April Rocks: The Strolling Garden

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It's so close I can barely contain myself. The Last Frost Date for Schoolhouse Rocks is April 21, and Sunday night when I went out to close in the chickens, I heard my first spring peeper. In spite of snow being forecast for this week, I know we've broken the back of winter and gardening season is well under way!

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As tempting as the garden centre is with its displays of pansies and just-a-bit-too-early perennials, I am continuing to practise restraint. Spring is a wonderful time to work on the hardscaping of your garden. The blackflies have yet to make an appearance, the mosquitoes are still stumbling about their kitchens waiting for the coffee to be done, and the plants are still safely tucked into bed. At Schoolhouse Rocks, I finally figured out what to do with a problem area in the yard.

The problem area is planted with mature trees (spruce, yew, maple, birch, poplar), but underplanted with myrtle, common daylilies, goldenrod, pachysandra and another ground cover which wants to move into my house. The problem is that it's so dense it defies anyone who wants to meander through it. It had become my habit to stand at the edge of the space with my weedwacker in hand and weep.

Lacking heavy equipment, I needed some inspiration:

You need to read this book by Evelyn Hadden (Timber Press, 2012)

What I needed to do, I realised as I read Ms. Hadden's lovely book, was to stop thinking of it as a mess, and starts thinking of it as a garden in need of some understanding. And a shovel. And some rocks. A lot of rocks. Hey, use what you've got.

The entrance to the *NEW* Strolling Garden

The problem area needed something to draw you in, and while getting rid of the extraordinarily healthy ground cover is never going to happen in my lifetime, a narrow, winding path is easy for me to keep tidy.

A bench for reading and dreaming.

 Initially, I used a rake to mark where the path should go. After the first bend, I went straight down the slope, but standing back I saw that it was all wrong. Never take a straight path through a garden: the trip is over too quickly. So I added another bend and discovered I had also found a perfect place to put a bench. That gigantic pile of mulch I introduced you to in March still has plenty in it to cover the path.

So now I have a no-mow garden, which I can brighten up with some early bulbs (late ones will never be seen through the daylilies) and some shade-happy shrubs. I will add some hostas and other low-growing perennials to drape languidly over the path, and perhaps experiment with clematis and a few lovely stumps that need dressing up for the summer.

Now for tea and another read-through of that book. I still have half an acre to decide how not to mow.

*More and more homeowners and gardeners are opting for eco-friendly lawn options. Traditional lawns waste water and require fertilisers and pesticides that harm everything they touch. My 'go with what grows' philosophy of gardening turns out not to be laziness at all! For more information, please visit Less Lawn, or the  Lawn Reform Coalition. Another exciting project is the Edible Garden Project, which promotes replacing front yards with front gardens. Check out their inspiring ideas!