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You are here: Home / Houses / Outside / I Hate Gardening

I Hate Gardening

July 18, 2010 by Jane F 4 Comments

gardening - foundation planting with spirea and russian sage at a Hudson Valley summer house - AtticmagI get no joy from gardening. Dirt under the nails just isn’t my look. But the front of our house needed work.

I hate gardening. There, I’ve said it. Flame me, roll your eyes. Go ahead. I don’t care. I find zero satisfaction down on my increasingly creaky knees digging among the crawlies and worms, wearing a crazy-lady hat with a net, sprayed down with poison so I won’t get mosquito bites that swell into lumps and keep me up, scratching all night. Even the bug spray gives me a rash unless I’m careful. Long ago I learned to face it: I’m an interior designer. I bake, paint and refinish. Dirt under the nails isn’t for me.

gardening - English garden boxwood edging - House & Garden via AtticmagI knew I had to figure out how I wanted the front of my house to look on my own after we received the $8000 landscaping estimate for that space [top]. The landscaper, a very nice woman, was offering small plants and seemed surprised that I looked up every one on her plan. Most people don’t do that. I didn’t exactly know what I wanted (except for white hydrangeas which she said I ‘couldn’t have’) but I didn’t like anything she chose.

English gardening - a brick walkway bordered by russian sage, white flowers and greenery - via AtticmagSo, like any self-respecting blogger, I turned to my magazines to find “the look” via photos that expressed basic color (not 10,000 different ones) and lowish maintenance.  While I hate gardening as an activity, I love to look at gardens, especially those dreamy French ones  with shaped boxwoods, elegant mounds and billowing clumps. I accepted that I’d need to spray to keep the evil bambis from eating the white hydrangeas and white roses (no snickers, please, I was really dumb about roses) that I settled on, along with Russian sage.

In the past, I’ve shown our trees. This is the first time I’ve dared to show the evolution in the front.

gardening - foundation planting at a Hudson Valley summer house before adding a hedge and foundation bed - AtticmagThings were bleak around here for some time. In 2005, before the entire area left of the front walkway — against the house — was converted to a flower bed, there was just a dogwood tree, the smaller viburnum between the garage and the front porch, plus some scrubby stuff and really ugly grass.

gardening - front yard foundation planting at a Hudson Valley summer house before it was redone with rose of Sharon too near a dogwood tree - via AttticmagWe crowded the dogwood (tree on the right) by planting a rose of Sharon — a gift from my sister — much too close. I had no idea about gardening. We just dug where we could because there are gigantic rocks all over this property.  This area is the first thing I saw as we came home and it looked awful.

gardening - original foundation bed with viburnum tree before replanting - AtticmagTo get rid of the weeds, grass and creepers we pretty much killed everything in front and then left it that way for the better part of 2005. The viburnum, which has pretty white flowers and a fabulous fragrance in the spring when it blooms, was nicely situated between the laundry room window (right) and the garage window on the left. There was still too much grass.

gardening - spring view of foundation planting bed with dogwood tree in bloom before replanting - AtticmagIn April, 2006, I had the front bed dug out so that it meandered a bit. Both the dogwood and the viburnum were blossoming. The little green mounds in the center are my white Annabelle and lacecap hydrangeas that had been planted the previous fall. I also had put in some rosebushes (the tops are the little green things in front). Meanwhile, thanks to the wonderful folks at Dripworks, I was able to install a drip watering system for about $225, which included the cost of a helper for a day. The lady landscaper had wanted $2500 for that.

gardening - foundation planting bed bring redone with the Japanese boxwood plants laid out - AtticmagI had found my hydrangeas at a specialty gardening center across river and their horticulturist, David Campolong, came over to plant them for us. We asked him to return in 2007  and add the Japanese boxwood hedge to help better define the front bed. It was too big a job for me and since David had started his own business we were delighted to support him. (That’s David at work in the red shirt).

gardening - newly planted front foundation bed with hydrangeas in place and Japanese boxwood laid out in pots just before planting - AtticmagThe viburnum looks a little scrawny but adding the hydrangeas and extending the boxwood was the right choice. I thought that as soon as David had finished setting them out to plant.

gardening - newly planted front foundation bed with japanese boxwood, roses and a flowering dogwood and viburnum - Atticmag Boxwoods are usually flat and squarish but I liked the floppiness that these would develop as they grew in. See that gap right in front? That’s due to a huge boulder that could not be removed. We dug and dug but never could get around it and gave up. Those three green things in the center were the white Simplicity rosebushes I planted. Those were zone hardy but never got bushy or full enough to begin to fill in the space. I gave roses a go — adding six more bushes — because I loved having the little vases of white blooms. But there were Japanese beetles, black spot and aphids. I wanted the flowers but not the maintenance. Once I ripped out the roses, my front yard improved. It’s only taken 5 years.

gardening - close up of the new foundation planting at a Hudson Valley summer house with meandering curve in the boxwoods - AtticmagBy deepening the planting bed we also reduced the unmanageable strip of lawn. I had read that hydrangeas were not actually suited for foundation planting (in front of the house). They don’t look terrific during the winter months (and I must keep spraying because the deer will even eat frozen stems). But nothing looks terrific here in the Hudson Valley during the winter except our beautiful trees.

gardening - Annabelle hydrangeas in full bloom in newly planted foundation bed - Atticmag The Annabelles have been a joy. Their blooms are fist-size. Bees love the Lacecaps and they grow easily. I call your attention to the wispy, pale green Russian sage plants along the bulge — those were added to get color similar to the French garden in my inspiration photo. When they bloom, the garden is edged in lavender.

gardening - one year later the foundation planting at a Hudson Valley summer house is beginning to mature - AtticmagThis summer, things are starting to look better. The twerpy Russian sage has grown tall and thick. The Annabelles are towering and the hedge is starting to fill in. Eventually, it will be a bit shaggy.

gardening - hydrangeas and russian sage are flourishing in the front foundation planting bed - AtticmagWe have western exposure in front and the sun-loving sage reaches out over the hedge.

gardening - newly planted spirea which is deer proof on the end of the front foundation bed - AtticmagNow the roses are gone. I ripped them out this spring and gave them away. Instead, David planted low-maintenance spirea in the center. That will have white blossoms in the spring and eventually grow taller than the sage and mound over gracefully. I decided to put in spirea after seeing how beautiful it looked in the gardens of several bloggers who posted their photographs.

What I haven’t shown amidst all this history is the huge number and size of the weeds. Now that my front yard is looking lush at last, I know I must work to keep it that way. So I’ll grit my teeth and get to the gardening even though I hate weeding most of all.

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Filed Under: Outside Tagged With: anabelle hydrangea, Atticmag, David Austin roses, foundation planting, garden statues, gardening ideas, home gardening, russian sage, spirea, zone 5 foundation planting bed

Trackbacks

  1. Holiday Flowers says:
    October 4, 2014 at 9:59 am

    […] You also might like to read I Hate Gardening. […]

    Reply
  2. All Green Gardens says:
    April 9, 2015 at 3:10 pm

    […] summer – my focus naturally turns to gardens. Even though I’ve freely admitted in the past that I Hate Gardening and I’m tragically allergic to mosquito bites, I’m an ardent admirer of beautiful outdoor […]

    Reply
  3. Round Tree Bench says:
    April 15, 2015 at 1:11 pm

    […] magnolias, and the pale pink weeping cherry and flowering plums. You may not know this about me but I Hate Gardening and never gave a moment’s thought to any tree for three-quarters of my life. But an email showing […]

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  4. Bookcase Pinboard says:
    May 8, 2015 at 8:37 am

    […] more of Jane’s house see Jane’s Country Kitchen, I Hate Gardening, and Kitchen Picture […]

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