And so it begins.

Hi Jewell,..i seldom see a slug these days,..but just Hedgehog droppings and you would know most of the content was slugs,..looks like black molasses lol.

Hedgehogs have very poor eyesight so poor they could easily mistake a scrubbing brush for another Hedgehog.

Nothing to do with the scrubbing brush,..there are two adult Hedgehogs and some youngsters here now,..seldom seen but the molasses are a give away that they are still here.




( photo / image / picture from Philip Nulty's Garden )






( photo / image / picture from Philip Nulty's Garden )

 

Thanks! And LOL you're observant! They're actually geese, but close enough.

I really need to take a photo of my small but growing collection of goofy figures I've been collecting. Right now they're just clustered on the porch out of camera frame so you can just barely see one next to the welcome sign in that same photo as the geese. I'm not quite sure what to do with that front porch area. It's sort of long and narrow-ish, so I can't put too much stuff along the sides or it will interfere with the walkway area. But I want to make it less boring than just a stretch of concrete leading from the step-up to the door. I haven't figured much out yet, too much else to think about in the garden itself.

 

OK, so in one of the beginning pictures in this thread there's a corner section with a daylily......well, here......here's the photo again:


I love creeping phlox, and I'm thinking of relocating that daylilly and planting several creeping phlox in that corner area. I'm thinking I want it to ultimately fill in that corner. I've also considered using it as a border plant at the very front of the garden so that it spills over the bricks a bit. But the garden isn't raised at all, and the bricks have settled in so they're not very high in relation to the soil and the grass. So maybe that's not such a good idea.

But anyway, at least tell me what you think of me putting creeping phlox in that corner, and what the spacing should be.....and I ask that because researching them I've gotten so much conflicting information about their spread that I figure I'd do better to ask the folks who've actually grown them or used them.

 

I decided to plant creeping phlox in the corner I was talking about in the above post. Moved a couple plants, added a couple more, and now that all the shrubs are finally planted (long-overdue order from Spring Hill nursery cancelled when I found them locally....a story for another day!) I can begin to plant the very middle area of the garden which has been mostly bare, because I didn't want to be tromping over flowers and plants to dig the holes and plant the shrubs.

Where the boxwood were originally (see the first post on this thread to refresh your memory if need be)


A couple of wider views:




The hostas coming up nicely under the tree, and the creeping phlox I planted yesterday.


And a closer look at what is currently my favorite part of the garden, which will change, I know, as I plant more stuff.

 

That looks so much more inviting. All your hard work is paying off and I can't wait to see what you do next.

 

Cherylad, Eileen, thanks!

It's hard for me to fully envision what the garden is going to be like once everything matures, so I get anxious that I'm making the right choices. I guess, worst case, even then I can re-plant if I need to, in order to stop one plant from overshadowing another because it ended up taller than the one behind it, as one example of several that keeps me up nights! :-?

The "what if's" make me crazy sometimes. This reminds me of raising children. The "what if's" made me crazy then, too.

 

snake NOOOOO hedge hog YESSSSSS the only good snake is a dead one I don't care what they eat lol

 

I do have a question for you Ronni. I notice your water outlet is right there. Will you have to step through your garden every time to hook up your hose? Or do you have an alternate water supply?

 

Cheryl, no, I don't have an alternate water supply. But Lee is on top of that, thankfully. He says we can buy ...... something, I have no clue what it's called ...... that will direct the water supply along the front of the house by the gutter drain, to an alternate spigot that we can also purchase, which he will install close to the edge of the garden. And then I can turn the water off and on from there, so no more walking through the garden to get to the spigot.

I discovered that you can buy what look like decorative garden pots, with a hole in the side to thread the hose through, and when not in use you can just coil the hose in the pot. Alternately they make alternate free standing spigots that are decorative also, with space on which to neatly coil the hose.

So I'm thinking I'll solve the spigot access that way ..... unless you have a better idea? It's one more thing on my list to do/buy/take care of, but it's not a high priority yet because I don't have all my plants in so it's not been difficult to get to the hose, thus far.

 

Your idea seems like a good one. And with that fancy shrink hose... you won't need a big pot! :-D

 

Your garden is looking great. It won't be long before it is filled in. Much nicer, i love cottage style. You have done a great job of turning into the garden you want.