I’d been so busy working on this project I’ve gotten behind on documenting my process.  In my last garden post, I lined out a timeline for this garden, the last two tasks being to purchase plants, plant them, and watch them grow. For the most part that is where I am at.  A month ago I drove our pickup to Bosky Dell Natives and picked up a full load of native plants.  Most of these were selected by the owner, Lory, from looking at my site map and from photographs of the site.  In return for purchasing my plants at her nursery, she gave me a 10% discount and about 3 hours worth of consulting.

A few days later an old friend visited me to help layout the plants.  Ellen and I have botany nerds together back in university days and she was happy to come and give me a hand. It was good she came as it was a big job.  Lory instructed me not to overthink it. Plants in nature meld together with no right or wrong.  It helped to have a friend present as I am a chronic overthinker.

For a few days, I relaxed until a big freeze was in the forecast.  I had to get these plants out of their pots and into the soil fast before they froze.  My friend Deb called me up that morning “Hey do you need help planting all those plants?”  Me “Can you come over NOW?” She did and with her help and Raymond, my spousal equivalent we got 90% in the ground.  The leftovers  I gathered together and covered for protection. 

These plantings are denser than traditional landscape gardening.  The herbaceous plants average a foot apart while the shrubs are a minimum of 3 feet apart.  The idea is to create a continuous groundcover mimicking a natural setting like in a forest or meadow. At maturity, there should be very little weeding

Since then I have been planting the leftovers, some in other areas of the yard.  Raymond and I have gathered more downed wood from a friend’s property to further define the beds. I also have been adding more bricks, branches, and rocks to finish the look. Once I have dug in the borders I will put a layer of pea gravel on the paths to define them and elimate muddy boots.

As the weather warms, some of my not seen transplants are peeking their leaves above the ground.  Every day, I head out the front door to watch the debuts trilliums, camas, false lily of the valley, shooting stars, and a host of others.  From the photos, it looks pretty bare but about 150 plants are waiting to show their stuff

It’s a show that will have no end, my idea of binge-watching.