매일 가정 혁신은 기울인다

Our intention with the garden make over is not just to make it more astectically pleasing but to have it as low maintenance as possible. I don’t have, as I used to, the time or the interest in going out into the garden every month or so to trim fast growing bushes, to pull weeds out of the dirt and perform general maintenance. I want a low to no maintenance garden.

Where to start? Yes, failing to plan is indeed planning to fail. So, we went to an expert; a garden planner. Yes, these folks actually do exist.

Did you know that certain garden centers provide a service whereby you can make an appointment and meet with a garden planner for a couple of hours? Likely yes. And the cost of such in person garden planning sessions can run $200 and up (plants not included).

However, did you know that some garden centers offer a more DIY (Do-It-Yourself) approach for less cost where you sketch out your current garden, write down your thoughts, the type of plants you think you want, and so on, and in a week or two you can pick up your garden plan all filled in. The cost? Well in our case all we had to pay was $100 …. wait for it …. for a gift certificate to be used at that same garden center! We had to buy plants anyway, so in effect all we had to do was to pre-pay the first $100 of our plan purchases. Here is what part of the garden planning form looked like.

We think it was a great deal, so that is what we did. This garden center has someone who we know had been in the business for many, many years…….for at least as long as we had lived in that town. We were very familiar with the garden center and the owners (as much as a any casual customer). One does have to be careful before putting down $100, even for a gift certificate, that you will actually be using the services of someone who you can trust.If you are not sure, you can always ask to see prior plans, if they will show them to you, in order to see the quality and attention to detail of what they had done in the past for others.

The other nice factor about this approach is that the plan is specific to you, your house, the nature of the plants and the type of garden you are looking to have on your property. Sort of reminds me of an energy audit in that the output from an energy audit is specific to your home and it’s unique features.

OK, so what does this plan look like? Well, below is a picture of the plan I had sketched out. I know it’s hard to make out but if you focus on the picture  you should be able to make our the main garden, the two small gardens beside the front door, the four sprinkler head locations and even where North is (sort of like looking for ‘Waldo’ ).

The form had very detailed and easy to follow instructions. I recorded the current shape of the garden, the footprint of our home, the two small gardens on either side of the front door, the driveway, the location of the in-ground sprinkler heads (identified as ‘SH’ on the plan) as well as, most importantly, where North was. We all know certain plants, bushes, etc. like lots of sun, others lots of shade and others a mixture.

We also indicated our preferences for a very, very low maintenance type of garden.

Lastly, we also included about a half a dozen pictures of the current garden and the outside of our home for the garden planner to have a good visual of what she had to work with.

Return tomorrow to see the garden plan we received back and the type of plants which were recommended for us.

We have, and continue to write, about the interior renovations and energy conservation activities in our home. This article begins a new series on the makeover of our front gardens.

The person from whom we purchased the house turned off the in ground sprinkler system between the date we waived our final condition on our offer and the dated we actually took possession, around 60 days. This really caused a lot of damage on the lawns and gardens in last summer’s heat wave.

So, we spent any time outside trying to repair the lawns.

Here is where we are starting.  We have one main garden that is overgrown with weeds, has lot’s of grass now growing from the lawn into the garden itself so the garden’s definition has been blurred or compromised. There are also overgrown trees, some in failing health and is what I would call a ‘high maintenance’ lawn, i.e. the home owner has to do work pruning the bushes, pulling the weeds out of the soil, and so on.

Here is a picture of that garden which is on the north side of our home against the garage wall. This picture shows the condition after only the tree was cut down in the near corner with the stump still in the ground. Nothing else had been done.

There are some nice decorative stones for us to work with, some of which have been buried under the dirt as we came to discover for ourselves. 

This front garden, which we will comment on in future articles, contains significant mold on the soil adjacent to the north wall of the garage caused by excessive watering / improper drainage or water run off, insufficient sun light, or all three. Here is but one example of the mold:

On either side of the front door are two small gardens which do not get too much sun, especially the one on the North East corner. These two include high maintenance bushes that have not been well maintained.

Here is an after picture of the above, just so you can tell where we are going to end up.

My wife’s husband can be lazy. I’d much rather be watching a ball game on TV than gardening. So, we want to have a low to very low maintenance garden. As well, we want it to look nice as it is part of the first impression of someone who visits our home.

So, lot’s of work to do. Lot’s to write about. The next article in this series will address where we started, and it’s likely not where you think.