I'm a single young professional and I recently bought a house with a nice backyard from a little old widow. She took great pride in her flower garden, so with the house I got a very nice, well taken care of flower garden. It's about 40 feet long and about 3 feet deep. I'll give her credit that it was very well planned. It seems like no matter what time of the year, something is always in bloom. Everything is a perennial so I never have to replant.
The problem is that I don't want it. I think it's great when it's well kept, but it's not something I'm going to invest the time in. I tried last year and it got away from me. I tried to make a better effort this year and it's going better, but this won't last. It's not my passion and I'm not going to take the time to keep it how it needs to be. It isn't an interest of mine (or my fiance's) so I don't know what to do.
The way I see it, I have 2 options.
1 - Spend more time on it. I tried this and it isn't going to happen.
2 - Till the whole thing under and plant grass. I hate this option and that's why I haven't done it yet. There is so much time, thought, and money that went into the garden.
Am I missing something? Is there a 3rd option? I don't know what I don't know. I wanted to send out one last feeler for information before the flower garden is gone for good.
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what-to-do
- Newly Registered
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- Joined: Sat Jul 13, 2013 11:48 am
if you can't spare the time, it's obviously doomed. you could hire a gardener,....
to quote a little green guy: "Do or do not, there is no try."
if there's a garden club / group in the area someone may be interesting in digging up all-some-few of the plantings before you do it in.
it would appear most / all (?) of the flowers are established perennials - since you didn't plant any - these transplant reasonably well, but mid summer is not the time for that.
to quote a little green guy: "Do or do not, there is no try."
if there's a garden club / group in the area someone may be interesting in digging up all-some-few of the plantings before you do it in.
it would appear most / all (?) of the flowers are established perennials - since you didn't plant any - these transplant reasonably well, but mid summer is not the time for that.
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rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
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- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
I appreciate your dilemma & that you didn't just rip it out immediately. My suggestion would be to work on making it more self maintaining. Take out some of the plants, keeping only the hardiest. Replace some with a couple nice flowering shrubs which fill in a lot of space while needing hardly any care. Leave more empty space between plants and mulch it heavily. It will need a lot less watering and weeding that way and still will look very nice and maintain the previous owners spirit.
Picking up on one of the other suggestions, if you mix a few herbs in to the flower bed, it can be very ornamental, provide you with herbs and help keep bugs away from your flowers .
Picking up on one of the other suggestions, if you mix a few herbs in to the flower bed, it can be very ornamental, provide you with herbs and help keep bugs away from your flowers .
If you are not into flowers then make it your own and plant what you like in it. I would not take it out all at once but gradually replace it. There may be some things that are already established and don't need much care at all.
Being people who love plants its' a shame to kill anything, so do try to at least give some of the plants away to people who might appreciate it. You may be able to donate the plants somewhere or if a church or public garden have plant sales they may take donated plants. Your neighbors might want some of the plants and may be willing to come and dig them out. It would be better to wait for fall so that the plants have a better chance to survive.
Being people who love plants its' a shame to kill anything, so do try to at least give some of the plants away to people who might appreciate it. You may be able to donate the plants somewhere or if a church or public garden have plant sales they may take donated plants. Your neighbors might want some of the plants and may be willing to come and dig them out. It would be better to wait for fall so that the plants have a better chance to survive.