Earlier this week I watched a episode of Garden Answer, where Laura asked viewers to submit photos of their skinny side yards. This episode did not disappoint! There was so much inspiration that it finally gave me the courage to tackle our side yard that flanks our driveway. We're working with a few unique challenges. Theres a coal chute access, at it's widest is 5 1/2' and it's most narrow is a meager 16 inches, but we're working an almost 50 foot span. The last 12 feet have a trio of double knockout roses and more monkey grass, plus that's also the area where we park out trash and recycling cans. It's going to be interesting.
This is our blank slate. Lots of monkey grass that's basically a leaf catcher, a tree that will possibly have to come down and some scraps of landscaping fabric that didn't get pulled up last spring. There's bits of old concrete and stepping stones, that could possibly get reused in other areas of the garden, but we're going to clear this out and start from scratch.
After watching Laura's video, I grabbed some paper, colored pencils and a few gardening books to help me plot out my vision for this area. I've got a rough budget in place for all the plants, an trellis and maybe even find a new, larger pot to hold the trellis. There's grasses in the plan, a large summer sweet to anchor the area, lots of hydrangeas, daisies and lavender too. I really can't wait until the garden centers open for the season and I can really spend time outside digging holes and planting all the beautiful things. Proven Winner's Seaside Garden plan was my main inspiration.
I'm going to be extremely flexible with what plants go here, not knowing what will be available this spring. I know that I can't plant any bulbs due to the huge population of squirrels on our street, so no tulips or irises, unless I can find some bulb protection and a hefty dose of Repels All to the East side of our home. I'm also preparing for this large tree to come down and if it does, I'll have a huge pile of wood chips to use. That's the only thing good about a disease-free tree coming down, a large quantity of wood chips.It's going to be fun finding the perfect shrubs and perennials to fill this area and then deck it out with some annuals. I can't wait and the hubs is already hard at work tackling that monkey grass! Here's to dreaming of spring and happily working outside in mid-January while there's no snow or ice!
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