We've been thinking about the future of our back yard and have come to the conclusion that at some point we will want to either remove or scale back the raised vegetable beds. We would probably replace them with a lawn (gasp!). So with that in mind, we took a look at the back fence and decided it needed some spiffying up.
We removed the three compost bins and donated them to the local school garden program. Then we dug up the remaining cotoneaster stump plus some miscellaneous plants and lots of bulbs. We added some compost and fertilizer and then planted new plants. There are two trees (Styrax obassia and Franklinia), a crape myrtle, another Black Tower elderberry, a climbing hydrangea, and a jasmine. We also dug up and moved a physocarpus that was languishing in the shade.
It all looks pretty puny right now, but it should be filling in before too long. I plan to add a few more lower shrubs and maybe another hops next spring.
The next project was to plant three new roses in the bed where melons and squash had been. I'll plant more lilies in the spring.
And finally I planted a manzanita and a grevillea along the south-facing wall of the house, where it gets blistering heat in the summer.
All this was accomplished over three days. We've had almost no rain this summer, so things are bone dry. But rain was on the way, so we got it all done.
