After a very wet April, we’re having a drier May. And a chilly May. It’s the annual game of watching the overnight lows to see what it’s safe to plant. And as usual, it feels like everything’s under control and going smoothly and then BOOM, everything hits at the same time!
The to-do list I put together over the winter has been as helpful as I thought. I don’t have to try to remember what needs to be done; I look at the list and figure out what the next priority is.
The deck project is mainly a “his” project, since it’s carpentry. Our joists were starting to rot and so were the ends of some cedar deck boards, so we’re replacing the cedar decking with composite and fixing the structure as needed. We also took the opportunity to add waterproofing below the part of the deck that you can walk under, to make that area more useful. We’ll also improve the lighting around the steps. We’re keeping the existing cedar railing. I’ll update The Deck article [link] once it’s completed. It’s a long wait for deck boards.
The perennial garden renovation project is primarily a “hers” project. We’ve had the garden for years and it’s been a weedy disaster for a while. It’s taken a few seasons to beat back the weeds, relocate any remaining perennials that don’t fit the new design, finish that new design, and amend the soil. It’s almost done. A few perennials I couldn’t find locally are on their way via USPS and those I started from seed are not quite ready to move to their permanent home. I’ll have an article on the perennial garden once it’s finished. Again.
The foundation renovation project has also been a couple of years in the (re)making. Last fall we moved Walker’s Low catmint from the perennial garden to the front of the house. This month I transplanted some daylilies that got shaded out of their original location, moved in some volunteer purple coneflowers, and added some new perennials. Again, I’ll update the Foundation Plantings article [link] when I’m done.
(I can see I’m building quite the blog to-do list here!)
The other project we tackled was one of those things that’s been bothering us for years but the solution came together very quickly. The side of our shed that faces the perennial garden has always been an eyesore. It collected weeds and was an outdoor storage area for things like tomato cages (when not caging tomatoes), containers of rocks, leftover fencing, and so on. I’d envisioned some kind of shade planting area since we have so little full shade on our property. After some quick brainstorming we came up with a low table made of old deck boards (uses some of the boards we’re removing, check) supporting a leaky galvanized tub we’d been storing in the shed for years (clears something out of the shed, check). We added some patio blocks and with a couple of our extra plastic chairs (that we’ve also been storing in the shed, check), we now have an attractive shady area to enjoy.
Once perennials were bought and planted, it was time for the annuals. I again made life easier by getting the pots ready beforehand and listing plants per pot as I found them. It’s still a dozen containers to prep plus a few annuals to tuck in the ground here and there. We’re keeping the vegetables simple this year, just a few tomatoes and peppers in the raised bed and a couple hills of summer squash, cucumbers, and cantaloupe (something new for us) from seed out in the vegetable garden.
Here’s what’s been happening in our garden this month.
