The Townhouse Garden 2009 - The Fence Project

Well it's been a while since my last post, a year actually, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been a busy little bee in my garden. There has been some major changes to the backyard landscape, okay it was a total overhaul.

Here is where it all started

After a unusually cold and snowy winter, it was March, and the time had finally come to start the fence replacement project for the complex. Yeah, I have been waiting for that for 3 years.

Here is a refresher on how the Fence looked.

That ugly fence, with the gate that would always stick.

Another thing I really didn't like about the fence is that it went up 4 ft and the top 1 ft was a see through lattice portion. Living on a main street with people always walking by, I didn't like that anyone and their dog could see was I was doing in my backyard. Even though I knew that fence would be replaced, last season I put up plywood to cover the lattice portion and painted the whole fence on the inside of the backyard, only then was able to live with it for one more year.

Going.....

Going....

Gone, goodbye and good riddance, is all I can say!

Our new fence is being constructed by Premium Fence.

In go the new posts, our old fence zigzagged in and out and had brick pillars on the ends of each of the corners. One reason the fence was so ugly, is that overtime the brick pillars settled and pulled the fence along in either direction, it looked like it was falling over and was coming away in spots.

The new fence is going to be perfectly straight.

The now open division between mine and my Neighbours yard




It's going to be so nice with new fence, because the zigzags have now been eliminated, I will gain an extra 2 feet depth as you can kind of see by were the grass ends and the new posts are.

The fence boards ready to be installed.

My yard seems to go on for ever, if only that were the case.

Alekazam ,Tada, new fence

The bricks where the BBQ was, I had re-used them from the west side of the house.

All that extra space, 2feet, I think I will put the compost bin there, it's full shade, good spot for it.

I will have to move the Rhodo to fit the space properly.

The Granite rocks will have to be moved to accommodate the new gate, it was moved over slightly from its former position.

This area will be the new veggie garden, it gets full sun for most of the day. Before the fence was replace I had to move any plants and equipment that I wanted to keep away from the old fence, the yard is a mess, but things can finally find a home.

I have a lot of cleaning up to do, plants have been trampled and wood pieces and concrete are littered throughout the garden. I'll salvage what plants I can. As you can see above the herb garden doesn't look so happy.

Lots to clean up.

Another thing I am going to do is rip up all the grass and replace it with 3/4" crushed gravel. The grass is half dead and full of mud. It has never really grown very well, and having a medium sized dog doing damage to the grass doesn't help.

The Townhouse Garden 2008 - Flowers From The Garden

Over the season I like to take pictures of the plants when they are looking their best, having a digital camera really makes that job of capturing great shots easy. You can see right away if you've got the "Money Shot" and you can snap away to your hearts content and it doesn't cost you anything, but the beauty of the flowers will last forever.

Some Hydrangea's, the soil that they are planted in is new and on the alkaline side of things, it is slowly turn acidic now that it's had a few years of rain on it. It's neat to see the transition of the flowers from pink (alkaline) to blue (acidic).

I really like the structure of this variety of Hydrangea. The flowers are a little thicker that other Hydrangea's I have. That makes them a good cut flower.

The "Fred Boutin" Lavender is in full bloom. I love the extra long stems of this variety, they reach 2 feet long, an excellent cut flower.

Close up of "Fred Boutin" Lavender

The bees love the Lavender.

"Double Delight" Rose, I purchased this year from Southlands Nursery.

"Black Magic" a Jackson and Perkins Rose also purchase this year from Southlands Nursery. I was trying to go for an artistic shot. I love the dark red colour of this rose.

The flower off of "Klem's Hardy Gardenia" ordered through Southlands Nursery, I had heard that there was a hardy Zone 8 Gardenia out there that could be grown year round here. I purchased one for my mom for Mothers Day and one for my self. The smell is close to the more commonly know indoor double flowered Gardenia. It's a real treat to be sitting out on the patio and catch a wif of this beautiful flower.

A Clematis that was here when I moved in.

I like all the pretty purple stripping, name unknown.

"Jackmanii" Clematis, the dark purple flowers have an almost fuzzy appearance in the sun.

The purple flowers of the new Rhododendron "tree" planted this year.

Crocus's in the spring time.

Fall Aster, a gift from a neighbour. This needs to be staked or it will end up toppling over under the weight of all those blooms. An easy, reliable garden perennial.

One of my favorite Dahlia's "Rip City" it'll stop you in your path.

A bouquet of all my dark coloured Dahlia's

A bouquet of all my yellow and orange hued Dahlia's.

The Townhouse Garden 2008 - The Backyard Evolution

With the major front garden renovations completed, it's time to turn my efforts to the backyard.

There's a lot of things I want to do to this blank slate of a backyard. There were a few plants and some garden beds in place but nothing that I was going to keep. The ugly fence is going to be replaced in 2009, so I can't do to much with the backyard, just enough to make it pretty for this year.

The existing hard edged combination of brick and plastic edging are going to be replaced with something more natural and flowing.

My sister saved some Iris's from some one's garbage, I potted them, I plan to give them a nice sunny spot in the new garden.

One of the first things I bought for the garden this year was an ornamental cherry tree "Kwanzaa" is the variety. After seeing all the flowering cherry's lining the streets I just knew I had to get one. I like the full flowers and late blooming of this variety, this tree will grow large in 15 to 20 years, but by carefully pruning the branches, I hope to keep a open airy feel about it. I would like some shade but not all shade.

The garden needed some height, one way I tried to achieve this is the addition of these free Rhododendron "trees". I totally scored with these beauties, I can often be found trolling the Craigslist's, Farm and Garden or Free listings, I've found it's a good way to acquire cheap or free mature plants and I lucked out one day when some one had posted free Rhodo's. Knowing how shallow rooted Rhodo's are I went with my utility trailer and shovel to dig them up. When I arrived they were exactly what I was looking for, 6 to 7 feet tall, and the lower branches had already been removed years earlier. It took a little digging and two people to lift it out of the hole but up they came and I've never looked back. One is red as shown and the other is purple. They bloom at different times so there is some colour for almost a month and a half strait.

The purple Rhodo in bloom.

After each of the tree's finished blooming, and before the new growth really started to grow I removed all the old leaves by carefully snapping them backwards. The old leaves were not in good shape and by removing them, it enabled me to clean up the spent flower blossoms from this and previous years and I could see the "bones" of the trees. I cut out any crossing branches and opened up the tree for good light and air movement. I find you can prune them hard and they are very forgiving.

Another total score, courtesy of Craigslist, were the granite rocks I was looking for. They weren't free but who can argue with $20 and a case of beer. They look terrific as the new boarder for the back garden beds. They add more of that natural element I'm trying to going for.

The granite rocks go all along the backyard, curving here and there. One thing I would like to add sometime would be the addition of a small shed to store the wheelbarrow and all my gardening tools, perhaps on the shady side of the fence once the fence is replaced next year.

I painted the ugly fence this year and I also attached some painted plywood to the upper portion of the fence to cover the lattice. Our backyard faces the street and I didn't like the fact that anyone walking by could look through the lattice and see into the yard and into the living room at night.

The combination of the shade from the fence and the dog, does a number on the health of the grass in the backyard, I'm constantly watering a patching up the doggie damage it really is a losing battle. I'm considering removing the grass and replacing it with some crushed stone next year. That will be a no maintenance, water saving option, not to mention it will keep the mud off the dog's paws in the winter when the grass seems to turn to a muddy mess.

A different perspective

The back fence isn't strait across, it juts in about 2 feet from the property line half way across. Next year when the fence gets replace, the fence will all be the same depth, running on the property line. This should give me and extra 20 square feet to garden in. Right now nothing can be planted along the fence by the gate, but next year the gate will stil be in the same place, but I will have all that extra room. The granite rocks will have to be re-worked to accommodate the extra bed.