Garden Adventures - The Side Garden

 Between our garage and the neighbor's, there is a little long, skinny space. Last fall, I set out cardboard but never got around to putting down the black landscaping fabric. So, by the spring, the weeds were peeking through and the cardboard was a little worse for wear. 

 But, just a little bit of cleanup - pulling weeds and taking out all the bricks and cement blocks, and the space was ready for the landscaping paper. 

 A few weeks ago, I nabbed an old trash door from the alley. My plan: turn it into a planter. This was one of those projects that sounded great, but in my mind it seemed a bit daunting and I put it off for a while, sure it would be a big process. Happily, once I finally set to it, I knocked it out in an afternoon; made a few cuts, brought the corners together with some screws and it was done. Next up: fill it with dirt!

Of course, I underestimated how much dirt it would take to fill this planter as well, but I put in what I had and it was enough to get started on a lovely rainy evening.  I moved over my trellises to this corner, and planted my new clematis. 

 Over by the front corner of the garage, there was another clematis, already established. But it was a few inches away from the actual corner since, when the previous owners rebuilt the garage, it had to be built over about a foot from the original footprint so it would be "to code." This left the poor clematis sort of off on it's own with nothing to climb up. The little plant sort of puddled up and often got a bit trampled and pushed around, but it seemed fairly healthy. 

  So, once I got enough dirt to fill the planter, I dug up the old clematis and relocated it to my little corner spot. Fingers crossed it will handle the replanting without too much trouble, and they'll both like the space (and the amount of light it'll get over in that corner) and I'll have flowers up and over my fence. I also threw in some seeds for other shade tolerant flowers around the empty spots, just to fill things out. This really is the most hopeful time of the year! Weeks of prep and work all with hope that something pretty/tasty/useful will come of it.

  Here's hoping!