Gardening Resolutions for 2010




We spent part of Christmas Day talking about our plans for 2010, the majority of which have to do with gardening. First on the list is building my gardener-coaching practice, something new that I’ll be debuting this spring, provided I can stay on schedule (see http://cultivatingtheinnergardener.blogspot.com ).

There’s still that 75-foot cherry tree trunk in the east garden that needs to be removed, but it’s a major undertaking that requires opening up the deer exclosure and hauling sections of the trunk uphill. My friend suggested leaving it where it is and making a feature out of it. We’ll have to see.

The lavender garden is a definite priority. This is the area where we moved the location of the propane tank and are installing a rock wall and wood screen. I’ve planned a double rock wall to create a planter for vertical accent plants, but still haven’t decided which ones. The construction zone will eventually be filled with more lavender plants. I’ve been pleasantly surprised to discover several volunteers, which I have to presume have grown from seed. Lavender is not a plant I would have expected to pop up on its own.

I missed my chance to get some white crocus, daffodils, and tulips into the white and fern garden, so that’s back on the list for 2010. I also want to find a few spots for mixed pink tulips in my lily garden, so that I have some color there between the bloom time of the daffodils and the lilies.

In some spots, like the blue garden, I just have to watch, maintain, and see whether any additional or replacement plants are required. I’ve had the devil of a time trying to get Delphiniums to grow well there, but I’m still hoping. I’ll probably have to move the Monarda Blue Stocking, which is not as blue as I would have liked.

Out front, my reblooming azalea responded well to all of last summer’s rains and came back from the dead. I planted it among a huge number of blue columbine seedlings that grew after I just scattered seeds from the plants in my blue garden. It joins some iris that I got when Stan Gray closed his family’s iris garden in 2007. The soil is so poor in this area that I’m delighted to have anything at all grow there. On the opposite side of the path from the lavender garden, the blue (and possibly purple) columbine should look quite good.

If Dan has time to add to the deer exclosure, there will be new spots to plant up around the driveway. The remainder of my efforts will be devoted to taking better care of my roses, experimenting with moving a few Hellebores and Ligularia outside the exclosure, and planting more bulbs.

In September, we’ll fly to Texas for the Garden Writers Symposium and mini-vacation with relatives.

I’m exhausted already.


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