It's Time To Dance Again

I ended this blog a couple of years ago, and lately have been nagged by family and friends to start it up again. I've been thinking about this for a couple of months wondering what in the world I would write about. "Tell more childhood stories," one of my daughters said. I could do that, but at this moment it doesn't interest me. I know that for others it might seem that writing about growing up near a Florida beach in the 1950s would be something worth penning ... and it might be. However, after careful consideration I have decided, for now, to travel down a different path.

At the end of spring semester 2009, I left North Carolina for good, choosing to retire and return to Blacksburg. My second retirement under my belt, I decided to sell my Blacksburg townhouse--one that I loved and could have lived in happily forever--and move to the back of my subdivision into a single family home. Where I now live is so quiet and peaceful that it fills my heart with gladness every single day. From my deck I can see the farm next door and sit and watch the horses and cows.

My subdivision is an older one, established in the early 1970s. Last year the section where I live, Stroubles Mill, was voted the best neighborhood in the entire New River Valley. That includes all of Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Price's Fork, Lafayette, Ironto, Riner, Shawsville, Elliston, Longshop, McCoy, Norris Run, Indian Run, Luster's Gate, Fairlawn, Radford, Catawba Valley, Dublin, Pulaski, and probably more places I can't think of at the moment. It truly is beautiful, my neighborhood. Huge old oaks tower throughout, and most residents spend time landscaping their property to add to the beauty. So, that is what this blog initially will be about. It will detail my quest to make my new property as captivating as the property I sold, the one where I won a town beautification award. This will be my personal diary for how I transform my yard and its beds. I expect the landscaping project to encompass many years, but every garden begins with the first shovelful of dirt.

My house, built about 1984, has had several owners. Two owners ago, an impressive amount of gardening and landscaping was done. The previous owner--the one from whom I purchased the house--had several (six?) children and needed grass for play areas. So, some of the beds that had been put in were removed and grassed over. Probably, that is of benefit to me because the property is almost half an acre, a lot to maintain. I decided to begin by focusing on what is closest to the house, the front beds that stretch across the font, interrupted only by the small porch at the front door, and the side beds. There were pitiful shrubs that the former own installed to help sell the house. I removed them and then worked to get out all of the vinca. I should clarify that I am not doing this project alone as Paul is the muscles behind much of the work. It took a couple of hours to rip out the vinca as it was thick and exceptionally well established. Early we had agreed that a small gasoline powered tiller would help immensely and would pay off in the long run because of the size of the property. After the vinca and scrubby shrubs came out, Paul tilled the beds. I was pleased to see that the dirt is fairly good.

Last fall, I had a landscaping service remove three huge evergreen trees that were smack against the house on the side of the garage. Already taller than the roof, they were only one-third their size when fully grown. This left a huge bare place that is partly shady, so I figured it would be a good idea to use that space for a bed of shade loving perennials. It was filled with English ivy, so much so that some of the ivy was crawling up the brick work. Knowing how invasive ivy can be and how much damage it can do to bricks, I arranged for a teenage boy to remove it. His fee was $15, money well spent. However, before he could complete the job, my dear neighbor did it for me while I was out of town. Paul tilled this, too, and here we found some of the richest soil I have ever seen.

There are overgrown tree-like shrubs that need to be cut back, including a crepe myrtle, but that will have to wait until this fall. A man at the nursery said it is already too late to do that. Besides, the town stopped monthly pickup of yard debris for economic reasons and now only provide this service in the fall. Disposing of piles of brush is almost impossible at other times. So, fall it will be.

Planning gardens is something I love and hate. I agonized all winter about what to do, but when the seed and plant catalogs began rolling in, I was quickly able to devise a plan. Everything about me and my way of doing things is eclectic. I'm not a formal person so I'm not keen on formal gardens. I tend to buy things I like, then stick them in the ground and lovingly tend to them, adding here and there as needed. My favorite thing to do is to go out early in the evening EVERY DAY and deadhead and pull weeds, and I love to water my plants. There is something about this whole process that is peaceful and rewarding.

I choose perennials mainly because they return each year and you only pay for them once. I'm not sure yet if I will fill in with annuals. It will depend on a variety of factors. My ultimate goal is to have the kind of flower beds that bring me joy when I pull into my driveway. I've also defined the other places I plan to work on this year. Rome wasn't built in a day, so I'll begin with what I can manage now:

1. Two front beds
2. Two side beds (along the sides of the house)
3. The huge clump of monkey grass at the end of the driveway
4. Two existing beds in the back of the house that need work.

Tomorrow I will post pictures of where things stand as of today. Bear in mind that this will be a work in progress for many years.