Ivy Bed – 20 years worth – coming out (Revised)

Some progress today. Ivy is a rascal to dig up, but we did have good weather this morning for our work.  More  than  half the garden bed is complete. We will be back at it on Monday. In the meantime we have a vision of placing three very nice sized perennials in this clean bed. It’s a work in progress. Our homeowner is getting excited to choose plants. She wants pretty, low maintenance and something colorful around this new Holly tree that was planted by Parkfairfax when she moved in. Most likely the Ivy would have eventually choked this new Holly, we have made room now for it to thrive and to grow.

If you look carefully to the right/rear of this video, close to the completion,  you can see two (2) small/taller Urns we planted early in the week for our resident. Twenty (20) inch dwarf Evergreens surrounded by Creeping Jenny and purple Lobelia.  We will change out the summer trimmers with sturdy Ivy or perhaps Violas for winter. Our lovely owner wants to string cordless lights on these little trees. Very nice we think!  

We plan to follow with additional posts as the project progresses, so stay tuned.so far it’s been good fun… even the digging up of the Ivy.  It is called –  “personal accomplishment.”

“contessa”

                PURPLE LOBELIA

                 CREEPING JENNY

Gardening Today…..79 degrees. Awesome!!

Good Morning fellow gardeners,

Nice morning so far. Another great day for gardening. Warm and slightly sunny this morning with overcast skies for the afternoon. Our recent temps have been fairly chilly, so 79 degrees will be a welcome change in the garden. Our project today requires a good amount of clearing of debris behind Wellington. We did start this work last week. And we will be clearing one garden bed in the front of a property on Beverley near Valley. A new client who just had a baby granddaughter arrive on Friday so she will be away. We are wishing her a blessed time with her family while away. 

We also have a existing client who is OOT for the long holiday weekend so we are swinging by Mt Eagle Place to check on their garden.

Blessed to have good work for this week. A reminder to our current and new potential clients that our revised Classified Ad will be coming out in the new electronic copy of the Parkfairfax Forum Newsletter. We love referrals, so if you are a current client and know someone who can use our services, please do pass on a word for us. Several of you have written about us on the Parkfairfax Facebook page  Thanks very much!

A shorter work week this week, because of the holiday weekend. We had  best get moving along with our projects lined up for today. Have a wonderful warm week in your garden.

Blessings,

“Contessa”

Garden URNS / planting can be super fun (Revised)

Garden Urns come in many varieties. They are super fun to plant. Generally they have a drainage hole in the bottom. If this is not the case a layer of pebbles about one inch thick will suffice. If the receptacle is narrow and deep we recommend you line the vessel. You can purchase a coir liner at the nursery. You decide how you wish to cut and shape it. So pull it apart and create your own form. It helps to keep the soil from escaping into the base of your urn. And further, we recommend you use a plastic grocery store bag to line it with. Poke holes in the plastic. You can cut the bags to work for your size urn. No need to bunch it together. Just toss what you will not need. Adding this plastic bag is so important fir water retention. Then add some soil to about half way. We recommend you discard a good bit of the root system of each plant. Start  filling your urn with the plants you have chosen. You can get more plants in the urn if you pull away some of the root ball. Don’t worry, your plants will grow better if the root systems are not too crowded. And frankly crowding them a little once the root ball has been thinned out, will present a beautiful full urn display. Place one dominant plant in the center working around it with smaller plants and around the perimeter of your urn opening is the best spot for trailers  (Ivy; green and verigated, Creeping Jenny, Alyssum, phlox, etc). Insert pockets of fresh soil as you place and turn your urn. If the soil spills over it’s ok.  Once you first water the urn with a light spray,  the plants and the dirt will settle.

If you are lucky enough to have Urns In you planter selection save enough money to really do them up nicely. They will present beautifully and will show so well in their appointed spot. Have fun with the project of planting your Urns  They will thrill you with their beauty.

“Contessa”

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Good Afternoon…. We have completed the Urns project. A few days needed for the plants to settle. Pics will follow. Our homeowner is a fairly new resident of one year. Coincidentally she was a former customer of our store in Delray. Small world once we realized we actually know each other. She has asked us to continue into next week and recreate her garden beds. A new Holly tree was planted at the corner of her property by PFX last year in early fall. During this planting project considerable damage to the Ivy bed that surrounds this tree took place. It just never grew back very well after the crew planted the new tree. Frankly the Holly needs a cleared area in which to grow. It’s being choked. So we are going to clear the entire bed and the Ivy is coming out. We will do some transplanting, trimming of existing bushes, edging/defining the beds and adding some new perennial blooming  plants for the cleaned up beds. We estimate about six to eight hours for this new project. We will begin next week. Happy to help this lovely end unit, in this strip of homes to look so much nicer. We love new projects. Hazzah!

“Contessa”

 

New Client / Planting Urns

Site visit early tomorrow on Beverley Drive near Valley.  View size and depth of two new stone Urns and check out sun/shade location for healthy growth. Client wishes for sturdy plants that can survive up to the first fall frost. We actually recommend this. Possibly miniature evergreens that can be illuminated for the holidays. Surrounded by small summer perennial flowers that can be changed out with fall/winter bloomers. We’ll see. We have prepared many urns so we’ve several thoughts. Meeting with the client at 8:30 am; coincidentally we are going to Merrifield Garden Center following this site visit, as we need to select plants for three other customers. Perhaps we can “kill two birds with one stone at Merrifield. An added note/our clients enjoy a nice discount when we make plant purchases.

Happy for all new work. Fun…..

(pics to follow)

”Contessa”

 

Project on Wellington/back common area/bordering three properties

This “back area project” began last summer. It involves the “common ground area” behind three properties.  PFX is going to trim back a couple trees; one a hugely overgrown Crepe Myrtle that has encroached its limbs onto all three properties and limbs bending very low preventing walking a path back there. This “Myrtle” tree is actually right dab in the center of a fairly large circle common area, but it’s growing and spreading out into the properties on either side of it. It’s currently like a jungle back there. The homeowner where the Myrtle is planted, is not presently ln residence on the property, but permissions have been secured to cut this  and a few other small trees back. The Myrtle is crowding rather nice foliage pathways and it’s limbs are so large and stretching outwards, it has invaded a beautiful small but rather tall Maple tree. So…..something has got to give. We had the PFX team come and survey the situation last summer. Now all three homeowners collaboratively wish to retain us to clean up this area /once the trees in question are trimmed. We will begin some undergrowth clean up tomorrow. This will likely mean we will be doing some work there every day for  at least a couple weeks  A little each day in between new business that comes. We are delighted to help, and we already have a vision of what can be done to give all three residents more light, less creeping vines and a clear pathway back there for some pleasant esthetics. It’s needed to be done for a long time. We have been given resident and PFX permissions to proceed. Kind of exciting really, as we love challenging projects. It’s going to be a lot of work but some nice shade spreads through this area. There will be many trips to the leaf mulch pile at the yard to deposit leaf branches, crawling  vines and limb debris. it will be refreshing to see this area more “open” and less infested with unwanted Virginia “native” weeds and vines growth.  

Praising my “heavenly creator” for good work. Amen! 

(more pics to follow)  

Gardening Today on Wellington/Preston

Bed creation – complete clean out – all new perennials. It is a new beginning. The ground cover up front is called Blue Blanket/Creeping Mazus. It loves full sun. So imagine that the front section of this bed will become a very full look with sweet little bluish/purple blossoms. Two Salvia and one Speedwell are the background. And in the center we are encouraging a very small transplanted Peony. We have planted Morning Glory seeds in the bed and will encourage them to climb up our new metal trellis. On the far left we have planted a larger perennial called Gaura Lindheimeri (Rose Jane) a native hybrid. Slender stems with white/pinkish blooms. Very whimsical. Maturity of 24” to 30”. We like the balance Rose Jane will provide on this side of the bed, across from a very mature white Azalea bush. And on the right-center is a Lithadora “Grace Ward” with Azure blue flowers. Lastly we added four Lobelia (Riviera Rose), all full sun and spaced around to give the bed a nice full balance. Now for everything to grow and fill in. Fresh garden soil about one inch thick has been added to this cleared bed. And because the squirrels “love” to dig up new plantings, we use a product called Blood Meal to deter them from digging up bed. It works. They will not come round to dig up or bury their nuts. They do not like it’s aroma. It is non-toxic, but it does keep them away. New shredded hardwood bark mulch will be our final addition to this bed. It’s taking shape and our homeowner seems very pleased. Watering daily for the first week with new plantings is essential.

A beautiful day so far…..

”contessa”

Find…..simple beauty every day

……it’s always there….simply look for it with your eyes wide open.

Gardening Today – Revisiting Preston/Martha Custis

 

Our New York family, the Nolan’s, return tomorrow for the Mother’s Day weekend. The final phase of our arrangement is to provide maintenance today-in preparation for their return, after being at their Syracuse home for two months. We anticipate tidying the beds, pulling a few weeds and adding three bags of mulch to the beds that we left specifically for this occasion. We have been visiting periodically to keep things in order. So today, our final touch is to clean up the patio again, after the spring wind and tree droppings have sufficiently made their typical “messy sweep.”  We will make it right.

A very nice morning to be gardening in such a pretty yard. This morning I can already hear the birds and creatures chattering. So grateful to be outdoors “doing our thang.”

“CONTESSA”

AJUGA – also known as Bugleweed/Ground Pine

A lovely creeper that moves around quickly and crowds itself so that it becomes a great “filler-inner.”  We happen to really like it. I found a patch just this morning while out and about. So I photographed it so that you could see how tightly it grows. If you want to cover spots where grass just won’t “take”  this ground cover will not disappoint. We love the green/purple contrast. It’s normally sold in flats of 20 but you can purchase singles. There are three color variations. Dark Plum/purple, green/purple and a variegated green/cream. Frankly,  mixed together, they make a very pretty and very interesting pattern. Growing mostly close and tight to lthe ground, except for the blooming flowers that peek up……this plant is so durable you can walk on it. It has a wooded area look, and fits in nicely if your property is near a wooded and shady area.

My Eagle Place- A Work in Progress

 

Today we are transplanting “native wildflower perennials.” A lot of work but once they all start to bloom, it will be so rewarding. Our Australian homeowner is so pleased. There is much work to be completed still, but today we did get quite a few things moved around. It is a work in progress but so much fun.  We will be back on Friday to continue. As of today, we have 10.5 hours in his project. We are completing in phases as he continues to find new things to plant. Little by little it’s coming together.