WHAT was I thinking ???????

It started out in pure innocence - it sounded like a good idea - I was inspired by what all the work fellow garden bloggers were doing............  I was going to cut in my new "South-by-Southwest" (later to be called the "Cottage Garden") garden and prepare it for next Spring!!  I had a few key foundation plants in place, floating out in the middle of the yard, time to encase them in the new garden.  There was a "plan".  I would amend the soil and let it 'simmer' over the winter, just waiting for spring 2011!

WHAT WAS I THINKING????????

A little history retread:
2008:  Backyard = rough shape from home renovation, started out looking like this in spring:

"Icky bad" 2008

2010 - The design plan:

Trace paper - covering an existing picture to sketch plant ideas on ...

2010 (Sept.) - The implementation:

Day 1 - THAT was as good as it was going to get!

Jim and Pat over at illic est haud equus quoque mortuus barruo did an amazing job cutting in a new garden;  so much so that they inspired me to get a jump on 2011 too!

The Problem? ..... My aching back!

I was so glib!   "I was woman, hear me roar!"  Get out the tools and just get to work.  I had my newspaper to cover whatever sod was out there, then I was going to pile on the sphagnum moss, compost and a little top soil.  Let the grass compost under the paper, let the paper breakdown and the nutrients of the amendments give me something to nurture new plants.

I had only edged the shape of the garden before fatigue set in!  Clay with a veneer of topsoil has the texture of  30 year-old concrete by the end of summer.  Shoulders throbbed in pain, arms were like wet noodles and my profile bared a resemblance to Quasimodo...

To add insult to injury, the weekend was over and I wasn't going to be back to finish up until the following weekend.  THAT's when the real fun began - the next weekend...  In a moment of brilliance, I decided to loosen up and stretch before I went out take on the SSW garden, my back was still tight from 'week 1'.  That's when I felt the 'pop' in my lower back - and I caved!  Down & out for 8 days!

But then the miracle happened...

"All" it takes is a little pete moss .... 

Now the foundation plants are 'grounded'..... 

And I owe it all to my kind and generous husband!  While I ignored his pleas for 6 foot high privacy fences over the years, he still lugged tons of pete moss, compost and top soil to fill in the rest of the garden.  I cannot wait to get my hands on that garden next spring!  I continue to impatiently wait for my plants to mature, but then there was a time, when THIS is what our maple tree and the backyard looked liked (looking towards our neighbors back yard)!

"A long time ago when the leaves were green....."

So, it's time to chill - like the weather.  No more grandiose ideas for now.... no more monumental tasks.  I'm starting to think about over-wintering some of my favorite annuals, just to see if my thumb is 'green' indoors?

Garden Ramblings on a Rainy Sunday Afternoon....

It's a windy rainy Sunday afternoon which seems perfect to appreciate the gardens from the 'inside out'.  One of my OCD garden habits has been to make sure my gardens look just as interesting when standing inside the house - looking out a window.  Even my son, a 19 year old, appreciates his new window view - and sent me this shot this summer (while I was at work):

"Nice view out my window, huh?"  (his quote!)

My daughter's view ... she hasn't provided any feedback!  ;-)

In my travels of late - I have seen great residential landscaping and I've seen homes with *no* landscaping.  Of course I can appreciate two things:  (1) "interest" in gardening, and (2) "financial resources" for gardening.  I remember our yard, in the beginning - when there was a small cement stoop at the sliding glass door and the Sugar Maple was a sapling.

I've captured a few photos in "drive-by's" and visits....  they inspire me:

I appreciate the clean lines of this front yard...

This yard stopped me in my tracks.  What fantastic boldness in gardening - not afraid to make a statement!

Your eyes aren't fuzzy - just the picture!  But I love how the stepping stones lead a person around..

I also like 'blank space'... it has a big impact, while you are being led around outside space.

...and I am forever looking for patio ideas - though this scale is too big for my future seating...(unless I win the Lotto!)

So, I continue to dream big and remember that 'Rome wasn't built in a day.'

Geez........ it sure felt more like LABOR Day!

OK, maybe it WAS the 4th of July, but it sure felt more like Labor Day!  I was a woman on a mission to get at least ONE garden I could call "complete".  After 2 summers of looking at clay, dandelions, and bunnies with an attitude - I wanted to say, "Here!  I really DID have a plan! ... for real !!"

A reminder...... "The Before":

Then, (reminder #2) there was... "The Plan":

Then ("Ta Da!") there was the 'execution of the plan' -- the "After":

The 'key' ingredients are my "anchors", as I've mentioned before.  The Royal Purple Smoke Tree (Cotinus coggygria 'Royal Purple') has doubled in size since last year.  I just LOVE that baby!  It will be a cornerstone and top out at 15 ft tall (and 12 ft wide - according to specifications, give or take).  The Emerald Green Arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis 'Smaragd') will be another 15 footer, and if I can keep it alive - the Berri-Magic Royalty Holly ("Blue Prince"/"Blue Princess" Ilex x meserveae) will mature to an 8 ft tall/6 ft wide evergreen just west of the front stoop.  (I'm trying to stay patient as they grow - as I normally look for instant gratification.  Not something I'm proud of!)

Here are a few close-ups, for a detailed peek of what's growing...

I snuck the New Guinea Impatiens ('Painted Paradise Red Improved') behind the Hostas for a "pop" hit.  The Purple Fountain Grass is a 'must have' annual in my gardens.  I usually cave and buy many in any given year.  I also like how it complimented the color of the Smoke Tree next to it.  Always a guppy for Cosmos - this year I planted them in the front, to have your eye travel around the shape of the garden - following a white/pink theme, ultimately landing on the front stoop where the New Guinea Impatiens ("Sonic Sweet Purple") (...looked like hot pink to me?!!) is perched.

Look at the new growth on the Purple Smoke Bush and the 'clouds'  of pink!  This is the 2nd growth spurt, the first came in late spring.  Let it grow, let it grow, let it grow!

So my mission was to do one final weeding, then mulch like crazy - so the garden looked finished, not just a work-in-progress.  There was not a shred of daylight by the time I finished, but even my patient neighbors across the street stopped by to say how nice it looked!  These are the folks I apologize to all the time, because they have looked at our 'clay & weeds' all last year from their front picture window!  (It had to be one 'butt ugly' view!! ... and let's not go down that road.)

If getting one garden finished felt so good - getting two done would be 'Nirvana', wouldn't it?!! ......

So after a day of "Independence" revelry, I engaged the services of my dear betrothed to help me in the back gardens.  I heard mumbling ..something about him being "just the laborer"... and "when was he going to get to plant 'pansies'", or did he say he felt like a Pansie?  I get confused after a full day in the heat, wind and sunshine!
  

What started off 2 summers ago, looking like.... 

Ended up yesterday, looking like....

  

Believe me, I know I have a long, long way to go!  Some of you have been gardening for years and have gardens that look more like an Arboretum.  I envy you.  I covet your gardens.  But in the end, I'm a simple 'girl' with big aspirations.... so some day 'when I grow up', I'll have a 'big girl' gardens too!  (and as little grass as possible!)  Happy gardening my mentors and fellow enthusiasts....

A Garden Journal Becomes the Blog

Who knew that a garden journal would manifest itself into a blog, but it started with a “Mead Composition” notebook?! Five and ½ years of journal entries, sketches, plant tags and cut outs have “evolved” …. (Thanks for the epiphany, Anita!)

Even in my gardening infancy I have had a love-hate relationship with the bunnies in my yard. They appear so sweet & innocent, while they gnaw on my fledgling arborvitae or dappled willow like piranha. The fact that all my surrounding neighbors have fenced in yards with loud, boisterous dogs only exacerbates the situation. “Co-existing” with bunnies in Illinois is a challenge – especially with the change of seasons, they get more ravenous in winter! (It reminds me of Monty Python’s Holy Grail!)

The latest victim of the voracious rabbits…

What used to be an Emerald Green Arborvitae

Thus, the origination of my blog’s name: “The Bunnies’ Buffet – a dilettante’s journey in gardening.”

My discerning husband coined the phrase a few years ago. As he so eloquently said to me, “Why do you get so upset about the bunnies eating your plants, when you provide them a buffet?” I have to admit their audacity still amazes me, as does the bluntness of my husband’s comment.

There has been more than once I’ve come around the corner of the house to find one munching on the tender leaves of some plant-d’ jour, and they look up at me in total disinterest. I walk toward them in a rage, and only then do they scamper off, just out of reach. There is no doubt in my mind; my neighbors think I’m a nut job!

I started a garden journal soon after I planted my first perennials, understanding the limitations of my memory and abbreviated knowledge of gardening! (The garden journal was a suggestion from my garden pal, Lizz). I utilized the graph paper in the journal – to sketch up the backyard, to scale. I drew in the existing trees & reference to the house and back deck.

Sometimes it documented what I planted, sometimes it became a sketch of a future ‘dream garden’. This sketch documented what was growing at the time. You may notice the ‘Porcupine Grass’ on the middle left of the drawing was crossed out. It ‘didn’t make it’ to 2005. You’ll see the Azalea in a pot, in the picture below, where the Knockout Rose used to be. Another fatality…