Thursday, June 21, 2012

GARDENS FOR SALE

We have decided to move to Winnipeg, a Zone 3, so I'll have to investigate this list of recommended zone 3 plants, at first glance I see a lot of familiar friends since I'm already in Zone 4 at the cottage.  We are keeping the cottage though, just love it too much to abandon, so the journey here is not over.

It also means I'll need to figure out how to change the name of my blog to something less attached to the location of my gardens, after all gardening is a passion I'll take with me wherever I go.

This means I'll need to prioritize some of the projects I've got half completed.  Focus and prioritization in the garden has always been a struggle.  I know from both a time management and a design perspective it can be a good idea to focus on one project and complete it before staring another, but I tend to get distracted by ideas.

For now I will prioritize the larger structural things I want to do, and focus less on the maintenance.  You know, ensure the 'bones' are in place.
  • flagstone path to the lake - tedious to dig out all the grass between the ground covers, but I better hop to it!

  • Getting in a moss border to defend against the grass on the Lakefront Garden.  This is a doozy in terms of workload; I guess I better hop to it. 

Any thoughts on if this is a losing battle before I begin in earnest? Will I need to add in a plastic barrier to really keep the grass out? I don't like the look of them in this natural setting, but perhaps if I grow the moss over top of the edge...

  • Extending the  lakefront garden to incorporate the space up to the old tree.  Better to do it now before the lilies are in bloom.
Yes, it is just some tall grass now, but soon it will be more daylilies (and possibly some daises, and...)

Odds are that I will not be able to just focus on these big projects, but if I can at least prioritize them for the next while...

{March 2014 update: Success!  I extended the Lakefront Garden to the old tree, and replaced the grass with ground cover in the flagstone path. I am a bit iffy on how far I got with the moss border though...}

2 comments:

  1. Winnipeg can easily stretch to Zone 4 and beyond, as long as you are mulching heavily and protecting by covering the garden with leaves picked up from the Leaf It depots. I have a clump of black mondo grass (Zone 6) going on its third year, but only the one that was well-covered survived last winter's lack of snow, as opposed to the 8 clumps that survived the year before when we had more snow. I think that, within the city borders at least, we are now being considered a 4a.

    Snow cover is becoming unreliable, these days, but if you cover with leaves, and mulch the soil, the more tender plants can definitely be protected.

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    1. Thanks for the advice Janice. I'm beginning to feel that the difference between zone 3 & 4 isn't as much as I thought it might be and if I can push the limits and grow some zone 4 plants, then even better.

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