Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
lgslgs

Zone Lynda - time for a new garden :)

lgslgs
10 years ago

Hi all - especially the oldies that remember me from the Zone Lynda crazy wintersow-a-thons in 2008 & 2009.

Some of you may remember my garden videos - especially the ones with the sound of gunfire in the background. Well, our neighbor situation went downhill the past few years - getting the point where we couldn't even be in sight tending our gardens without a certain neighbor finding ever increasingly annoying ways to monkey with our sense of peace and safety.

On the positive side, you wouldn't believe how well a densely packed WS garden can thrive unwatered and unweeded for a few years! We are digging and relocating some parent colonies of perennials, and as soon as we dig something out the roots sprout back. The old garden looks a bit rough, but it is packed with thousands and thousands of hardy perennials and they actually squeeze out most weeds.

It was tough to move, and we still have the old house. We may sell it to friends or it may end up being one big out of control garden for a few years - we're not in a hurry to decide, but we needed to move to somewhere with quieter and more friendly neighbors.

Some of you have already seen the new photos on Flickr. Photos of the new garden will be coming soon - right now it just looks a lot like a bunch of sticks (hard pruned perennial divisions).

We probably aren't going to have the time or energy to move all of the plant species from the old place, and of course some are likely to get overlooked in the shuffle or make more sense to start again as seeds. I'm going to try to use a lot of restraint with winter sowing this year, so if any of you see me going overboard in the Zone Wars thread, please intervene (a little)!

One of the really nice things about the new place is an upstairs room with windows facing east, south and west. Might have to grow a few things indoors this winter. (I'm thinking some Clownie four o'clocks and maybe some gazanias.)

If any old WS friends would like to coordinate a big perennial dig and divide at the old place, drop me a private note. The garden is around 3000 - 5000 square feet of jam packed mature perennials now, and we could thin up to half of them and never miss them - it would all grow back in by spring. The only catch is that you'd provide the labor for your plants and for some smaller divisions for me to relocate. I'll label and give you loads of free plants.

As for seeds, I'm looking for a few things: Sweet williams, rudbeckias (Cherokee sunset type or similar), gazanias, zinnias, touch me nots... (Oh dear, I have the feeling I may end up doing more sowing than I was planning!)

Here is a link that might be useful: Flickr photos - old and new

Comments (6)

  • terrene
    10 years ago

    Hi Lynda, sorry to hear about your neighbor situation! Hope you, H, and the animals are all ok! In the next year or two, I will be seeking a more peaceful place to live as well. My neighbors are not overtly hostile and they aren't shooting off guns, although a couple are complainers, one has called the police about parking several times, and they are simply too close for comfort. Also I have agricultural land across the street. I am fed up with all the mowing, blowing, plowing, chipping, use of pesticides, etc. that goes on in this neighborhood and need more space.

    Glad to hear your WS'd gardens at the old house are doing well, and I'm sure the bugs and birds love them. I'd be happy to share seeds if there's anything you're interested in!

  • lgslgs
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Hi Terrene -

    Nice to hear from you! Sorry to hear that you've got neighbors too close for comfort.

    Our new location is actually closer to a few people than the old place was - but decent neighbors make a big difference. Our new ones have a big garden on our landlord's farmland and immediately encouraged us to help ourselves to tomatoes. Then they brought over home raised eggs. Tonight for dinner we had potatoes from their garden.

    When they saw us moving plants in containers, they tilled up a few rows in their garden and gave me a place to move flowers.

    The change has been so positive that I actually placed a big Swallowtail Seeds order tonight. The garden at the old place is solid with mature, low hassle perennials and I moved a selection of favorites. This wintersow, though, I'm going to sow some annuals again! I've got space for them around the edges of the new garden, and expect to have the time and peaceful gardening environment to keep the most vigorous perennials pruned and the less burly annuals from being bullied.

    I'm looking forward to being able to go nuts harvesting seed from next year's flowers - and already got a little head start on that harvesting seed off the neighbor's marigolds.It sure feels good to be optimistic about growing plants again! (!!!)

    Hopefully when you do your big move, I'll be able to help set you up with a goodie box of plant divisions or seeds.

  • mnwsgal
    10 years ago

    I'm sorry that your neighbor's antics were such that you felt a move was necessary for your peace of mind and safety. It will be exciting to start a new garden and to have a neighbor who wants to share their gardening. I have thought of you and your animals and home many times. It saddens me that you have to leave your home.

    One of our neighbors moved and rented his house. Neighborhood not too happy with the renters for various reasons. I find myself waiting until they are at work or school to work in the front beds even though we are on good terms. They are to move this month and who knows how the next family will fit in the neighborhood.

  • lgslgs
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Well, we've got a Karma update for you all.

    The new house is great. I've got a nice sized garden bed with a good selection of plants from the old house. I've turned an upstairs room at the new into a plant room and we are using it to overwinter some lovely tender perennials belonging to a new neighbor.

    And back at the old place? We won't be selling the house in the foreseeable future. Instead, we've got a cop living there now. Long term, the goal is that our old dream home can be his lifetime dream home. He's well aware of the old neighbor's antics and doesn't sound like the kind of guy who's going to be run out of his new home very easily. :)

    In even better news, our cop friend is the sort of person who appreciates a good compost heap and the work we put into the land and gardens.

    The old garden was in rather wild condition (a garden gets that way if your neighbor starts shooting whenever he sees you in your yard.) Friendly neighborhood cop and his wife have already given it a good trim and are looking forward to seeing it all come into bloom.

    It sure is nice to know that my old garden is being taken care of, some nice folks will be enjoying our old dream home, we're in a place that's possibly even dreamier, and old neighbor finally has some incentive to start behaving like a good, law abiding citizen.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Transplants in the new garden

  • diggerdee zone 6 CT
    10 years ago

    Lynda, sorry you had to leave your home, but it sounds like it is working out very well! Neighbors really do make or break a living situation. I've been blessed with mostly good neighbors, and as a matter of fact I'm very sad because my wonderful neighbor of 18 years just moved last month. He hasn't sold his house yet, and I am hoping he sells to someone at least as great as he was - or if not, then at least someone who is quiet and minds his own business!

    Best of luck to you in your new home and garden - and have fun WSing those annuals this winter!

    Dee

  • vvesper
    10 years ago

    Nice to see you here again, Lynda! Yes, I remember the intense winter sowing! How sad that your neighbors were so bad as to force you into moving. But how nice that you had a nice policeman available to move in and hopefully whip them into shape! What an excellent resolution!

    We have had mostly good neighbors, but just enough issues to understand a bit of what you went through. Glad to hear you're enjoying the new house AND the new neighbors!

Sponsored
Elegant Kitchen and Bath
Average rating: 5 out of 5 stars13 Reviews
VA & DC's Finest General Contractor