Starting again in the garden

It’s been a month since I removed the tarp and began replanting the blank slate that was my front yard. Some of you have followed this saga. I dug up my entire front land to rid my yard of Black Swallow Wort (BSW) and goutweed. My yard lay fallow for almost a year under black plastic. It was heartbreaking. Now, a year or so later, I have finished replanting and the yard is ready to spread its leaves and grow.

Garden, June 2023.

Garden, July 2023

Choosing plants, giving credit:

My preference is to have a relatively care-free garden. I don’t especially want orderliness. I enjoy plants blooming willy-nilly all spring, summer, and fall. I had that. Then I had to kill it all.

A number of the staples of my old garden are considered invasive. They grew easily, so they stayed and spread easily! When I set about recreating what I had, I wanted to do better. There is a fine line between plants that spread easily and those that harm other plants and take over. I wasn’t going to replant goutweed or day lilies. I was on the fence about Siberian Irises, which take up a lot of room. I also didn’t want to pick pollinator-friendly invasives just because the birds and bees liked them. So, I needed help. I got it from Autumn Light.

It took some networking to find someone who could advise me about plants and help me find equally vigorous pollinator-friendly plants that will play fairly together. That meant orange milkweed is better than regular milkweed. That meant not plants that would be too big (take up too much space) or those that would take over the whole flowerbed. I bought plants recommended by Jenifer at Autumn Light.

When I saw plant offers on Facebook groups, I checked their status. Some were invasives. Many were just happy, spreading things. I picked up the latter.

Happy accidents: I got some plants from someone who I strongly disagree with about local issues; we cross comments on road reconstruction and are clearly in opposite camps. We disagree pretty fiercely about traffic calming, but agree about pollinators. It’s social progress. That gave me great joy and confidence in the community.

I also picked up from other strangers who I have never met or argued with on Facebook. To all, I am thankful.

I also salvaged some plants from my yard dig out last year. I had too many. I gave some away.