Lewis Carroll

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