I have decided to return to writing The Enabled Gardener after a year's break. This year brought two major changes in my life. First, I've lost the freedom of driving - something that is really difficult for a passionate plant collector. As a result, I can PROUDLY tell you that 90% of my garden was mail-ordered this year. I'll be sharing some of my mail-order experiences with you - both the good results and the bad results. Secondly, I had to move from a two-bedroom, 3-story (with basement) townehouse to a 1 story, 1-bedroom townehouses for medical reasons. This meant starting my gardens over completely! My new gardening focus is for full sun versus nearly full shade. Because of this change in garden orientation, much of my prior garden was distributed among friends and neighbors. It was a difficult but necessary accomplishment. I'm still working on "organizing" my townehouse. Have you ever tried squeezing 3 floors of furniture into 1 floor? If so, I'm sure you will understand why I am still working on this problem nearly a year later.
Since making my move last August, I've totally redesigned my gardens. First, I put in a 90 square foot shrub border (with a few perennials) along the side. This had to be blocked in with white cement blocks to keep our local weed-wackers from destroying my plants. Then, the cement blocks decided to sink down through the little topsoil I had to sit on the "hardpan clay". I am putting up a fence, 1 foot from the blocks, to make sure my precious plants aren't destroyed by weed wackers. I also added a "raised bed" made of 40 gallon storage containers next to my back porch. This garden is also blocked in with cement blocks just so the lawnmower and weed-wacker people KNOW that this is a garden! My front yard is also blocked in with large cement blocks for reasons mentioned earlier. This bed combines perennials with bulbs and a few annuals to add season long color. I also have trough gardens sitting on the rock border to the garden on the side of the porch. My friend and son combined their efforts to build me a 6-feet long x 1 foot deep x 1 foot wide flowerbox to hang under my front window. This appeared on my house on Mother's day. I bought the materials but was delighted to have the actual work done by my friend and son.
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