The Naked Truth - Raw and Uncensored

Have you ever decided that you really hate a part of your garden but do nothing about it until it requires a huge effort?   Welcome to most of my garden right now.  Last summer I was unable to do much outside and a year of neglect has made things that much more overgrown!  

This bed is getting an overhaul but I don't want to get too shovel happy until everything has emerged.  The Schefflera taiwaniana that replaced the huge grass that had become quite a drama queen seems to be happy enough in it's new spot.  The rheum is still there - I'll give it one more year to prove itself.

I attended a seminar led by Sharon Lovejoy at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show  last year.  She said that we should boldly plant things because, "you can always dig it up."  That grass took an entire day to dig up and the bamboo that is now gone (I should take before pictures) will be allowed to grow back in a limited area while the rest of it will be covered with potted plants.  Ms Lovejoy is correct, we can dig things up but sometimes it's best to let sleeping bamboo roots lie.  For some reason I said her name quite a few times as I was digging up plants all day. 

This dinosaur egg used to be tucked back in a corner with a nice variegated bamboo on the left and inherited arborvitae & Hedera helix on the right. The pots were actually nesteled in the mess as well.  A Choisya ternata 'Sundance' grew over to where I've just put the phormium pot.  It had gotten way out of hand and needed a haircut. 

Did you know that there is a fence back there?  It is usually covered with inherited English Ivy.  Every couple of years, I rip it all off and pull up as much as I can.  This time, I really mean it and will replace it with Clematis armandii. 

The Choisya post haircut now has exposed the cinderblocks that the dinosaur head sits upon.  Oh well. it'll grow in and there's got to be something in a pot around here someplace that can sit around down there temporarily.

 Another area that needed a change had become a huge thicket of (again) ivy covered fence, lilac with rotted heart wood, climbing Cecil Bruner rose, a cool variegated leafed Buddleia 'Harlequin' that lost the variegation but still had raspberry colored, honey scented blooms,  and Kerria japonica. 

Here we are in progress.   I left a little of everything close to the fence but have gained a space ten feet deep by twenty five feet wide.  Hmm.  This will be the new home of the "Danger Gardenette" which lives mostly in pots.  Pots which can be moved to make space for a greenhouse perhaps?

So, there you have the uncensored naked truth.  No pretty pictures framed to eliminate the unfortunate views, no focusing on special plants, just ugly dirt work.  I'm so glad that I have spring break this week!   I filled three yard waste dumpsters and have huge piles of even more that we'll load the truck with and make many trips to the yard waste recycling place.  Actually, Tom's volunteered to do in while I'm at the HPSO sale! 

More piles along the alley will also get hauled away.  Yikes, that's a lot of biomass.

This view was not possible before the big dig but now I can see a lot more of the garden from this spot.  What will go in that blue pot to block the view? 

So, this year will be a reworking, editing, and all sorts of changes time  in my garden.  I've noticed way to many random pots all over the place.  There's a nice collection of blue, a few turquoise, lots of natural/terra cotta shades and  enough shiny red ones to make nice groupings by color.  And the annual spring migration will also need to begin soon.  I'll be outside working as you read this enjoying another sunny day and digging a bed out of scilla hispanica domination!  Have a great weekend all!