Garden Fancy: Garden Timeline 2017

In 2017, I made two new garden changes:

I re-did the East Patio area to make a new Scented Garden, filled with scented flowers
I got a small greenhouse and cold frame

However, I also downsized or eliminated at least four other garden areas. As I wrote in my 2016 page, that year was the peak in the number of my garden areas, and I needed to start downsizing.

In 2017, I began an effort that has continued for more than a decade, to reduce or eliminate areas farther away from my house. Those are more difficult to remember to maintain, or to have opportunities to enjoy. I don't just want "work gardens," or "show gardens" for visitors, I want gardens to enjoy spending time in.

So I have begun to prioritize my garden areas based on proximity, beauty, and ease of maintenance. I'm working to improve those areas that rank higher based on those principles, and reduce or eliminate those that rank lower.

The east patio garden is very close to my house and fairly easy to maintain. So I redid the plantings here, to make a new Scented Garden to enjoy nearby. (The small tree is a 'Bonanza' dwarf peach tree that I moved from our east orchard, a location too exposed for this marginally hardy tree to thrive. It has done well here, although it doesn't flower every year, and almost never fruits.) We bought a large shade umbrella for our table, but it was often too windy to use it, and the following year we built a large pergola over this area.

I finally succumbed to my greenhouse envy of British gardeners, and installed a new 4'x6' greenhouse and cold frame, on the south side of our garage. Sadly, I never really used this too much, because the poly panels kept blowing out, and it's just easier to start seeds under lights in my sunroom, which is already heated. Greenhouses work well in Britain, but here in the Midwest they are too hot in summer, and burn piles of cash in winter to heat them. Plus, this one was too far away from my house for me to even remember it existed.

I reduced the size of my Yellow Garden, as can be seen by the newly grassed-over area that used to be part of the garden.

I reduced the size of my Rainbow Border, by removing both ends of the border to shorten it from around 70 feet to about 50 feet in length.

I reduced the size of the bed around my garden shed. The area around the large tree is now back to grass.

And here's the other side of the Garden Shed, showing how much neater it looked after reducing the planting beds to the two small areas on either side of the concrete pad.

I eliminated the bed around my LP tank and returned his area to grass,

and I eliminated the planting bed around my gazebo,
which is so far from my house that I always forgot to
maintain it.

Other Photos

The curvy new Summer Border in front of the evergreen Winter Border looked great only a year after installation.

I redesigned the beds around the garage, including this one on the north side. I replaced the Ligularia that had been here for several years with several 'Green Velvet' boxwoods, and installed edging bricks.

I removed the daylilies that were on the west side of the garage and amended the soil with a large amount of compost. Then I planted several dozen boxwoods in a random pattern.