Sunday, May 31, 2009

In My Garden

We are still in limboland with closing on the house, but since we are here, we've begun to settle in a bit. I moved my stitching down into the room that is to be my craft room - but haven't unpacked it and fully settled in yet. Here is the set of nifty shelves already built in where I can organize the stash.

We've also had the carpets cleaned - well the living and dining areas, bedrooms are being done next week and we bought a nice washer and dryer set since this house did not come with w/d and we didn't want to bring our old ones.


The thing I could most use some input on is the Garden areas outside. Since we looked at and made the offer on the house in early April, all we saw was last years dead grass and a bunch of leaves in the backyard. At the inspection in early May we saw some daffodils here and there which were beautiful. When we actually moved in we discovered there is a ton of flowerbeds that have probably been pretty much let go the last few years. We have a nice rose bush, lots of tulips and a few other perinnals, but also a lot of weeds. I'm afraid DH and I have decided to make much of it grass cause I just don't think I can keep up with that much garden. I took a bunch of photos though and any advice or even just telling me what kind of plant some are would be helpful. Then I can look them up and figure out how to take care of them. I'm thinking I might move some of the leafy plants from the largest area to some of the smaller garden areas when we plant grass in the largest area. Anyone know how well they take to being transplanted? I'm totally clueless about gardening - so any advice is good. I pretty much know what you learn in 1st grade from growing tomato plants - sun and water - other than that I'm stumped. Here is a link to the webshots albulm with all the photos - feel free to comment there or here with any suggestions.

7 comments:

Susan @ Real Girl Designs said...

No advice on the garden (I don't garden, either!), but I love the sneak peek of your craft room, and the washer & dryer are lovely!

I hope you get resolution on the state of limbo soon!

Kielrain said...

Looks to me like you have a lot of easy care plants.

The large leafy ones are hostas. Looks like a few varieties. They like it shady and will die back in the winter. You can move them pretty easy. Ignore them and they grow well. :)
I saw an astilbe. And a peoney. Well establised... again, ignore them and they do nice.
Most those plants (that I recognize) are easy care.... if you need to move them, most often early spring or fall can be good. Just put them in similar conditions (sunny, shady, dry, wet) and you should be good to go. I am sure I know more of the plants..... I like easy care pretty garden plants.
Hope I helped at least some.

Oh, and lucky you with a craft room...

Anonymous said...

Jenn,
You have some fantastic plants. beautiful white and pink bleeding hearts, the tall purple are allium, and my hosta should look as good as yours ! You have a gold mine $ ! I would get a gardener there to ID the plants before you dig any out ! They are perennials, and you do not to do anything, they appear every Spring !! Glad to meet you in NH at
Celebations ! I recognized your
nametag! Love your Blog !

Carol in NH

Wanda said...

Your stash area looks really nice! And I'm glad you are settling in as well although I suspect with less enthusiasm as you would if the close was behind you. I've never had a garden...I'd make it grass. Unless you want gardening to be a new hobby, forget the plants. It's a real time consumer, according to my family members that have gardens.

Karoline said...

You are very lucky to have so many well established perenials. I am deeeply envious of your hostas, I can't grow them as I have too many slugs and snails.

Unknown A is a sedum, C - Roses, D - Pulminaria, the flowering bush is a Wyjela (sp) and the last photo is off a peony.

Jill in CA said...

I can't look at the garden pictures because webshots is blocked at work, but wanted to offer tentative congrats on the house!! I know how stressful short sales are (we're still waiting on the one we offered on two months ago) so I am hoping for a quick and satisfactory resolution for you!!

Robbin said...

Jenn,

I hope by this time your closing is all done and things are looking good with the house. You do have some beautiful perennials there and if you decide to leave them they all look like things that will take care of themselves without your having to do anything.

I only took a quick look, but #1 and #16 (not sure if they're the same location) are bleeding heart. At my house when I planted one it just took off and loved it. (Yes, past tense -- the people repairing my wall just lost my beautiful huge bleeding heart and the little ones are going to take while to grow to rival it.) Anyway, if you want to move it you'll likely break it apart and that's fine -- it could be divided and it will be happy if it has some sun.

The big purple round things (#6 and at least one other) are the allium. They grow from bulbs and I haven't had luck with them but they like your spot. The bulbs might also divide but could be dug up. They'll always be the same height so plan accordingly.

The leafy ones like #11 with green leaves and colored edges are hostas. If they like where they are, they'll grow happily. They'll put up small stolks with purple flowers later but people grow them for their leaves. My mom had some (not as pretty as yours) that she tried to cut to the ground and they only came back higher, so if you really don't want them, dig them out well or they'll grow back even cut far down. They're usually used for borders and I think you could take them out and move them without a problem.

The last one is your poppy and might be the most tempermental to move; I've never had good luck but it's gorgeous!

Grass take a lot of work to keep nice so unless you're wanting to take beds out to open up a wider area of lawn, I'd leave what you have because I think it will grow nicely on its own. Make friends with a neighbor who can show you how to weed around them and you can pretty much ignore things and they'll be happy. It's just the kind of garden I'm hoping to have when they're done tearing things up here. :)

Enjoy your new home!

Robbin