Power gardening
My townhouse has a small backyard. I ignored it for the first year I lived here, which meant that everything the previous residents had there — a few random plants and a lot of grass — either grew or died as it felt like. By early July of this year, I had my own little jungle out there.
That’s when I decided I’d like to be able to walk from one back door to the other and therefore things had to change. And if I was going to tear up some of it, why not tear up the whole thing, put in some of my own plants, and put a little bit of effort into not killing them? Actually having them grow well would be a bonus.
A couple weeks ago, Adrienne was up here and picked out two king bougainvilleas for me. I’d cleared out enough space to plant one of them, so we put that one in and I figured I’d dig up the plant in the back corner to create the hole for the other one.
One thing led to another and I didn’t get around to attacking that other plant till this past Friday night. After a few hours of digging, I finally got it out on Sunday afternoon…but not before discovering that right below it was some sort of large object. Additional digging ensued and I realized it was a log.
Well, I couldn’t very well plant my bougainvillea directly over a log, could I? Maybe I could…I wouldn’t know these things, considering that my entire knowledge of gardening theory is “water + sun + soil = green stuff and sometimes pretty stuff in other colors”. But I know I’d feel bad for the poor bougainvillea, valiantly struggling to survive with the Underground Log of Pure Evil in the way.
I kept digging. Finally, tonight, after many hours of digging during which I often felt like I was on an archeology expedition trying to unearth treasures, I got it out. The whole thing was lying sideways over a foot deep in the ground, about six inches in diameter, and more than two and a half feet long. (And hollow, which seems weird. Do buried logs break down from the inside?) That might not sound big, but when all you have for gardening tools are a spade and a shovel and the only water that’s gone into the soil in the past few months is what you put in there to soften it up enough to take out the single plant you thought was there, well, it feels big.
Anyway, to the next person who tells me that I don’t exercise enough, I’m going to tell them I do power gardening on a regular basis. Man, am I sore. There’d better not be any other logs in the rest of the backyard.
Marc Said,
August 16, 2005 @ 9:39 am
Your homeowners association doesn’t do the landscaping?
Eric Said,
August 16, 2005 @ 10:21 am
Homeowners associations do backyards?
I’m not sure what there is here in the way of a homeowner’s association. My landlord’s never told me about one. Presumably they exist because the bushes and trees and whatnot in front of the houses get trimmed, but maybe those are magical auto-trimming bushes and trees.
The backyards are completely blocked off from each other by walls about six feet high and you can’t get through to any backyard without going through each townhouse, so I imagine nobody felt that any sort of community backyard landscaping would’ve worked.
Andy Stopford Said,
August 16, 2005 @ 12:59 pm
The log has most likely been used by some underground critters (woodlice, ants etc) as a home and they have channeled the wood out. If its hollow then chances are its also rottern and you could have dug to expose it and smashed it up with your spade.
You could leave the log in place to rot and provide some goodness into the soil. I would have planted slighly to one side of the log to allow your plants roots to pentrate . I hate to make more work for you but you should now clear as much of the remaining plants that you can. The soil will need working to add some sustance back into it (manure or fertlizer, sun + water + food = healthy plants) and you will need to clear any plants you don’t want (which will take the goodness from the soil) and any weeds.
If you want to leave the plants in place then trim them back. Most plants at this time of year won’t mind being lightly trimmed and some plants can be cut right back when they finished (best to check what you have before you do this). I would pick on plants that have flowered and are either trying to fruit or seed as this marks a good time for a plant to be trimmed (unless you want more plants from the seed).
I keep a gardening blog http://gardenfan.blogger.com
Michael Rawdon Said,
August 16, 2005 @ 8:47 pm
Homeowners associations typically only take care of the full common areas. Anything outside but fenced in so that it’s only accessible from your unit are typically “limited common areas”. In my complex this means the complex owns (and is responsible for) the fence, and that you’re somewhat restricted in what you can put in your yard (e.g., no big plastic giraffes), but otherwise, you’re responsible for it.
That’s almost certainly the situation in Eric’s yard.
The dirt in my yard is too hard to grow anything other than hardy California plants and groundcover. Or so I think - I do have both a rose bush and some grape vines growing in it. But boy, it sure is hard to dig into, and my alyssum isn’t doing so good.
I shudder to think how much effort the previous owner went to to put in my pond.
My copy of the Sunset Western Garden Book tells me that bougainvilleas like full sun, moderate to regular water, and that they’re sensitive to transplanting. Also that as they grow you’ll probably need to stake them.