The danger of buying myself thinking time at our secluded cabin is that my mind\u00a0runs amok with ideas I want to pursue with little reasonable thought given to my capacity to complete these projects.\u00a0 One thing is for certain, though\u2014I am ready to recreate our entire front yard and parking strip.\u00a0 To make it seem more plausible, I\u2019m breaking the parking strip down into its own project.<\/p>\n
I estimate that the parking strip in question is about eight feet wide and sixty feet long.\u00a0 I\u2019m estimating because I\u2019m at the cabin and don\u2019t have access to it now\u2014only in my mind\u2019s eye.\u00a0 I found out that some gardeners refer to parking strips as \u201chell strips,\u201d which seems appropriate.\u00a0 Ours currently only features bad grass, dandelions, and the water meter\/shutoff valve.\u00a0 I only use it to for placing the garbage, recycling, and yard waste containers for pick up.\u00a0 So, it is a hideous waste of 480 square feet of what could be a\u00a0colorful garden.<\/p>\n
An eight-foot long, eight-foot wide patio to accommodate the waste containers and make the water valve accessible will be built first.\u00a0 I don\u2019t see this being particularly challenging\u2014I just need to root out the sod and make the ground level before putting the bricks down.<\/p>\n
The strip is too public to be useful for food production and dogs do their business there every day\u2014another factor in looking more toward aesthetics and less to food production.\u00a0 So, my idea is to turn it into a long perennial border.\u00a0 24\u201d edges on the street and house side will feature ground hugging mats of plants so as not to interfere with parking cars or the walking neighbors\/dogs.\u00a0 The center strip will feature taller perennials of varied heights, colors, and bloom times.\u00a0 This is the south side of the house, so gets a LOT of sunshine and should be a great place to grow sun-loving flowering plants.<\/p>\n
For the low-growing edges, I plan to use the following:<\/p>\n
For the middle of the bed, I plan to add:<\/p>\n
This will be a full-year project, to end in April 2018, featuring the following steps:<\/p>\n
The danger of buying myself thinking time at our secluded cabin is that my mind\u00a0runs amok with ideas I want to pursue with little reasonable thought given to my capacity to complete these projects.\u00a0 One thing is for certain, though\u2014I am ready to recreate our entire front yard and parking strip.\u00a0 To make it seem … Continue reading From Hell Strip to Heavenly Strip<\/span>