Raised Garden

When I first laid out my plans for our yard in 2004 I planned a small space near the back door for a herb garden. I thought I'd grow the herbs I used the most in cooking. The rest of the yard was landscaped first to mask the buffer area & road running at back of our property line and then to give us something nice to look at in the backyard while enjoying the nice weather of extended spring and fall in the lowcountry. But gradually I decided I wanted to grow a few tomatoes, then some pepper,leaf lettuce, radishes, and even a little spinach. Now all these things won't fit in the space of the herb garden so what to do? There just really wasn't enough room to add a bed and I didn't really want to clear out a planting bed to put in vegetables. Then I noticed that the area where our willow tree once stood was fairly sunny. So I asked Jim to build me a small 4' X 4' raised bed. This fall I'm going to experiment raising few cool season vegetables like red, and green leaf lettuce, spinach, radishes, and more dill and parsley in this spot. I'm also starting a few flowers like hollyhocks and foxglove in the raised bed. If it isn't a sucess the raised bed can be moved in the spring to a new spot.

A Garden Pond

I haven’t forgotten about writing but have been very distracted taking care of a new puppy. This got me to wondering if this new lab puppy will be as fascinated by our pond as our older lab was when we first built our pond. I had wanted a pond for many years and my husband finally got on board and we put in a pond and waterfall using a pre-formed shell in April 2005. Here is some of the things we learned building our pond. First build a pond about twice the size you think you want! As soon as we were finished we wished we had made ours bigger. Second a waterfall will help mask traffic noise but only if you put it close enough to your sitting area. We put our pond near the back of our yard so we could see it better but this makes it harder to hear the cascade. Third I’d reconsidered the waterfall because we have made the waterfall over several times for different reasons. We had tree roots grow into the waterfall and suck water from the pool, the “Hill” created for the waterfall weir sunk over time twice. I think I’d skip the waterfall if we built another in this yard. Our yard is so flat it was a challenge to make it “blend” into the landscape. Fourth A small pond needs more maintenance than a larger one so invest in a UV filter to help control algae. Our first year we battled algae growth constantly and bought the UV filter the second year and wow what a difference!

Over the years this waterfall has been home to Comet fish; a hardy Goldfish type that is suitable for cold-water aquariums and garden ponds, assorted frogs, and the flagstones with crevices are homes to many cold-blooded wildlife like skinks and lizards. But best of all the sound attracts birds to the yard that are looking for water. Then they discover food from feeders and plants and places to nest. We also get the occasional opossum drinking from the pond and fish eating birds have found a meal of Comet fish once or twice. Our older Lab Lucy used to try and swim in the pond until plants took over some of the space. Overall we enjoy the pond and would build it again.

2006-Present

Not everything has gone as planned in my yard. Some plants struggled and had to be replace while others took off and out grew the spot they were planted and were moved or removed from my garden. One thing I would have done differently if I could go back would be how we went about putting in our kidney shaped planting bed. We killed the grass then used a tiller to turn the soil…BIG mistake. This allowed weed seeds to germinate and Nut Grass went crazy, first in the new bed then spread to the rest of the yard! To this day I am fighting Nut Grass.

I wish I had worked the large bed the way I did the beds that are along the fence. I did my own version of Lasagna Gardening before I knew it had a name. I used 6 layers of newspapers to cover the grass, then added compost and garden soil and covered with mulch. I waited for 6-8 months then planted my shrubs. A true lasagna garden would have used more organic materials in alternate layers of “browns” like fall leaves and “greens” like grass clippings and ended up about 2 feet tall. This material shrinks down quickly in just a few weeks.


If you are wondering what a Lasagna gardening is: it is a no-dig, no-till organic gardening method that results in rich, fluffy soil with very little work from the gardener. The name "lasagna gardening" has nothing to do with what you'll be growing in this garden. It refers to the method of building the garden, which is, essentially, adding layers of organic materials that will “cook down” over time, resulting in rich, fluffy soil that will help your plants thrive. Also known as “sheet composting,” lasagna gardening is great for the environment, because you're using your yard and kitchen waste and essentially composting it in place to make a new garden. Want more on this great new gardening method? Check out the link. http://ourgardengang.tripod.com/lasagna_gardening.htm

December 2005

December is a time for resting for most gardeners even in the south. But planning is a big part of gardening so time not spent deadheading and weeding the garden can be spent refining and adjusting previous plans. But there are still things going on in a winter garden. Osmanthus and Camellia still bloom!

September, October & November

I was able to dig, divide and replant some of my perennials in September. Daylilies, Shasta Daisies and Coreopsis and Coneflower were just a few. In October I was busy planting spring flowering bulbs, tulips, daffodils, crocuses and grape hyacinths. November I started to see a little sign of fall with the changing colors of my maple trees, berries on my Beautyberries and my first ever Camellia bloom. I thinned and transplanted seedlings into pots to plant next spring and took cuttings of coleus, begonia and geranium.

June, July & August 2005

Our first summer in our house and our yard was already becoming a habitat not only for birds, butterflies, lizards but also a nice place to hang out. I was busy planting perennials in June, deadheading in July and keeping everything watered in August.

May 2005

Flowers and shrubs took off in my yard during May. Hydrangeas bloomed and for the first time so did my Little Gem Magnolia. It was nice to see flowers filling in my new beds. I still did not have much afternoon shade in the backyard at this time so I could only plant shade loving plants along the back of the house where shade was provided by the second story around 2 pm. My hydrangeas didn’t seem to mind this or did my elephant ears or impatiens. We mulched the new front flowerbed and planted a small Maple tree. I decorated the porch forMemorial Day and put out a flag for our son who was serving on the USS Carr in the Persian Gulf.

April 2005

One thing about living in the Coastal South is that it has a wonderfully long growing season and my landscape was already beginning to fill in with the warming of the weather. Imagine my surprise one day while I was watering plants on my screen porch and a Hummingbird came right up to the screen and hummed at me. I had not planned to put out a hummingbird feeder until much later in the year. But I ran inside and found my feeder, made some food from sugar and water and hung it right outside the patio. I was already reaping results from making my yard into a habitat! I had much enjoyment watching my Bluebirds raise 3 broods of chicks and the Hummingbirds protect his territory from others from spring through the end of summer!

March 2005

I joined the National Wildlife Federation Backyard Wildlife Habitat Program and started to landscape my yard to provide Food, Water, places for birds to nest and cover for them to raise young. Since I didn’t have trees for nesting I installed a Bluebird house and it was immediately occupied. This pleasantly surprised me because I thought my yard was so unwelcoming to wildlife! I continued to plant, adding Caroline Jessamine in front of the garden shed. I also started planting hydrangeas hoping to someday have some as gorgeous as my grandmother’s. While shopping at Home Depot one weekend in March my husband said, “Let’s build a pond!” I didn’t argue because I had wanted one for each of the last two yards. I’d heard the sound of water would attract more birds so was happy to add this to the yard. Actually it was in my original plan for the backyard that was submitted to the homeowners association before we even moved in but didn’t know then it would ever get built.

December 2004 - February 2005

I began working on this new yard in December! I knew this was a good time to plant my trees. Maple trees were added to the two lone pines and one tiny oak the developer left at the edge of the backyard. That first winter I also planted four Osmanthus fragrans, a lovely evergreen with deliciously fragrant flowers that was highly recommended by our Tri-County Extension agent. With my husband’s help I relocated the one tree in the front yard, a crepe myrtle off to the side of the front porch and planted a “Little Gem” Magnolia in a newly created mulched planting bed in the front yard. Some curving flowerbeds were also to the front yard in January. The Osmanthus and Magnolia would provide some green color that this Florida transplant would need in the winter!