The first step was getting Danny on board. He had only one real requirement, that I put it in a corner so he didn't have to mow around it. This is comical on two points. 1. I do most of the mowing because I love it. 2. all the obstacles that require mowing around are his obstacles (one flag pole and two horseshoe pits) and one tree.
The second step was deciding on the corner which was easy, the only corner that was just grass and weeds also happened to be the only corner that gets full sun. So it was off to the south east corner of the yard with magazine clippings and tape measure in hand.
The third step was renting a tiller. Thankfully Home Depot is right up the street. In no time at all we had loaded the tiller, tilled (thanks Danny) and returned it. I was now the proud owner of a seven by twentyish point of the arrow shaped plot of dirt.
And that's when Ashlyn came in on the adventure.
Ashlyn had been on board with the idea from the beginning and had perused plant photos with me off and on, but she was also busy with other things so I had left her relatively alone until it was plant buying time. I needed her input and advice. I needed her Victor. I needed her to be a buffer or distraction if Danny was getting frustrated. (More on that later.) So off to Home Depot we went, again.
I regret now that it did not occur to me to go to a local greenhouse. I had always gone to Home Depot and Hy Vee for my summer planting so it just seemed like the obvious choice. I found great plants and all, it's just that a local greenhouse would have been the right choice and in the future will add to my garden in that way.
Anyway, back to Home Depot. Danny, bless his heart was wonderful. He had some stuff to get inside so he missed the first cart we loaded. He came out in the middle of the second and waited patiently as we filled another flatbed and a cart. Granted, there was a few pavers mixed in with the plants, but it was mostly plants. I had my lists from the magazines, but those choices weren't readily available so Ashlyn and I chose based on color and sun tolerance and wow factor and name. Again, Danny didn't judge or question or even shake his head. He just let us pick and pick and pick. $545.00 later, we had our garden. For it was now Ashlyn and my garden.
We loaded up Victor and knowing that we would not get anything in the ground until the next day, headed over to Fatty Lunchbox for a celebratory meal.
Victor is not a large truck, he's a Ford Ranger. His entire bed was full. It was glorious. A truck bed full of wonder and promise and bloom!
Saturday morning, bright and early, which is not how we usually roll on a Saturday morning, Ashlyn and I were loading the wheel barrow up with the future English Garden. Trip after trip was made. Harlow bounded about, not really knowing what was up, but was just happy to be part of it. We had the radio and sunscreen on. Elsa and Emmitt walked tentatively in the wet grass, working their way out to us. It was certainly Brave New World for them that day. My sister, Crissy, was on her way from Cedar Rapids with four boxes full of lilies for behind the deck. We were a freakin Home Depot transfer the yard kind of a commercial in real life.
We placed plants, dug holes, put plants in holes. And repeat, repeat, repeat. We planted 62 plants that day in the English Garden. Maybe more as it is hard to keep track of all the dianthus and tickseeds. There's the gaura, picked because it is deer resistant. We don't have deer, but better to be safe, right. There there is the salvia that requires low water. We bought too many of those and a few found another home in the yard. There are the three focal points, the hydrangea, the dual peonies and the lilies. We don't know what color the hydrangea blooms will be, but we have already been treated to the blooms on the other two.
There will be a forth point, at the point of the garden. I think I want a butterfly bush. Much of the point of this English Garden was to lure the butterflies and hummingbirds of the world to our little corner. There has been a flutter of butterflies, but have not had a hummingbird, as of yet. There was a hummingbird that flitted through and stopped at the neighbor's bush.
We have hopes that the creeping phlox will actually creep to form a border. In the meantime, all the left over fencing sort of creates a border. The fence is in bits and pieces and Harlow has many entry points but except for the night of the frost, she has not caused any damage. On the night of the frost, Ashlyn and I had grabbed all the sheets and beach towels that we could find and started covering our little plants. Well, Harlow is almost always in on the English Garden action and was right in the thick of plant convering. She mistook the covering of plants as an opportunity for her to lay down on blankets and we nearly lost the corabells.
We've got red hot pokers and alstroemeria. There is Spanish lavender and bee balm. Leopard bane is a mass of yellow. There are two Sweet Williams and as Ashlyn said "if they are good enough for Kate's bouquet, they are good enough for our garden."
Lots of weeds amble through and we are out there frequently pulling and picking. As this is as natural of a garden as we can grow, the only weed killer we are using is a mixture of vinegar, salt and Dawn. It is not the dramatic killer that we could buy, but it is not going to hurt Harlow or the ground water. The killer does work, but it takes time. I have seen what poisons can do and though effective, when the wrong critter gets into them, it is horrible.
One area of concern was how to get the water to the garden. Hoses reach with a bit of tugging, but that was counter productive to the green approach I wanted to take. When Danny was draining the pool, we ran the gross pool water hose out to the back forty and the garden was fortified with eight month old duck pooped infused pond scum. Then we covered the area with mulch to hold in the moisture and keep out a few weeds. The moisture stayed, as did the weeds. Now when it is time to water, eight trips are made from the house to the garden. Trip number one is with two full water cans, filled from the rain barrel. The remaining seven trips are with repurposed milk jugs full of captured rain water. We are now looking for a wagon of some type to reduce the trips.
The next project is to repurpose, built, find or buy a little garden shed. My grandma had a brudder house and a milk house. I want something like the brudder house but will have to settle on a prefab from Home Depot or one of those Rubbermaid deals. I'm hopeful that I don't have to settle.
Our lovely English Garden has been a fantastic labor of love. There is a meandering path of pavers that takes you on the tour. I hope to replace the pavers with stones sometime when I can afford to. There is one paver that I won't replace however and that is the Harlow paver. For Mother's Day, Danny and Jacob managed to get a Harlow paw print in cement. That paver sits just below the old porch post that is cemented in the garden. The porch pillar used to support my grandma's porch roof and now supports my hummingbird feeder. In the center, another focal point, is a fantastic gazing ball. A gift from Hayley on Mother's Day, it is fabulous in green, yellow and blue. A fixture of Vicrorian era gardens, they were also at Crazy King Kudwig's Herrenchiemsee Palace. It seems fitting that we would have a bit of that here as we were regulars at his castles.
This little English Garden on Pleasant Street has been such a joy. Almost daily we are out there inspecting the most recent blooms, pulling the newest of fast spreading weeds, marveling at the tenacity of the ants. Elsa comes out there with me and lounges on the pavers, soaking up the sun, cleaning her paws.
I think of the possibilities that this garden holds. It will bloom year after year. It will need tending, weeding, remulching. It will be a place of beauty and butterflies. This quaint little English Garden on Pleasant Street.
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