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Tuesday, May 29, 2012

A Free Plant is NOT Always a GOOD Thing


Some of you may remember, last year Mr. brought me home a truck load of free plants.
He got them from a co-worker's yard he had done some yard work for.

As soon as he said the word free along with the words Peony and Day lily I said "of course!"

BIG MISTAKE!

Along with these free plants came a very  VERY invasive plant.
VERY
VERY
VERY
invasive plant!


Today I am planting here to make this area look better.
Mr. M. helped in his own non-gardener way.
Round up the BAD PLANT!
Yes it did seem to help, but it did manage to kill a few other plants as well.

I must say, with having more than a dozen huge dead spots in my flower gardens, 
I was about ready to till the whole gardens up and grass it over.
It was so depressing and I felt overwhelmed with it.
Where to start.

It took me almost a month before I would even go into my gardens.
I started with one spot and cleared it away.
OK
Not so bad.
Then I did another.
and
Another.

Until today.
I am almost finished with my spring planting and I have started to mulch and it just makes that ugliness go away.

I am happy.
My gardens are happy.


This spot now has a beautiful white shrub rose to grow and make this area look beautiful again.


Another white shrub rose, lavender, boxwood and some ground covers.

Thankfully I did not put this nasty plant in my new garden I planted last year.

This is an update on the fire pit garden I had put in last year.  
You can see where it started here.



The roses are so beautiful and so many of them.
They smell so good when you take a walk on the path.





This picture is the back of the fire pit garden.  
I am hoping the bushes will grow full and tall and block the driveway view.


This is how the garden looks from the fire pit.
I mulched it and finished the rock border.



I was even graced with foxgloves that grew from last years plants.


I love the purple, pink, green and white.


This is the front of the huge wild rose.



This HUGE rose bush is a wild white rose.
It only blooms once a year in spring.
I dug up some plantings about 5 years ago.
It makes a great climber and is so hardy.
They can be found on almost every ditch along the roads around here.


This is the pool garden.
My favorite shrub rose in a dark pink.


The arbor that leads to the pool.
Wild roses on each side. 
We are going to put lattice on each side of the arbor so I can train the roses to grow up and over each side.


This is what it looks like from my neighbor's side.


This huge maple is only 10 years old.
and
We did not plant it.
I grew from a seed all on it's own.


This is another maple from seed.
Most of the maple trees around our main yard have grown from seed all on their own.
We only move them if we have to and only after they have been given at least two years in the spot where they started growing.


Wild roses on the side arbor.
My cat mint is really starting to fill out.

I still have a lot of mulching to do.
Of course, I may find some new Summer plants that will just fit into my gardens.
There is always more room for a pretty plant.

JUST NOT THE BAD ONES!







7 comments:

  1. You really have a nack for growing the maple trees, don't you! I have a weird vine that keeps coming back no matter what I do to it. I dug up all my plants from those beds, put Roundup down and water 12 months to replant. And it still came back. Hope your bad plants are gone for good!

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  2. Love your gardens and I impressed with the maple you grew from seed!
    Nothing worse than trying to get rid of an invasive plant! I am finally well
    aware of what not to plant when i have a garden of my own again!

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  3. That's it. I'm seriously jealous of your foxglove. I cannot ever get mine to come back. Day lilies: crazy invasive. Peonies... 3 years to bloom if transplanted. Hollyhocks. Another one I desperately try to grow. I'm trying again this year. Your gardens are fabulous. Don't you just love this time of year when everything is fresh and new? fabulous.

    xoxo Jeanne
    bees knees bungalow.

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  4. OH, and last week my husband cut down my climbing rose.. that was about to bloom. Seriously. Speechless.

    xo jeanne.

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  5. Alaina,

    What was the invasive plant? It seems my entire yard is invasive -- it grows from zero to Amazon Jungle in a few spring weeks. I feel your pain but rejoice in our gardens beauty.

    Your Friend,
    Deborah

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  6. Oh alaina you must have been devastated! Free indeed! You poor working soul. You worked endlessly. Does the roundup not kill the new plants? And those trees from seed are amazing!

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  7. Beautiful Alaina! I'm very curious what the invasive plant was...

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