My Spring Challenge (Clearing the Weeds and Planting a Slope)

Here is a picture of our new territory that I didn’t quite know I had until a couple weeks ago. It is covered in a variety of weeds including notable family favorites like ragweed, goldenrod and Queen Anne’s lace. Now if it were just the latter two weeds I would be OK with the area as a natural wild field area, but I declared war on the ragweed a long time ago.

I have a step by step idea for this area of the yard. I want to create paths and small to medium size circles of weeds that I can manage as I go. Each of these areas will eventually become a planting spot for perennials or ground covers. This will also let me map out where I want to place beds and give me a gradual feel for the area. Rest assured I will take out any ragweed that dares to stand in my way! Later I want to put a small bench/seating area so you can look down on the rest of our backyard. I will need to do much of this before spring gets into swing since it is all dead right now. Once spring gets going the weeds will start growing which will make clearing them all the more difficult. I’m also considering planting some evergreens on the top edge of the area. I’ve always liked spruces because of their shape and color.

Above you can see the mass of weeds that entangles this slope. In the background are two of our neighbors houses. It would be nice to provide them with something other than ragweed as a late summer and autumn display. For many of the plants I may go native but I like too many other plants to stick just to natives. Some ornamental goldenrod would be good, since it looks great and thrives in our area. Perhaps some Joe-Pye Weed, Rudbeckia, and loads of ornamental grasses. Nancy Ondra on her blog Gardening Gone Wild showed a picture of one area of her meadow garden that was filled with ornamental grasses. The second to last image is one I’d like to emulate in my yard. My area is a slope so it naturally will be different but there is such a great variety of textures in that image, who wouldn’t want to emulate it?

Middle Tennessee Garden Event Calendar 2009

Here’s a list of this year’s gardening events that you don’t want to miss! Click on the links for more informationNashville Lawn and Garden Show – March 5-8, 2009Bloom ‘n’ Garden Expo – April 3-5, 2009Perennial Plant Society Plant Sale – April 4, 2009Middle Tennessee…

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Garden Blogger Fall Color Project: An English Fall and a Japanese Painting

Today I have two more Garden Blogger Fall Color Project posts to share with you! Take another trip overseas to Veg Plotting in Chippenham, England where VP has taken some great shots of the fall colors and pieced them together in a collage for us…

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Edible Landscape For Beginners: Design Inspiration for Your Garden Plan

Whenever you start to design an Edible Landscape/Garden it helps to have some inspiration to use as a guide.  You may have a ton of ideas in your head, but – trust me on this – sometimes those ideas don’t always work!  It’s never a…

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What Trees Did We Plant?

So far this year we have planted two actual trees along with a number of shrubs. I’ll talk about the shrubs another day but here are the two trees we planted. I have always admired the canopy of maple trees and the fall color of…

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