Gardeners are hard to satisfy sometimes. I put in all new gardens this year surrounding a townehouse. Two months after finishing the plantings, I am still unhappy with the way things look! Therefore, I have arranged to have a "teenage" gardener come over and help me redo the gardens in about 10 days (after he comes home from family vacation).
This got me to thinking. I wonder how many times those people we hold in high esteem as garden designers have torn up their gardens and redone them? Surely I am not the only person doing this in mid-season.
Problems in Garden & Potential Solutions
- Front garden bed has a "hole" in the middle where none of the plants are showing from the street because they have remained too small to be seen. Some of these plants should be flowering now. Others may need 2 years to adjust to the new garden. Solution: Move the plants to front of the border until next year. Then, I will see if they need to be adjusted again to make them blend in with the garden better.
- Need path to reach new flower box. Path was designed to go from front of garden but it looks awkward. Solution: Try making patio block path from porch to flower box.
- Shade garden was planted in cement block border and in large storage containers. It came out looking terrible. Solution: Give away more of the shade garden plants to reserve adequate space for my primrose collection. Create two "square foot" gardens using cement blocks. Put the "special" plants in the ground. Use the holes in the cement blocks to hold annual plants like impatiens, begonias and others to add summer color after the primroses and woodland wildflowers stop flowering.
- Raking has become painful because of back condition. Solution: use new ergonomic rake which allows me to pull stuff towards me instead of raking it to my side which requires twisting in an uncomfortable way.
- Rain is very unpredictable this year. It either stays dry or days or we get ½ to 1 inch of rain in just a few minutes. Solution: Purchased "weeping hoses" made from recycled tires to put down through the front perennial border and the side shrub border. These do not spray water into the air and can be covered with mulch.
Gardeners:
Please consider posting your frustrations here so we can brainstorm some possible solutions together.
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