Getting Rooted this Weekend

(Inspiration Garden)

I love gardening, in fact, this blog was started as a gardening blog, hence the "niagaranovice" headline. When we moved to the North East, I found gardening to be a fun and worthwhile hobby, and quickly moved to put my private gardens together. I learned that it was a process, a lengthy process, but that watching something grow from a bulb or seed was the most rewarding feeling - and it kept me motivated to keep planting.

Last year, we, "Margaret", Scott, and I, put together a garden walk for our street to showcase the handy work of our green thumbed neighbors. It was a huge success. In the process, I nearly broke my back adding ornamental grasses, trees, shrubs, and flowers to over 100 sq. feet of new garden space. It was quite a project, but one that payed off triple fold once everything grew in. My end of the year tent party was centered in the garden, and though the tent was quite nice, the flowers and scents were truly magical.

So this past weekend, when I came across bulbs and seeds for new flowers I wanted for Garden Walk 2009, I couldn't help to buy just a few:

The addition of yellow perennials are my biggest change this year. Last year, the garden was a wash of white and purple, with variations of green thrown in. I loved the overall feel of the garden, but I wanted something with a bit more brightness, so yellow it was. Two varieties of Dahlias in soft butter yellow, and golden rod with white will be the perfect addition to the garden, along with wildflowers like shasta daisy, black eyed susan, and coreopsys.

The flowers I purchased last year will stay, and hopefully have reseeded themselves to make for a more impressive lot. Other plants, like my wine and roses wiegela bush, dwarf alberta spruce, burning bush, decorative and ornamental grasses, liatris, russian sage, and lavender will also stay in the garden, adding those purple hues that I think will really help the white and yellow pop.

Of course, there is also the back breaking addition of the reclaimed brick patio and pergola. The goal is to start this in mid May when the ground has thawed enough to set the posts in concrete, and begin the clearing of the area for weed tarp, gravel and sand, then the crowning jewel - the beautiful brick.

Look forward to more garden posts, and more interesting garden topics as we move forward into spring and summer!