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This is only the second or third time in my life that I have played with herbs. I captured an sizable collection of the now famous stacking pots in two sizes. I shall be mixing it up in my nine sections which is twenty seven pots. I am shooting for a conservation grouping of these and other pots on our new huge patio. I plan for a mix of designed pots mixing annual flowers, spikes and herbs pinching all for a summer of close to the back door garden goodies.
My soil needs are greater than ever for pots! This week I plan to shovel in the bottom half of the assorted pots using my 18 % OM garden soil ammended for the giant pumpkins. Over that and mixed in the middle third of the pot will be purchased organic growing medium. The top third will be all purchased medium to reduce the weed factor. I will use a ground leaf mulch on the plantings.
I am not ready to send out a pix yet. Just got the new table re-engineered. It sits in our sun or doll and toy room waiting for help to take out. The umbrella is stashed in there too along with the glass top and four chairs.
I have made a slide show of the patio development start to finish for my landscaper who put in the drainage under the patio and brought it up to the fines the brick were set into.
There will be an arbor built soon. Have to! The clematis that will cover it is ordered. When the gingerbread is mostly in place I will take the finished or a "after pix" to finish the video. My son, grandson and wife all helped getting and laying in the brick around five huge. bluestone slate accents. I feel like I need a design person for the spit and polish. For now I shall muddle it all into our desire. Then I shall invite a design person whom we know for a burning of another chicken, picking of the herbs and tumbling tomato plants. That will get me a thousand bucks worth of free advise I'm sure. This monster is a major major project in hardscaping. My son is the master mind of most worth. He wants this house when we have need to consider our most difficult final years. We are trying to do our part to end this recession or what ever it may be. Thank God for our Dutch heritage that taught us to save and invest for a rainy day. Now we can play. :)
You have a little time with that arbor. Clematis seems to follow the rule of thumb for perennials: the first year they sleep, the second year they creep (they'll sprawl around a little, but if you don't have a trellis they'll still be fine... unless you're talking Sweet Autumn Clematis, then stand back!), and the third year they leap! I've got some leaping clematis around the side of the house that will definitely need a trellis this year.
Good! You just took away one of my worry things. I shall go right out there now and fix up the fifty dollar hole for the twenty dollar Clematis. Somewhere in a pile of savings there is an order confirmation. I just peeped at the nursery listings and picked one that projected 18 - 20 foot growth suitable for my 5a growing region. Knowing your rule of thumb gives me time to tinker in a really nice trellis. I have a natural hardscape place that serves to take away line of site from the patio to hide my neighbor's house. They took out a huge white pine that makes me feel a bit like living in Hong Cong. Now but for a few Junipers and the trellis I am close to the woodland view I enjoyed for years. Five years should knock out the undesirable (not ugly) view. It will maintain and enhance an open walkway or gateway both ways between properties. In this case the grass is greener on the other side of the gateway. I just like the privacy we had before the tree came down. If he will accept it I will give him a new white pine which will serve to hide my shed from his view.
Lowe's did it again...Their Juniper are five-six feet B & B at thirty bucks. Area nusery pricing ranges fall between $50 and $90 bucks on the lots. I bought one to check the root ball. They were dug...somewhere...not earlier than last fall. Very good condition for transplanting. The burlap indicates either re-wrapping or early spring digging. On three foot centers I believe six or seven will do the trick and close the view nicely in a few years.
I had a woodland edge view using their trees which are now history. That's the reason for this early season. Don't like fences which are ugly to me and cost much more not to mention the maintenance I need like another hole in my head.
White pines do get huge! It sounds like you've got more options now with it gone... Your juniper hedge will be lovely! We put in a Serbian Spruce a few years ago that I really love... it'll get pretty tall (although not in a hurry) but won't ever get much wider than maybe 12 or 15 feet... that lets it provide a nice vertical evergreen accent without overgrowing the surrounding plants.
Your Serbian Spruce is a choice I made first about thirty years ago. It along with assorted Juniper were my answer to an occasional deer presence. Today we have deer nearly every day or night. They still do not feed on the Junipers and Spruce. That is the organized side. The other side is a permitted and encouraged jungle. If the deer go into that side I am not so concerned.
The jungle is a mix of rotadendron, ferns, azalia, yucca, various clump grasses, ivy, spring bulbs excluding the tulips the deer love and a red dogwood under the canopy of an english walnut. The neighbor added his adjoining beds of hosta and more azalias.
There is a mulberry about up to decision size which as of the moment I am inclined to let grow where the birds planted it. Along the house I have some foundation plantings that the deer do molest. With the projected permanent deer population I have been trying to adjust into plantings they are less likely to chew on. Some shrubs for whatever reason are less likely to be horned up when the rutt appears. So far my super great holly bushes have been left alone. Deer are not good neighbors.
Deer would be fine neighbors if present in natural numbers... PA, MD, and many other states have a major problem with overpopulation and no easy solutions due to various political and social pressures that we probably can't discuss/debate here. I know there have been some good threads about deer-resistant plantings and deer repelling measures... Sounds like you've figured out some good strategies also.
