I've been thinking about the garden since December.
Winter isn't my vibe, especially after we just got at least a foot of snow recently. We had been mostly snowless til then, and I was enjoying the false sense of spring being near. Spring has taken the #1 spot in my favorite seasons, putting fall in a comfortable second. It fills me with more hope than any other time of year, which makes sense seeing how the environment is literally coming out of dormancy for another crack at flowering and growing. Babies of various animals are being born. A lot of revival is happening.
Last season I did a decent amount on our garden beds, especially the front one. It was my biggest undertaking last summer because I reshaped the stone border, identified and rehomed multiple plants, did a ton of weeding, and started laying down mulch. I also planted Blue Mountain Phlox under our Royal Star Magnolia tree after limbing it up. The garden has come a long way since we moved in.
Since I've already cleaned up a majority of the beds, I can focus on maintenance and finishing touches where needed. I'll now be shifting my eyes this spring mostly to the back end of our dining room as well as the front porch plot.
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Front Porch
The front porch garden space doesn't need much, but I hope to make it pop just a little more.
Right now, it has Italian Asters and empty plot. Last fall, I tore out a Clematis and random tulips from the area. I was planning to put peonies where they where, but when I discovered the bulbs I ordered were double-petal tulips made to mimic peonies, my vision changed.
The porch gets full to partial sun. That was one of the reasons I wanted peonies there. They'd take up the space wonderfully and be a pretty pink pop near the house. Then I found two Bleeding Heart plants at the back of our garage.
Unfortunately, the small chokecherry tree and Spirea sharing the plot with them are suffocating the flowers. Branches and suckers are growing over and around the Bleeding Hearts to take their light. Bleeding Hearts are light shade babies, so this situation is not great. They're crowded and not thriving, but I can save them! The front porch bed will provide each their necessary sunshine intake and room to grow. They'll look great flanking our Italian Aster.
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Side Yard & Dining Room Windows
The Panicle Hydrangea is my #1 focus in the side yard garden this spring. I have been pruning it for the past few years, and this year is the last for removing old branches for new growth. It's looking a little sad right now, but I'm hopeful new suckers will emerge to take over the gaps this spring. Our type of hydrangea blooms on new wood, so pruning it has helped the flowers come come back fuller and livelier.
Moving toward the back of the house, I have another Magic Carpet Spirea in the corner, then empty space under the dining room windows. My plan was to plant a third Russian Sage under them, but my last sage root didn't make it. I may still get another because I love how they look, and they looove sunshine and not a lot of water. It's a good plant for low-maintenance gardening.
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Back Porch
Last May, I overhauled the back porch garden. It was overgrown and full of spent bags of potting soil. I rejuvenated the dirt, stained the wood, and planted sunflowers and wildflowers in it. I definitely want sunflowers again. My sweetheart loves sunflowers, so I want to keep planting them whenever I can. They unfortunately didn't take off as I'd hoped last year, so I'll be trying to start them by seed this spring. Our last frost date isn't until some time in May here, which means I won't be starting seeds until April! That's crazy, but such is life in the Northeast.
I'd like to add lavender by our back door this year. I envision two tall planters with those aromatic sprigs of purple and green beside a freshly-painted back door. I also want to expand our back patio by a couple of rows, as well as paint the cement squares to match each other. They're currently a mix of gray and red. The porch's siding will be painted this year to match the vinyl and trim color we have, which will really turn the spot around.
We have a Wisteria by the back bed (you can see it at the bottom left of the photo above), but it's been tough for me to wrangle. It doesn't get full sun where it is, so it grows underneath the back porch and snakes along the bed, reaching for sunlight and better places to take root. The support it has is too small to hold it as well, so it flops under the weight and causes the vines to spread along the ground instead.
There's only been one flower on it since we've been here too, which I take to mean it's not having a great time where it is. I've thought about transplanting it a few feet over to go beside the back door with a latticed door arch to climb, but I worry it'll take over the porch roof growing that way or die from shock. My only choice may be to uproot it completely, but that saddens me. It's a beautiful specimen if it has the right environment. This space just isn't it.
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I have a lot on my list this season, but I'm thankful most of the prep work was done last year. Let's now hope the snow leaves sooner than the groundhog predicted so we can all get our planting on!
What are your plans for spring gardening? Will you be planting anything new?
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