In early February, I created the path from coffee bags and my beloved took on the thankless task of shoveling gravel from the nearby path over here (trust me, there was gravel like 10" deep) to create this new one going to the gate leading to our alley. It was so needed, as the path on the side of the garden led to...nowhere. I'm not a huge fan of gravel, but it was free and we needed something to get us from here to there that also provided drainage and a way to walk out to the alley without getting too mucky in the winter. And with a little curve, it didn't cut the yard in half but added some meander to a square landscape...and begged for some plants to help surround it and emphasizes those curves.
February July
The top half (nearest the gate) has been a roaring success. Ten rose bushes along with exploding blooms of red and white valerian, cornflower and poppies have embraced the path, and there are still dahlias waiting in the wings to come up in a few weeks' time.
The bottom half is still developing, as you can see, as the crazy spring we had really challenged the plantings and put everything in slo-mo. On the left there are hollyhocks, a ton of cardinal flowers (the dark purple-leafed ones that create a secondary pathway), daphne and cape lilies that are above the already-bloomed irises, the latter three which are meant for the wetter soil that they are subject to from winter through spring in our neck of the woods due to the small slope they are on, and so in their first year I'm just emotionally rooting them on to establish themselves. Oh yes and for about five seconds we had our Salish Peach planted on the left side of the path...until spring rains proved that it'd be dead if we didn't bring it to higher ground, so it's now where the Snow Gum (RIP) once was, near the gate on the right hand side (where it made a fantastic recovery, wheee!).
Still, there is work to do. I want more roses now that these ten have been so phenomenally successful, I want to figure out what to do on the grassy side of the path, and time will tell if the cape lilies will get their sh*t together and grow the 3'+ they promised to on the tag. With clay soil, it can be a bit of a crapshoot even when you add lots of good stuff to it when planting, so we shall see.
But one thing I do know? It's a helluva start...
"Gardening is something you learn by doing – and by making mistakes.Like cooking, gardening is a constant process of experimentation, repeating the successes and throwing out the failures." ~ Carol Stocker
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