Subtitle: How I re-learned that gardening is not my super power
I’ve shared before that Hubby was determined to whip our backyard into shape this year. His first big project back in April was to build a multi-tiered planter that runs the full thirty feet from our house to the back fence.
Well, technically his first project was installing the back fence (just two short years after we purchased all the materials). But once that was in Hubby got busy measuring and planning and designing this long planter to bring a lush and vibrant feeling to our previously depressing outdoor space. Need I remind you where we started three years ago?
I wasn’t involved much in the planter construction…except to prevent as much toddler interference as possible…
…so I’ll have to skip the step-by-step tutorial. The short of it is this: 2″ x 6″ x 10′ pressure-treated boards were cut to make rectangles of various sizes. Some rectangles were stacked on top of each other and joined with pocket screws.
The bottom level was lined with weed blocking fabric before being lowered into place.
The planters are just resting on the ground; no anchoring since we figured the weight of the soil will keep them right where they are.
And that was it! Definitely one of those golden projects with a disproportionately large impact for the moderate effort. And it went according to plan and didn’t mushroom into some other huge, un-fun, time and money sucking project. Not that that’s ever happened to us.
Once the easy breezy planters were built, we set to work on the hard part (says the girl who wasn’t involved in building them). We had to fill these babies with the lush green plantings of our dreams. Hmm, I guess if we were really dreaming we’d go for plants that look gorgeous, maintain themselves, repel pests, hold the exterior temp at a perfect 75, make our yard bigger, and grow money.
But we’ll settle for greenery, a splash of color, and more privacy.
See? Our neighbor’s door looks right out into our yard. And we can see right into their yard from our back door (and somewhat from the kitchen). Also, while their industrial and simple exposed bulb may be on trend, its glaring light is not awesome. The whole situation over there is just not our favorite view.
So we decided a wall of bamboo extending about halfway from the house to the back fence would be perfect. Bamboo could grow tall enough to provide a green privacy screen while maintaining a small enough footprint to allow more colorful plantings in front.
Of course we know some types of bamboo can be trouble, taking over whole neighborhoods with rampant invasive growth. So Hubby researched the right kind of bamboo for our needs: a variety that would grow 8′ – 12′ tall and would not spread uncontrollably. He consulted the all knowing webosphere and spoke to real live people at a couple local nurseries. The consensus was that we need Fargesia Rufa bamboo.
The good news: we might only need one pot! It could be divided some immediately, and could be split further once well established.
The bad news: um…
Ouch, it still hurts to see that. Believe me, that bamboo was at least five times more expensive than the next priciest plant we’ve ever owned. Maybe six times. But we wanted to be responsible bamboo parents (i.e., not just transplant the wrong bamboo even though I see it listed for free on Craigslist all the time by people desperate to get the crazy growing stuff off their property). And we were committed to the green and privacy the Fargesia Rufa promised. So we bit the bullet.
The nursery folks told us we could quarter the pot but not divide it further than that. We thought they meant it would be a bad idea to divide the pot further, but we later realized they were telling us it would physically impossible.
It was barely possible to quarter the pot. With two men. And a reciprocating saw.
We temporarily replanted the bamboo quarters in 12″ pots that we then placed into the planters. (And we potted two small scrap bits just to see if they’d take hold. Answer: No.)
We just used the pots as a placeholder since we hadn’t yet added a stainless steel trough to the planters in order to contain the bamboo. Can’t be too careful with bamboo, we thought, even if this variety is “clumping” and non-invasive in our area. Oh, I chuckle when I think about that now. So optimistic and cautious. Ha! Let’s just say we haven’t had any spreading issues. With bamboo.
Since we pretty much blew the plant budget on one darn pot, we filled in most of the other spots on the cheap.
1) We did spend a bit (maybe $24) on two honeysuckle plants in hopes that they would vine all through the fence in the back section. (They showed zero, and I mean ZERO, signs of growth until about two weeks ago.)
2) We left one big spot empty (free!) since the girls adopted it as their pseudo sand box. Lots of digging for worms there.
3) We planted inexpensive ($1.50, I think) annuals in the three tiered area.
4) We inherited a couple loriope cast offs from my parents’ yard.
And to fill things in a little more we decided to sprinkle around some inexpensive wildflower seeds. Now, you’ll have to decide if what I’m about to tell you is a hot tip or a warning (or is totally obvious and predictable, in which case I beg you to spare my feelings and pretend it’s kind of surprising):
Wildflowers grow like, well, WILD.
Seriously, I had no idea. Here’s what I expected.
Ah, perfect! Such charming little flowers in front of our bamboo and mixed in with our other plants. That was maybe a month or so after planting, during the period of peaceful coexistence. [Psst, if you're new around here, you can read about the house turning gray here and about that rain chain fountain here.]
Then this happened.
Hello, jungle! These pictures were taken a couple days ago, approximately four months after planting the wildflower seeds and one day after a serious bushwhacking session out there. Bad blogger forgot to take a pre-trimming picture. Does it help if I tell you this whole bag is full of crazy overgrown jungleness?
I’m glad to have lots of green out back, but it just looks so unruly. When we casually sprinkled down those seeds, I had no idea we’d get this:
Whoa, I half expect to find Jack climbing this here bean stalk. It’s not a bean stalk though, is it? I don’t know. Because I don’t know anything about plants.
And check out this section of switch grass. (Is that what it’s called?)
I thought Mom’s loriope was just going gangbusters, but she showed me that the loriope is actually thriving underneath this wild mess. (See the loriope’s little purple flowers peeking out?) I don’t even understand if the switch grass came from the bag of wildflower seeds. It’s only growing in this one section, and other wildflowers aren’t growing here. Huh?
A couple of the wildflower plants (which aren’t actually flowering, btw) are now taller than the fence; lots of them are four to five feet tall. But guess what is NOT even as tall as the fence yet, much less providing privacy. I’ll give you a hint: it cost about a billion times more than these crazy wild”flowers”.
Look, do you even see the bamboo here?
Squint, it’s back there, looking sadder than ever. It seemed healthy before Scorch-fest 2012 (aka, July); it just wasn’t getting any bigger. Now our “drought tolerant” investment is looking a little crispy. And tired.
Sigh. So now I’m torn: Do I rip out the rest of the wildflowers in hopes that doing so will somehow give the bamboo a boost? (Btw, nothing has spread into the bamboo pots themselves.) Or do I leave the wildflowers so we can at least enjoy some tall but unruly greenery? Should we take the bamboo out of the pots? And do some other smarty pants plant stuff to it?
Your advice is welcome, since there’s a 99.9% chance you know more about plants than me. Your advice is especially welcome if gardening IS your super power. Is it? Please say yes.
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Linking up with Serenity Now, At the Picket Fence, Addicted 2 Decorating, Too Much Time on My Hands, DIY Showoff, It’s Overflowing, and Home Stories A to Z.