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| A snow covered garden and yard to welcome 2020 |
Here's hoping for a happy 2020. We will see what this year brings for us in life overall.
But... we have excellent plans for a busy year in the yard and garden in 2020!
My highest priority project for 2020 is buckthorn removal from our woods. There is so much of it!! We did get one quote from a buckthorn removal/tree trimming company last year which I think was for $600 for removal of the buckthorn from our property plus cutting down one tree limb that is overhanging the fence. I knew I could do the buckthorn removal myself rather than paying that! We will have to see how many weekends it takes us this spring but I know it is doable.
1) Buckthorn removal - starting in April or when the snow melts!
I have stump killer to paint on the stumps once we do the chopping, and have also been saving up black baggies which I read can be affixed onto the newly cut stump to prevent regrowth.
2) Ordering dirt and possibly rocks to fill in the gully that is forming in the backyard from water running off a back street. We definitely need to do the small gully that is developing in the grassy portion of our lawn this year. The gully in the woods portion is huge and will take a lot of dirt and rock. Mike thinks we should use rock... I think we should use dirt... we shall see what we end up using, likely a mixture!
We also have quite a few other small holes around the yard which we need to fill in with dirt, and some bare patches that could use some grass seed.
3) Garlic mustard removal - this will be an ongoing battle for years I expect but my goal is to get the buckthorn and garlic mustard out and plant some native Minnesotan wildflowers in the woods instead. I have so many orange daylilies around in places I don't want though, so I will also plant these in spots in the woods as well since I have so many to use up! I would love some walking paths through what is now a buckthorn thicket.
4) Finish garden fence. The fence is up thanks to Mike and his dad's excellent work but I need to cut a piece of the wire mesh to cover the current fencing in the gate, which has holes large enough that young rabbits can leap through! This summer the smaller rabbits found their way right into our garden for their lunch buffet. We also need to connect the top of the fence to the wire cords at the top to help keep the mesh fence holding its shape.
5) Call TruGreen back to help us with our creeping charlie problem. I think we have more creeping charlie than grass at this point in the backyard. We have kept the dandelions at bay the past 2 years but the creeping charlie has won the battle.
6) Call a tree trimming company to cut the limb that is overhanging our dog run fence as well as cut down one tree that is growing out at an angle and shading my garden!
7) Move out the excess raspberry plants and all of the daylilies which we have now fenced into the increased garden space. This is a big job!!! I should have done this when we first fenced in the extra area for the garden but never got around to it. I think this will probably take a good 4-5 weekends worth of work as now the raspberries and daylilies have been growing unchecked without rabbits to mow them down... so there are a lot to move.
I was thinking that I would move the extra raspberries back to the furthest portion of our backyard and create a line of raspberry shoots there which I will stake up and try to keep orderly. I would have to fence them at least from rabbits but chicken wire should do that job.
I would like to move the daylilies to the edge of the woods where we should have a lot more sunlight after removal of all that buckthorn. I think it will also keep the garlic mustard at bay too having the orange daylilies there as a groundcover.
Then once all this is out of the garden, or the raspberries are tamed back into more order, I will have more fenced in garden space in which to plant!
8) Make some order of the remaining raspberries in the garden.
I love having that raspberry thicket enclosed in the garden for those 2 delicious weeks of raspberry picking and eating. But I really want to try to control the thicket. I want to try to train the plants into rows similar to how we train the tomatoes with wire or twine between fence posts at either end of a row.
9) Move out the excess strawberries from the garden.
The strawberry patch has thrived in the garden! As of fall, it is now spreading well beyond its border and runners are now in the asparagus section and in the main garden section. I think I will move these to use as a groundcover edging the fence along the dog run fence. I don't know how they will work there but I think it is worth a shot.
10) Do the regular garden planting and preparation!
Here's hoping for better luck with my zucchini this year. I also want to try beets this year.
11) Clean the back garden shed exterior and wash all the mildew off the siding.
12) Enclose my mint with a small fence. I have some decorative fencing about a foot tall or so which I think would work well. I want to mark the area so when Trugreen does come to spray their chemicals they do not spray it on my patch of mint. This mint was in my grandmother's yard in Nebraska, and she dug this up for me maybe 5 years ago. I planted it initially at Mike's parents' house and then transplanted it here after we bought this place! It has survived but not really thrived as I expected mint to do. I expected to be having to keep it in check which has not been the case at all. Maybe with some more sun without some of the buckthorn shade it will do better. I am looking forward to learning how to dry mint leaves to make tea!
13) Repair rotted wood in upper garden shed and repaint it.
I do not actually think this will get done in 2020. Mainly because repairing rotted wood is something neither Mike or I know how to do. I did nail a board over a hole in the back of the shed where animals had gnawed through and were coming in to make their homes, so that was a (very very small) start. But hopefully in 2021 we can patch all the rotted or otherwise bad wood and get this shed in much better shape. The repainting I can definitely do. Hopefully we can learn how to do the wood repairs. I look at people's pretty garden sheds when I walk Maximus through the neighborhood and have taken pictures of the best looking sheds I've seen as ideas for ours. I think it will be impossible to get that shed to stop smelling like mouse though. :(
14) Clean the trash out of the woods.
We have slowly been doing this since we bought the house but there are still some piles of old pallets, chicken wire, wood pieces and other misc trash that has spread through the woods. The farthest part of the woods has the most trash. The neighbor's trash from an old shed full of trash on the edge of their property (now recently removed) has dispersed itself through the woods, including into our property. And it looked like people had an area in the woods where they would sit and drink beer and have a campfire in years past. We have carried out some of the beer cans and trash from that area, including a mini-fridge that was left there for some reason! But there is more to go. It would be nice to get this finished this year.
15) Mark our property lines with logs as fences.
Unfortunately one property corner marker from our land survey got ripped up when our neighbors took out that old shed full of trash I mentioned! Mike and I spent some time last fall back there with metal detectors to try to find the metal stake which should have been buried at that property corner but had no luck finding it. We found plenty of other buried metal trash, old nails, wires, etc in that area but even despite the many false positives, we could not find that buried stake.
But, once we get the woods all cleaned up, my idea is to drag some of the many logs laying around to form a sort of a "fence" or property line marker. It would not be exact given that we can't find that one property corner marker, but our best guess. Hopefully this should dissuade neighbors' trash from finding its way onto our property and avoid future beer drinking parties using our woods.
16) Move the daylilies out of the dog run.
Finally one that is quick and easy!
17) Move the daylilies from the garden bed behind the garage.
Another job which will likely have to wait until 2021 given the number of other more important things we want to get done this year. But if by chance I have spare time ;) I want to dig up that entire bed of orange daylilies and plant a new garden bed there. It is a large bed which faces east and gets great sun. It would be perfect spot for a perennial bed of flowers I like more than those orange daylilies. As with the mass of daylilies in the garden, I plan to move these to the sunny edges of the woods. I haven't made a garden design of what I want to plant there but I know I want a row of tall flowers like a hollyhock or delphinium at the back edge along the garage. And I would likely put a couple peonies somewhere in the bed. But, step one would be to dig up the daylilies and transplant them elsewhere, and then put some cardboard or something else down to kill remaining weeds until I plant the bed.
18) Pull up the black plastic and remove the rocks around the tree at the corner of the front yard.
This is another thing I meant to do last year. Once I get these up, I want to plant a shade garden under that tree. I imagine it will be better for the tree to not have that black plastic smothering its roots, I would think! I want to move some extra hostas under here from other areas of hostas I have that need dividing. And there is already a bleeding heart which I planted under here which has so far done great and which I love! It is right in the front yard and a perfect spot for a beautiful deep shade garden.
19) Clean up the north side of the house by the air conditioner. I want to dig up the ferns from this area and weed out the thistles from along the house here. I planted one azalea here 2 years ago, and I would like to add another. Mainly I want to get this side of the house looking better so the neighbors on that side like us more. :) I will weed this garden bed, move the ferns to the woods, and mulch.
20) Trim the yew hedge in the front yard in front of our bedroom window. I might need Mike's longer arms for this job. Or better clippers. I tried to trim this beast last summer and did make some headway but it still looks overgrown and untidy. We will work on it.
21) Prune the 4 small apple and cherry trees I planted. I planted 3 of these trees in 2016. I really should have pruned them by now but every March I think about trying it and talk myself out of it because I don't know how to do it. My goal is that this spring I will at least thin out the branches even if I don't know how to create a "central leader" and "scaffold" branches like I read about.
22) Finally put together that archway for the gate in the dog run. I might have lost some pieces by now so maybe I can't even do this! This was another project I started last year and didn't finish. Or possibly even the year before?! This is another project to get finished in spring as soon as the snow melts... no more procrastination! I have the William Baffin climbing roses planted and in position to start their climb over the arbor if I ever get it put together.
23) Try starting peony seeds. I saved seeds from my (possibly Sarah Bernhardt?) peony this fall and I am curious if I can get them to germinate. It is not really that I want too many more peonies of this variety, as it definitely flops over and needs a peony ring, but I just would love to learn how to do this! I think for future peony purchases, I am going to make sure to look for peony varieties with stronger stems that don't need as much support.
Hopefully I can accomplish at least some of these 23 goals next year!!
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| The lilac tree covered with snow in the garden |
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