Virginia Land Scaping & Journal
Landscaping in Virginia 1997-2000
Since landscaping is a slow process this section will not often be updated. I don't know exactly what or how I'll discuss things but by and large this section will be about how I landscaped my home from bulldozed clay to something fairly pleasant to look at. Eventually I hope to include pictures and perhaps diagrams. At the very least I'll provide the types of plants and why I chose them. Although flower gardens can be considered a part of landscaping they will only be briefly mentioned here, more detail will be provided under gardening.
Our house was built on a subdivided farm so the house is surrounded by open fields filled with grasses to which I am extremely allergic. Over the last 2 years we have attempted to make the place a little less bare. We have planted ten 6 foot tall evergreens (5 white pine, 5 Norway spruce) which through hand watering have managed to add 1 to 2 feet in height despite the 2 year drought. We also planted a red maple (October Glory) and an American sweet gum as well as a fruitless flowering cherry tree and a redbud tree. The maple and sweet gum were 15 footers in hopes that we may actually acquire some shade fairly quickly. These two trees are special to me because they were bought with the savings bond that my grandmother left me. In fall the maple turns bright orange and the sweet gum; yellow, orange and red.
I created 2 flower gardens with many drought tolerant plants. In 1999 I am adding a cutting garden behind the house where I will have carnations and salvia, monarda, chrsanthemums, zinnias, bachelors buttons, cosmos, poppies and any other interesting looking flower I may throw in.
Around the foundation I have planted the typical foundation shrubs, very small ones; the one gallon variety so costs are kept down. For the foundation plantings I have chosen: rhododendrons, dwarf alberta spruce, forsythia, bleeding hearts, dwarf euonymous of varying shades, large euonymous for the taller primarily windowless southside, a butterfly bush, shasta daisies, thuja occidentalis, and pink hydrangeas and peonies. The peonies were given to me by my sister and are from divisions originally taken a long time ago from my grandparents' garden.
April 2, 1999 - Planted my first and only rose bush, hybrid tea; Peace. It is yellow with pink edges. I had one in California and loved it so I finally found a good speciman and planted it at the southeast corner of the house. Hopefully, I will be able to keep it fairly well protected from the preponderance of Japanese beetles that are around here. I also am finishing, finally, the foundation bed on the south side of the house. Got the lawn edging put in and now just need to lay out the remaining landscape fabric and the cedar chips.
June 1999 - This tree and it's companion red maple are in very sad shape from the drought. The gum has had branches and leaves die. The maple is missing leaves, also appears to have dead twigs and it's leaves are only half size. I water them as much as I am able taking my having a well into account. I canonly hope it is enough for them to survive the winter. A harsh winter would be a very bad thing indeed.
Jan 2000 - Thought I ought to throw in an update. So far we are having another ridiculously mild winter so I think my 2 big trees will be okay. Of course, it ain't over yet.
Sept 2000-Looks like the drought ended. Of course, it was just in time for us to move away, "but thems tha breaks."
Painting
Our house being brand new, all the walls were a lovely monotonous shade of off white; the walls, ceiling, and molding, ALL WHITE. It's more cost-effective that way, everything gets sprayed at the same time. Since we moved in I have become a painting maniac. The master bedroom is now a shade of dark rose/beige. The sitting room right next door (really the family room) is raspberry.
The kitchen and living room I painted a shade of deep green that is a cross between sage and forest green. The dining room is a light rose. The 2 story foyer and hall are also this rose. However since the stairwell requires scaffolding, only the 3 walls accessible by a 20 foot extension ladder have been painted. So that the stairwell wall, which also houses the doorway leading into the dining room, does not appear too bland, I have stenciled roses areaound the door using the green and rose colors from the rest of the house. I am planning more painting in 1999, first in the master bath and then perhaps the guest room.
Window Treatments
Because the back of the house faces west and is full of picture windows the heat and glare from the sun is appalling in the summer (and in the winter the cold quickly seeps in). We had to spring for blinds and chose those honeycomb ones while a major department store was having a 50% off sale. We installed them ourselves and saved another 200 dollars. We chose green for the green rooms and beige for the rose/raspberry colored rooms. They do wonders for keeping out the heat although the beige ones still let in too much light if I want to sleep late.
Furniture
The only major piece of furniture we bought since moving in was a dining room table and chairs, the room was an echo chamber till then. We went to a place that reproduced antiques and bought a farm table with queen Anne legs and a narrow skirt/apron so we tall people can get our legs underneath. We had previously looked all over at "regular" furniture stores but when your husband can't even sit at it without banging his knees, it's pretty hopeless. It's our last large piece for a while.
Last year (1998) my mom decided she wanted a new sofa and chair and gave me her old set which is very large, heavy and very well made. It is about 30 years old and was last reupholstered 13 years ago. For now it stays as is, I have an afgan tossed over the chair and a throw draped over the back of the sofa to help disguise the sun faded areas and the not quite up to date color which I can only describe as rust. But it has excellant bones.
In May 1999 I decided to buy a few pieces of unpainted furniture for the places around the house where I could use more storage. Two of them are 5 drawer apothecaries, only 1 drawer wide (about 8 inches). One is in the kitichen and I have stained the outside a natural pecan and the drawer fronts hunter green. With white ceramic knobs and a polyurethane finish it is the nicest looking junk drawer I have ever had. The other one I am also staining pecan but the drawers will be red/burgundy since I plan on using it upstairs in the burgundy rooms probably to store cds, floppies, cables, and other miscellaneous computer items.
I also got one of those peg and shelf combos for the laundry room to hang hats etc on the way into and out of the garage.
I am writing this in mid January 1999. Currently my plans are not any greater than to do it all again, better. Thus far I have not planted any seeds, bought any seeds, nor designed any beds or really given it any thought except what you have already seen.I thought it might be interesting to do it all here on line and let you lucky people watch as I succeed or screw it up and hopefully learn something that might help you too.
I have now created a plan for my 1999 vegetable garden. I have a layout of this garden including plant locations on a separate page. Click here to view it.
I won't bore you with the really mundane stuff I put in my journal just the highlights.
Jan 20 - Got the shelf unit built.
Jan 27 - Went looking for 3 foot long flourescent shop lights. Not as cheap as the 4 footers, light tubes more expensive too. Revaluating situation.
Jan 28 - Sixty five degrees this morning, highly unusual. Cleaned the dead plants out of the vegetable garden finally and threw them into the compost bin.
Feb 11 - Planted a few peat pots of lobelia and periwinkle. It is 3 months before the last estimated frost date for my area. These seeds were to be planted 10-12 weeks early.
Feb 18 - Experimented with shelf unit and and the 4 foot shop light I had suspended above the floor last year. Decided it would work and save money ($56 to be precise though it would only have been $43 if I hadn't already owned one light fixture). See how I did it in Tools & Techniques.
Feb 19 - The first crocus is up. Early due to the warm winter.
Feb 20 - The lobelia sprouted nearly 2 weeks earlier than the packet said it would.
Feb 22 - 20 degrees F at 7 am.
Mar 1 - The periwinkles have started to sprout. Planted dianthus and johnny jump ups today. Bought 3 "Walls of Water", ($7.97/3) plastic tubes filled with water that surround the plant and claim it can be planted outside 6-8 weeks before the last frost date. I am going to experiment by planting 3 tomato plants outside early. Would be nice to have a home grown tomato a month earlier than normal.
Mar 3 - Planted tomatoes; Early girl, Brandywine and Better Bush for my Walls of Water experiment. Loosened soil in lower 8 foot section of garden and removed weeds and rocks. Why not it was in the high 50s.
Mar 5-8 - Both dianthus and johnny jump ups have sprouted.
Mar 9 - Got 12 inches of snow today, the most in March in 57 years, we were only supposed to get 3.
Mar 10 - half the snow melted already.
Mar 14 - Got 5-6 inches more snow mixed with rain and sleet. 39-40 degrees F all day.
Mar 15 - Planted several varieties of flower seeds today, including carnation, coreopsis, chrysanthemum, aster, vinca, monarda, and poppy. Some of these seeds were left over from 1997 and given to me by a friend. I won't know for a week or two if they are any good.
Mar 18/19 - Carnation, coreopsis, aster, monarda and poppy all growing.
Mar 22 - Planted the tomatoes (Brandywine, Better Boy, Celebrity, Roma, Sweet Millions, Yellow Pear) and pepper (Sweet Pickle) in peat pots.
Mar 23/24 - Enlarged one flower bed by 8 feet by spreading newspaper and black plastic mulch weighted with rocks to kill off the grass. Also spread plastic for a 3 x 15 foot cutting garden. Started edging the veggie garden in black plastic to keep the grass from creeping in this year.
Mar 26 - Replanted the chrysanthemums today because I figured out I had labeled the pots but actually neglected to plant the seeds. So there was a good reason nothing had sprouted!
April 4 - Planted 3 rows of yellow onions and 2 rows of snow peas (Snow Bird and Melting Sugar). High of 78 F. Had to replant my Celebrity tomatoes because only 1 germinated.
April 5 - Planted my Yukon Gold potatoes.
April 8 - Planted some strawberries my neighbor gave me at the west end of my garden. Next year I will worry about how to deal with the runners. It also reached over 84 F today! Had to already lay out and turn on a soaker hose because the rain has been minimal.
April 18 - Planted 6 " tall tomatoes: Brandywine, Better Boy, and Early Girl outside in the walls of water. Decided against the Better Bush because it is growing so much more slowly.
April 20 - Been having very windy, cool weather for over a week now. Planted many herbs and flower seeds indoors today, from dill and basil to celosia and Mexican sunflowers. My Early Girl and Brandywine baked. I replaced them and made certain the top was well ventilated. Note: next year use the walls a month earlier.
April 25 + 26 - Dug out my 3 x 15 foot flower bed that was covered in black plastic. The grass was almost dead and it was easier to dig. Too bad it couldn't make the rocks go away! I added a wheelbarrow load of composted manure and recovered it to kill off any remaining roots. Also placed a bunch of my peat pots outside in partial shade to acclimate.
May 4 - Well it was still too much sun for the salvia seedlings, they are dead! Got a few left to plant outside, need to figure out how. Replaced the dead ones with zinnias. Hard to kill a zinnia. My potatoes are not sprouting at the same rate as last year. Only 2 are now above ground after a month. I did some sample digging and found a few were eaten by insects or never sprouted. May not be a good year for potatoes!
Replaced the salvia with store bought plants. Doing fairly well though 3 were munched by an unknown animal. (deer suspected)
Yes I have been negligent in updating this journal but I have been battling insects, heat, drought, and weeds, not to mention wildlife!
June - By the middle of this month most of the seedlings were planted outside. When my beans sprouted something other than a bug ate the tops off, I am left with 5 plants. Only 2/3 of my potatoes sprouted and those were attacked by beetle larvae. My marigolds did no good because they have yet to flower. I found that the pesticide Sevin did not work but Rotenone did.
The early heat and drought destroyed my snowpeas. I have lost many flowers including the asclepias tuberosas (orange butterfly weed) which are supposed to be drought tolerant.
Was able to pick rhubarb leaves for the first time and bake a pie. Needed strawberries because there wasn't enough rhubarb. Next year should be different.
The spring was so dry my 15-17 foot sweet gum and red maple lost many of their leaves and what's left are not normal sized. I am watering them every other day, and am keeping my fingers crossed.
My house plumbing has been losing water pressure. I am fearful that the well is in danger due to the 3 year drought. It does appear the pressure tank already needs replacement.
July 6 - 7 - Picked my first green beans. Rosemary is 15 inches tall. It was only 99 degrees F today, actually a bit cooler than the past few days. I managed to pull a few weeds here and there and had to water the trees again including the pines. Lost water pressure again and there was no water in the system for 5 minutes.
July 8 - Planted another row of green beans. My neighbor suggested spreading blood meal around them to deter the bunnies. Also managed to hoe out some weeds since the temperature dropped a good 20 degrees over night and the humidity dried up.
July 9 - Spread blood meal around my beans and a few other choice enterances to my garden. It smells awful! Humidty is back but it's only 91 F today.
July 15? - Extreme heat, over 100 degrees F 3 days in a row! Beastly weather. I have started to pick roma tomatoes but they aren't the best looking things, have splotchy skin.
July 24 - 25 - Had 2 severe thunderstorms! Got at least 2 inches Saturday and another 1/2 to 1 inch Sunday! No cooler or less humid though. The winds knocked over my extremely heavy tomato plants. Restaking them has been difficult, I keep hitting rocks.
July 26 - Picked my first brandywine, it was huge, 6 inches across. It was cracking at the stem and also blotchy. I fertilzed the plants today. The pumpkin leaves are dying in the centers of the plants, Some fruit are already turning orange.
As you can see I things petered out at this point. To put it bluntly there were too many plants, too many insects, too little water and too much heat. I got tired of fighting it. I did manage to pick enough tomatoes to can 14 quarts and harvested enough pumpkins to bake a few pies. Maybe 2000 will be better?