Confessions of a Lazy Gardener # 768 Making a Garden in a Day

Out in front of our house between the intersection of two streets and the intersections of the two sidewalks, there is a roughly 8 foot by 12 foot space where an inherited classic Pacific Northwest lawn (green in the winter, brown in the summer except the vibrant green dandelions)  There is a fire hydrant close to the sidewalks so I'd never though much of doing anything in that space other than keeping the weeds mowed and averting my eyes.

This year, I decided that I'd replace the weed bed  with Acaena inermis 'Purpurea.'  a sweet little plant that does well in my parking strips with practically no summer water.  It doesn't look like much in the little pots or when it's first in the ground but once it becomes established, it's lovely.

Back in my misspent youth, when I wanted to create a garden bed, I marked off the space, cut out sod, shaking out as much soil as possible, amended the soil, raked it all level then planted.  Now that I'm old and lazy and inspired by  "lasagna gardening," I use a less labor-intensive method that gives much quicker results.

1) Cut the sod from the outer perimeter of the bed.
2) Scavenge through the house for cardboard. (A saved collection of nursery boxes works well.)             Decide that you need more  and go scavenging through your neighbors' recycling bins.
3) Cut the sod away from where you'll place the new plants.
4) Cover the rest of the sod with cardboard, plant the plants sticking out of the soil a bit.
5) Cover the cardboard with whatever you have on hand like compost or manure.
6) Water everything well.

A friend calls this technique "Garden in A Day" and it's been used to create lots of areas in my garden.  The upside is that it's fast; the downside is that you have to have pretty good existing soil for plants to be really happy.  

But wait, what if you decide that it would look really sweet to have a bit of Acaena saccaticupula 'Blue Haze' for contrast?  Simply use your shovel to remove some cardboard, cut out the sod below, plant and fill.

But then, you're at a nursery and see this adorable and drought tolerant Tanacetum haradjanii whose little fern-like foliage would be charming with the others.

Oh yeah, there are those three Carex testacea sitting in pots in the ghetto from the fall sale at Watson's a couple of years ago. Orange and purple with touches of gray - pretty.

Also hanging around were several pots of Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens.'  The pots at nurseries are usually very crowded and expensive so I always divide them and make several out of each one and have divided my own that are growing in the ground.

So, there you have it, the uneven garden in a day. It looks hideous now but once it fills in, I think it'll make me much happier than the former brown lawn.  Most of these plants can take foot traffic once established so hydrant access won't be an issue.

Best part?  No mowing!  

One does enjoy being lazy!