This is very odd. I just opened my laptop and was going to post a similar question, but along another vein and what do I see? I guess we're thinking the same today.

My question was going to be: When the urge hits you to do these kind of major renovations, do you follow your impulse or can you wait? I can't. I won't transplant this time of year, but I'll do major projects even if it would make more sense to wait until a cooler time of the year. 50 degree temps make for pleasant working conditions IMO.

It finally hit me that a border along my fence (about 20x3 feet) is all wrong. Part of the problem is it was a partially shaded area until a tree came down last year and now it's full blazing sun.

The plants currently there are OK, but now that I have another full sun area, that's the kind of plants I want. So, do I rip out everything now (there's nothing I want to save) and look at bare dirt the rest of the summer, or wait until the fall to dig everything out?

Digging everything out in 90 degree heat is going to be miserable, but now that the urge has hit me, I just have to do it (I think). Plus - then I can start the planning process and I will have one less area to water the rest of the summer. That makes sense, doesn't it?

Kevin

I do not do anything major (or even many minor thing!) in this heat and humidity. Spring and fall are outdoor project times. Summer and winter projects are things that can be done indoors (e.g. building things and planning the outdoor projects for when the working conditions are acceptable.)

It must be that time of year. I am feeling the urge to move all sorts of things and add some new plants in other places (also thanks to Woody's posts!), but it just isn't the right time-way too hot here and I fear we are in for a dry summer after a lovely wet June!

I may try my hand at building a low wall along the driveway since there is no edging there and the weeds are coming up and moving into both the beds and the driveway. Aaarrgghh.

My patio (walk-out) is getting overhauled next month. Total tear-down and re-build. Making the final decision on the stone this week.

Will have a lot of plant material to dig up and then re-plant when the project is completed - not looking forward to that. I don't mind tinkering here and there but this is going to be a lot of work for me, during the hot weather, and I'm on the contractor's timetable, not mine - the stuff has to get out of the way or it's out of there by way of being destroyed by heavy equipment and being torn out of the way.

Eh, I shouldn't complain, though - because it sure will look nice when it's all done and I'll have a patio I'll actually use and enjoy (instead of one that is a hazard, like it currently is) :0)

My question was going to be: When the urge hits you to do these kind of major renovations, do you follow your impulse or can you wait? I can't. I won't transplant this time of year,

Kevin I can *never* wait regardless of the weather. I figure with enough water and the use of a high quality planting medium they will survive.

(But heck, so far this summer, with all the rain, you could successfully plant in gravel!)

But for me a garden reno. can start as a simple "shovel prune" or the move of one existing perennial to a a better location; either event can easily trigger a domino effect of garden changes.

Well, I did it and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was hot, around 92, but once I started I just didn't want to stop. The ground was bone dry, so the plants came out of the ground with minimal effort.

Once I saw how dry the soil was, I realized it was desperately in need of amending - like lots and lots of compost. That's the plan for the remainder of the summer: as the compost becomes ready, cart loads of here and dig it in. Come fall, I should be ready to add a few plants. Next spring, I can go crazy. In the meantime, the planning begins. I love that part!

And the bare soil doesn't bother me at all. It's nice and neat and clean - always a good look.

Kevin

Oh, yes, this year was my year of changing everything! Very little stayed, as I have spent too many years working with "someone else's yard", so to speak, trying to come in behind some other homeowner and make it my own just wasn't working for me. I decided, after it came up that we needed some foundation work, to rip everything out and start from scratch and do it like I have always wanted it anyway. No working with someone else's ugly bushes, or wierd idea of shade plants. Now, it's mine, all mine!!!! LOL, anyway, it is very refreshing and I should have done it years ago. Nothing like a little construction/demolition to prod you into change, right? This year I've tackled the front of the house, new foundation plantings extended into perennials and am currently building a raised bed on the corner for mostly echinaceas. Next project (or simultaneous, maybe) will be the revamping of a shade area to the left of our front walk (house is to the right). I have already ripped 80% of the plants out of there, will keep 20% and am starting to accumulate plants for that area, as I see sales come around.

We did a total facelift for the house, as well. It's brick, so we painted the trim, put hardiplank on the porch (and painted it) for a little extra color pop and even were able to put in all new windows. With that and the complete change of landscaping, it feels like a new house!

Next year, I will be doing the sides of the house and other areas not close to the house. This started out as a 5-year plan and it ended up being a 2-year plan. That's what impatience gets you!

This post was edited by funnthsun on Sun, Jul 7, 13 at 17:12

I have a small area on the side of the house (maybe 10' x 2ish, bordered with 8"x8" pavers) that had three clematis growing up dinky little trellises (one of which did not get enough sun and only put up one or two small shoots). Well, last year I dug them out and gave them away and the space became a dumping ground for perennials I needed to get in the ground before winter came. This spring I bought a butterfly bush (blue berry cobbler) and had absolutely NO WHERE for it. So I ripped out the pavers, redefined the border/edge and stuck in the butterfly bush (this was a few weeks ago). This caused a total ripple effect and I spent all weekend (first chance I've had) redoing another area and cleaning up the garden where the peonies are.
I took out the lowes garden fencing I put up around my new-and-in-progress purple/yellow garden (I bought them to keep the dogs out but I can't stand them standing out in the middle of the yard so I'm hoping the dogs will just stay out.... hmmm). I redefined the border, edged it, extended it slightly and just stood back and stared at it, thinking of what I'm going to fill it with :) Now the garden fencing can be used for my super shady corner and keep the dogs from trampling all the things I want to put back there. I have another garden space I cleaned up that I started planting some ferns and a few things in that also needs to be filled.... Maybe I'll post some pictures for some input from everyone :)

How's that for chatty, CMK? lol

This is one of the areas... This is the before picture, taken in the fall (after clematis came out). Please ignore the muddy hand print on the siding... it happens

This is the after... still very much in progress. The Butterfly Bush is at the left (with daffodils in front... I honestly don't know what I was thinking when I put them in the very front of the original border. There's some sedums (propagated from cuttings), guaras, bergenias, some sort of daisy, vernonia, blue hosta and common sage. It still has a lot of work as far as what plants will be moved from here, what new ones I want, and how it'll all be arranged but I think its a big improvement already.

To define the edge, I actually got that clear plastic carpet runner stuff, cut it and stuck it in the ground. Hopefully it'll work out. I still have to mulch,too. Any input anybody has is always appreciated!

I am trying not to move any more plants in this heat, but I still have a few purchases I need to get planted in the ground. This always ends up as a musical plants scene as some other plant seems to be exact where the new plants needs to be! I am debating parking my new plants in a temporary nursery bed until I can do the required transplanting in the fall. It doesn't help that was are also waiting to have a cracked tree removed and regrading done to fix drainage issues.

So interesting to read about others transplanting dilemmas. I definitely can relate to these stories.

I'll plant things I've already bought, but at this time of year, I don't do any major overhauling. Forget how the plants would deal with it, I just don't do well in heat and humidity. I think about changes I want to make as I putter and weed in shady spots, but I'll wait until fall or next spring to do much, though I may start the lasagna process as materials become available. If I don't get to it for the next year or two, that's OK also, since my garden is large enough that there is always something that I want to do, and I don't feel any urgency to get things done right away since there's always something blooming or providing interesting foliage even if some beds don't look ideal.

I so much prefer early spring and fall for renovating, but now is when I have more time.... As long as the ground isn't dried out to the point of being concrete I'll try and finish up one or two of the hundreds of things I didn't get to when it was cooler.
It's not the prettiest sight, but in weather like this I'll jump in the pool, do a little digging and ripping out, jump in the pool, dig some more.... Repeat as necessary. Iris are about the only perennial I'll transplant this time of year (other than all the bulbs I'm always digging up and slicing in half). Most of what I plant in the newly cleaned out beds are annuals or perennial seedlings or whatever else is potted up and waiting for a home. I try to be ruthless this time of year and just rip whatever is there out and send it to the compost. It makes it so much easier redoing a bed if you dont have to find homes for all the stuff that was alread there.

This thread is totally therapeutic. Nothing like hearing about a dozen other people' approach to your own dilemma to help you feel better!

A stroll through the garden nearly always leads to thoughts of overhauls, doesn't it? I mean, at least little overhauls where you flip two plants around, divide another and add 2-3 new edging plants?

I have an overhaul in mind for my roadside garden but was waiting for the Siberian iris to finish blooming; they are especially nice this year. Well now it's too hot of course, but I might slip in just one or two roses that have been waiting around in pots for awhile. Plus I need to sneak out a slice of one of the irises to fill in a gap in a new bed.

Over the weekend I got started on a new section of drystack stone wall. My problem is once I begin a stonework project I can barely sleep until it's done - I get totally obsessed. So I wouldn't let myself start until July when most of the plant-related work is done. Working on this will use up all of my available energy for the next 3 weeks and will prevent me from attempting any imprudently-timed overhauls!

As a new gardener, last year I ripped out my entire backyard lawn (I could never get it looking good no matter how much I tried) and created some raised garden beds (we have awful clay soil) and some mulched paths. I planted a couple of trees and a handful of shrubs. I also just planted a bunch of shrubs along my front walkway and next to the garage. Early this spring I expanded the garden bed in my front yard to eventually hold more shrubs, but in the meantime just planted a bunch of Wave Petunias to fill in the space with color.

However, a funny thing happened: I discovered that I loved gardening, and that it was very therapeutic for the stress of modern living.

So this year in my back yard I ripped out one of the new trees I had just planted (a maple) and put in a more ornamental crabapple that will have fewer root issues and be smaller overall. I've planted a few more shrubs along the fences and in the center island stuck a bunch of rose shrubs and also some junipers as a backdrop of color and for some winter color as well. My favorite new shrub I planted is the Miss Molly butterfly bush that is just really starting to bloom now. The flowers look amazing!

In my front yard I had to move the shrubs that lined the walkway more to the back of the garden area (it's about 10x12). I have planted an assortment of perennials (just planted some Casa Blanca lilies yesterday) in order to see what works and what i like. I expect to have to make changes as things grow in (or not). Right now there is (mostly in groups of 3): Dianthus, dwarf Delphinium, Zagreb Corporeosis, Evening Primrose (that I will likely remove since I hear it is invasive), a couple of daylillies, a pink/red garden phlox that is just blooming now and is pretty, those Casa Blanca lillies, and then the shrubs towards the back (French Lace Weigela, a Vanilla Strawberry Paniculata Hydrangea, Bloomerang, and a Helene Rose of Sharon that I am looking forward to).

Next year I have very big plans too. Ripping out the low shrub roses next to the garage and adding a climbing rose instead. Filling in the bare garden areas in my backyard with a variety of perennials instead of just the space-filling Wave Petunias. Moving existing plants around depending on how things work out. Perhaps replace my Neon Flash Spirea around my patio with something nicer and with more fragrance (the spirea are pretty and low maintenance, but a bit dull). I will also try container gardening for the first time bext year, and think about a climber for my great big new Pergola.

The one thing I am unsure about is what to do about the trees long term. I have a small back yard (about 40x40 and 1/4 taken up by patio) and about 2/3 of the way towards the back I have a young serviceberry and crabapple. I like those trees, but even with uplimbing I worry that too much of my yard will end up in shade. I wonder if I should bite the bullet and replace them with tall shrubs or standards for vertical elements to maximize sun, or just swap to more shady shrubs/perennials when the time comes. The trees will help shade my patio especially from the glare of the setting sun, but most of the shrubs I like prefer sun so...

I'm just sad that it took me until the age of 40 to realize that I like gardening so much.

PTW: I wouldn't take out the trees. Trees are a valuable asset to a landscape. The provide shade, as you mentioned, and they also provide habitat for our flying friends as well as visual interest in the landscape. Perennials are easy to move around/change up but trees...not so much.

Not really inclined to do any overhauls so far this year. I always have one or two in mind but I have to wait for the best opportunity. A lot of time passes before I can get to some of them more often than not. I rarely do anything in the summer months. March to the end of June or Early September to the end of October. It's way too hot for me and the plants this time of year to do anything major. I'm just happy to have gotten 9/10ths of what I needed to get done before it got hot this year, so now I can just try to keep up the maintenance in early mornings until it gets cooler.

I feel like my style of gardening is constant overhaul..lol. Every bed and border I plant, by the time it grows in entirely, I see changes I want to make.

PTW, welcome to the gardening addiction! 40 isn't too late to discover your passion, especially because it's such a lifelong pursuit.

Below is a pic of the biggest overhaul I've ever attempted! It's the side yard mega-wall, a result of adding a new garage stall 2 years ago. The area had pretty OK landscaping before, but now I've set a really high bar for myself to make the landscaping worthy of the remodel work we've had done on the house. Last year was Phase I, this year, you guessed it, is Phase II which I just stared on Sunday.

I grabbed some pics as I wrapped up my evening stonework session. I had such a great time. Started out in a foul mood but thanks to the zen-like way that this work engages your mind, I quickly was back in my happy place.

I like how it looks like a bomb exploded on the right side of the wall. Slowly but surely I will tame the chaos!

karin, I have added some very small minor rock edging to some of my beds and I really enjoyed the work. I know what you mean about the way it is 'zen like'.

Yours is much more ambitious than I would attempt. I would love to hear more about what you are doing and see more photos of that area, when you get the chance. Is that going to be a dry stack wall? And what about the bottom pieces that the wall is sitting on? Not sure what that will be in the end? Is it part of a patio or walkway? How did you acquire your rock skills?

PTW, I didn't find my interest in gardening until I was 30 years old and it has held my fascination ever since. Sounds like you have been bitten by the gardening bug for sure. :-)

Great pictures 'karin'.

Stone edging or better still "walls" go so well with plant material.

I am curious as to how long it took to complete that one wall; the one with the tool up against it?

Having enough of the right stones on hand is key for me. I like hand picking my stones and this means having to go multiple times to the....stone store ;) and haul them back..

Thank you for the comments Prairie and Rouge.

The wall on the left side of the picture took one year of elapsed time, but of course winter occurred somewhere in there so I wasn't working on it for that whole time. But it dominated last summer's garden work to the point where my neighbor asked if I was part Chinese because this was becoming the Great Wall. :)

It is a dry stack wall, and is the 4th one I've built here (or the 6th, depending on how you count). My rock 'skills' are simple trial and error. I'm a geologist so I love rocks! But dry stacking has got to be the most primitive, simple construction technique out there. If a rock fits, it fits and then you move on. If it doesn't fit, you chose another rock, and another one, until you find one that fits. There is something about the sheer simplicity that I find very attractive and addictive. Each wall I've built is neater, more tightly stacked and more anal. That's just my own personal evolution and style. On this wall I am going for a very square, crisp look.

As Rouge points out, having the right rocks is key. On my first 3 walls I collected the rocks from the National Forest (with proper permits). Talk about a labor of love! It was an extraordinarily slow process but always fun. Because I wanted this current wall to be tidy, I am buying the rocks from a nearby quarry (where they have all come to think I am somewhat, umm, unusual). The dumb thing is that it is not hard to calculate the quantity of rocks needed to cover a certain area. Did I do that basic math? No. Did I do that basic math after I ran out of rocks? Nope. In fact I have been back to the rock yard 4 times, each time I was confident that I would have enough rocks to complete the project. Ha! (I'll be heading back next week, but this time I am really sure I'll have enough!) Phase I took 6 tons of rock. Goodness!

The edge that sticks out at the bottom of the wall is a mowing strip. The idea is that the wheel of the mower can travel up on the rocks and then I won't have to weed whack. Detailed photo below and an overview shot of Phase I in the next post.

Here's the main part of the wall. There is a row of daylilies and allium planted at the top. Next to the garage is another small wall with shady plants. The spot is coming together nicely, and is reminiscent of the original theme and plantings, pre-remodel.

-Karin, your rock walls are mind-blowingly impressive. If geology doesn't ever work out for you at least you will have some mad wall-building-skills to fall back on, LOL!! Seriously though, I would pay for that. It looks incredibly professional.

I absolutely love rock walls of any kind with plants cascading down. Look forward to seeing more pics of your beds in the future ;-)
CMK

Answering my own question from the other post here: I'm a bit fed up with________right now...

Myself at the moment. Yesterday was one of my days off and I should have done some more plant moving. I just really loathed the idea of trying to pop that big peony out of the ground. So what did I do instead of that? Yeah, I went plant shopping. Really, because I didn't have enough to move around already?! The idea of moving it became even more loathsome as the day progressed, so instead of getting it done last night I booked it over to my co-workers with a trunk-load of extra plants to help her weed and clear out part of her hillside/driveway area and plant up my extras. LOL.

At this rate I think I'm going to go plant a brand new national forest with saplings before I want to get around to that peony, lol!!!!
CMK

Great job you are doing, karin and self taught always takes a leap of faith. Being a geologist, your love of rocks has certainly been put to use in your gardens. A very practical application!

I can see how it is simple to just keep selecting a rock that fits, my worry would be getting it started and how to get it level and straight on ground that is not 100% level and keep it that way. I see you are using string as a guide but getting the string in the right place I would think is tricky. Maybe you use a level on the string?

It's beautiful and I always enjoy rocks too and the different shades of color. I gravitate toward the warm, lighter colors over the dark gray.

SIX TONS of rocks! lol

It will be gorgeous once they are all done and planted, and such an accomplishment.

Karin, that stone wall is beautful and really adds to the overall look of the hous. A very impressive project.

David, your bed is really coming along. The bfore and after is such a dramatic change.

As for me, I had a bed that I originally did in red, bue and yellow. That was way too busy, so little by little all the blue is coming out. So this fall all the stokesia is either being moved or given away. And a bunch of plants that seeded need to have their offspring dug out. I'm still trying to decide on something for behind the buddleia. So far nothing has worked out.

Thanks for the comments!

Prairiemoon, the string locates the rocks at the bottom of the stack so that I don't end up taking a wild curve across the lawn. So that part is easy - you just set the string by eye (or by measuring) so that the wall is parallel to the house or whathaveyou. To keep the wall level, more or less, I just use a carpenter's level across the top of each rock if I am working on a slope. Most of the wall is on flat ground so the leveling sort of takes care of itself since these are nice flat rocks. But I do stand back and check my work often - it's easy to get caught up in the details and then realize things aren't lining up too well. The very best test of the work is to come out the next morning and give it a critical eyeball. Only then do I decide if yesterday's progress is up to snuff. I suppose that happens with plant arrangements too, right? You ever look at all your hard work the next day and realize that things don't look right? Don't you hate that?

Christin, LOL on the plant shopping instead of peony moving. I so can relate to all of that! Nice of you to share your seedlings and help weed and plant at your friends place. (maybe she'll come over and help you with the peony?)

urk, have avoided making any response to this thread as I am currently in deep daily denial about the scale and scope of tasks awaiting us in the coming months (years). 3 years ago, we completely ripped out the old home garden, rebuilt from scratch and are now enjoying the results......but (there is always a but), we also bought 5 acres of untamed neglected poplar plantation, 60 miles away from home and have also spent a decade whipping a couple of allotments into shape. Thing is, neither house, not allotments belong to us - they are leased from the local council....and their temporary nature is what led us to make the leap into buying a bit of land. For various reasons (mostly planning and zoning) woodland is the way to go in the UK (especially if you want to actually live, at least some of the time, on your land (and we do). So, while we would dearly love to settle back and enjoy the results of hard work, we know that a heap more is coming down the pipe, in the post, on its way. Frankly, the idea of attempting to transplant a decades plant collecting, huge investment in time and money (which, of course, we do not have) has got me stuck in a limbo of indecision. Starting small, and guided by economics, sowing seed is going to be the way forward (5 acres to fill!!) and embarking on a steep and utterly new learning curve is simultaneously thrilling....and terrifying.
Foxgloves, 100s of them, ramping campanulas, umbellifers (although the wood is stiff with them already) epilobium, meconops.....the greenhouse is stuffed with pots and trays while we desperately jiggle our time between Cambridge (genteel, civilised, a sort of Boston, Mass) and Norfolk (an English Iowa or Idaho, fields and fields of flat fen and huge skies). Hopelessly disjointed, living day-to-day (planning has never been a major strength) and trying not to think further ahead than the nest day or so - both therapeutic and terribly anxiety inducing, in turns.
No wonder we are a bit stalled.

Thanks Karin for the details of how you are creating the walls. Not that I'm planning any wall building at any point in the near future (g), but I am always curious about how things are done. So I will just enjoy watching you build yours. :-) And yes, you absolutely have to go out the next day and see if what you've accomplished is standing up to scrutiny. And I do hate that when you see something amiss the next day!

Campanula, that feeling of being overwhelmed is the worst! I think when I am at that point, (often, and for a lot less reason than yours), I have to get to the point of accepting the situation the way it is, then do my best. You know that old saying...'grace to accept the things that can't be changed, courage to change the things that can, and the wisdom to know the difference.'

Each day you can only do just so much and having done that to rest and let go the rest. Maybe there is some resource for more help with all this work?