I just found this board and joined yesterday. I live in Ohio, suburb SE of Columbus. We've lived in our current home for 9 and a half years. I've never done much gardening. Too busy raising kids. We're empty nesters now so that's changing and we've got A LOT to learn! So here I am!
We have an acre of land. Some of course taken up by the house, but we have a large back yard surrounded by pine
trees on 3 sides, sort of like a fence. We have 2 large Sycamore
trees out there and one King Crimson Maple. Two very small flowerbeds with Barberry bushes in each. Last year I planted two
roses of Sharon that are doing very well and two weeks ago I planted a Butterfly bush that is also doing great.
Our front yard is also pretty good sized, we have a U shaped concrete drive, there is the middle grassy area between the two driveways and then grass on both sides. We haven't done a lot of landscaping yet. In the back portion of the grassy area we put up a split rail fence several years ago that sort of echoes the shape of the back portion of the U.
growing all along the fence is a Honeysuckle vine that I got from taking cuttings from the grave site of my Great, Great, Great, Great, Great Grandfather! I think that's pretty neat. The vine had completely obliterated his headstone and when I uncovered it, the 130 year old stone was in perfect condition having been protected for many years by the Honeysuckle. The Honeysuckle grows like crazy and if I'm not careful it can get way out of control. But the Hummingbirds love it. There are also some Columbine
growing in the flowerbed beneath the Honeysuckle that I lifted from my mother in laws yard and a couple of
rose bushes that we frankly let get out of shape. We also planted two Flowering Crab Apple
trees in this middle area.
There were 3 huge Bradford Pear
trees on each side of the driveway until this past Decembers ice storms destroyed them. They're a beautiful
tree, but unfortunately not very sturdy. So we are taking them down one by one (hard work!) and replacing them with Maples. We just set the first Maple, a Norway Maple, this past weekend and plan to put in 3 more, 2 on each side as the rest of the Pear
trees come down.
Since the area closest to our front porch is concrete we can't do much landscaping up close to the house. Though we have 4 whiskey barrels at intervals along the front that at present have Red Wave Petunias
growing in them. They look beautiful. We also have 5 hanging baskets of Million Bells on the front porch, along with a planter full of Polka Dot
plants and a couple of wicker baskets of various Coleus and Sweet
potato vine that are doing very well. Each end of the house we have huge Fire Bushes. Along one side of the house we have about 10 Red Canna
plants that are just about to open and the other side of the house is bare.
The front
flower bed has just been widened about 4 feet and we're in the process of preparing the soil for perennials. Haven't quite decided yet which ones that's why I'm checking out sites for information. We just installed a water fountain in the middle of that bed last night. I love the sound of trickling water!
We are also planning to put in two water ponds. One in the middle of the driveway area and another either in the back yard (may not be able to do this because of the leech bed for the septic system) or along the side of the house where nothing is
growing. We also plan a large perennial bed for out back.
We're very excited about all our plans and are enjoying the prep work. I'm sure I'll be asking a lot of questions and from what I can tell...I'm in the right place for some good advice.
Look forward to learning from you all,
Lemon Poppy