The gardens at the new(ish) house here at Struan Farm are coming along. Remember that this was all paddock to start, so we've come a long way in three years. I've learned that it takes about this amount of time to get things established from scratch, then the tweaking starts. Plus we're still making new gardens, paths and thinking about structures like pergolas, we aren't done. In fact, I'm beginning to wonder if one is ever "done" with a garden!
What I do think we've achieved thus far is a "cottage garden" look. Two different sets of friends commented recently that not many people plant flower gardens these days, mostly because of the work involved. It's all easy care: natives, grasses or shrubs. And yes, flower gardens can be a lot of work, certainly at the start. In our case some of that I blame on the lack of preparation of the beds before we planted. (I'm still grubbing and poisoning California thistles in considerable numbers in the big main bed. This shouldn't be happening.) I also need to keep growing seedling flowers in the glasshouse to pop into gaps. The rabbits haven't helped, creating gaps as quickly as I've filled them this summer. But I've planted quite a number of flowering shrubs that should make the garden easier to look after over time, similar to the established gardens in the Homestead.
Over his holiday "break" John has been down on his hands and knees digging in recycled bricks around the edges of the existing beds. This is meant to save Karen from being down on her hands and knees trimming those edges by hand for the rest of her life, which is what I've been doing to date. It's also a more finished look. With the gardens we've planted starting to mature, we're now thinking about all that. Probably more beds and maybe even a little pond/pool.
John has begun to interfere in what had previously been my "turf," but I've decided that if it results in progress, and I have input, at the end of the day I'm not complaining!
With age comes wisdom.
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