Days 184 – 193: Mostly Plants

A couple of weeks ago we met with a landscaper and his partner to discuss some plants for our backyard. It’s pretty much been an eyesore for years and I decided that I didn’t want to just add a few plants, but really re-do the yard. Pull up the ivy and vinca, plant native wildlife-attracting shrubs and perennials. We’ve been throwing ideas back and forth with the landscapers and have settled on some exciting-to-me plants:

• Skip Laurels along the back to hide our neighbor’s driveway and guesthouse-office
• Beautyberry bushes along the other neighbor’s fence along with some other, yet to be decided native perennials
• Native shade-loving plants around the deck:
  • goldenrod
  • bleeding hearts
  • wood asters
  • two types of ferns
• Woodsy plants in the deep shade such as jack-in-the-pulpit, maybe some trillium
• I also want to plant a spicebush on the side of the house

The folks have done quite a bit of work — mostly removing invasive ivy and vinca. They also took down a wire fence between our yard and the backdoor neighbor. It looks bare now, but at some point it will be beautiful.

I really love my houseplants. When I look at them my heart soars. I thought I was a houseplant killer, but these are doing well. Of course they are pretty easy to keep alive, but still.

Other delights of the past several days:

• Snowdrops were discovered under some ivy and pachysandra — a remnant of a fairy garden Clare and I tried to create
• The juncos are still around and enjoying the thistle seed
• I’ve figured out where to put the bird feeder when the garden is done
• I didn’t kill the wintersweet (whew!)