The Gardener - Have pruners, will travel...

A few weeks ago my mission was to recapture a garden that for one reason or another had lost most of its plants and purpose. I love this kind of challenge - especially when someone else is footing the bill (ha ha) and gladly tackled the project with gusto. I should admit that I let my friend, whose garden it is, pull out all the weeds first, and it was covered in whatever grows freely down in West Virginia. While she did that, I tackled her 70 year old rose bush and several hours later we were both pleased with our notable progress. At this point, I must admit, we didn't think to take "before" pictures. I guess one just naturally assumes "who wants to see a picture of this mess?" and then when you are finished and it looks great you think "Gee I should have thought to take a picture of Before and After." So you'll have to settle for the after and just know that the before was pretty bad.

as close to a "before" picture as you will get

love this rock

 Since we had a completely empty canvas I decided to work some love into the soil and so the digging took a bit more effort than I had planned, but thankfully dear daughter showed up and did the heavy lifting. We added some nutrients and deterrents to the soil and then planted the perennials. We chose mainly perennials because this garden often goes untended (it is at my friends summer place) so we needed something that would take root and then do its thing for the next several years. I also got the notion to build a rock border on one of the smaller gardens so set about gathering some rocks. Again I got lucky and found a pile of ones already dug up and ready to be hauled. For which I was very thankful because the first rock I found turned out to be a lot bigger than the little part sticking out of the ground. I thought I would find China before that excavation was over.

little rock border

"Mary's rose bush

I tackled the pruning of several other bushes and tress - rhododendrons and a huge lilac bush - nothing was left untouched, and my friend said "We'd better get Mary and her pruners out of here before she starts trimming the clover in the meadow." The first time (several years ago) that I pruned her rose bush she was sure I had killed it and it would never bloom again but the hundreds of buds that have returned every year since have been my saving grace for a "thorough" job. This time around the middle of the bush was dead so I untangled it cane by cane and cut out the dead canes and then wound the branches back together for a more balanced look. At least we can now get to and ring the bell.
I truly hope the garden lasted the hot dry week ahead and was just as cheerful and welcoming for the family reunion as it was when we left it Sunday afternoon. And of course we all hope that it survives for many seasons to come.

"You can ring my bell"