My Summer Project: Part 1.

Each year it seems I get busier and busier and have more and more projects.  Much of it is of course self-inflicted, but it leaves me with less time to do things like blogging.  Last year's big project was ripping out the gardens and working on the house to get it ready for sale.  For a few reasons we decided to pull the house off of the market, refinance, and stay put for the time being.

This led to a project for this year; putting gardens back in.  Since we're staying put and we both hate cutting grass, I've decided to minimize that chore and remove large sections of lawn.  Part 1 covers the biggest section I've removed so far, the east driveway garden.  Most of this was done over a period of 3 days.

I started out by spraying the area with roundup for a complete kill.  The next weekI brought in 10 cubic yards of compost and did a rough spreading to the areas I didn't want to remove any sod..  Since my lawn was higher than the sidewalk,  I also rented a sod cutter to remove sod from the edge along the driveway and sidewalk and then finished spreading the compost.

Once the area was graded how I wanted it, I started placing plants.  I also had to go dig up some plants from their temporary location that had been in the old garden.  Once everything was in place I started to plant, and got poured on.  Twice.  So I had to finish the next day.  I also did an application of preen to prevent weed seeds from germinating.  I do have some weeding to do along the edges of the driveway and sidewalk.  I haven't mulched it yet, and I'm planning to use leaf mulch from my maple trees this fall.  That way I can easily do my spring/fall maintenance of cutting plants back with a lawn mower.

These plants sat on the driveway much of the summer.

In the process of  compost spreading.

Compost spreading finished.  Ready to plant!

Plants are placed.  Time to plant... ?

Or not.  The rain had other ideas.

All planted.  For now.

So, what did I plant?  90 varieties.  Here's the list:
Abies concolor 'Compacta'
Abies koreana 'Freudenberg'
Agastache 'Black Adder'
Agastache rupestris
Agastache 'Tango'
Allium 'Millenium'
Allium 'Summer Beauty'
Amsonia elliptica
Amsonia elliptica 'Alba'
Andropogon gerardii 'Indian Warrior'
Asclepias exaltata
Asclepias incarnata
Asclepias tuberosa
Baptisia australis 'Big Ben'
Baptisia 'Dutch Chocolate'
Buddleia x davidii 'Bicolor'
Campanula 'Summertime Blues'
chamaecyparis 'Fernspray Gold'
Chelone Black Ace'
Clematis columbiana var. tenuiloba
Coreopsis 'Route 66'
Coreopsis 'Star Cluster'
Coreopsis 'Sunset Strip'
Dianthus 'Cardiac Arrest'
Echinacea 'Firebird'
Echinacea 'Showoff'
Echinacea 'Sunbird'
Eryngium planum 'Blue Hobbit'
Geranium macrorhizum 'Variegatum'
Ginkgo biloba 'Spring Grove'
Hemerocallis 'Fujita Scale'
Hemerocallis 'Golden Zebra'
Hemerocallis 'Johnny Cash'
Heuchera Dolce 'Licorice'
Heuchera richardsonii
Heuchera 'Stainless Steel'
Heuchera villosa 'Autumn Bride'
Hydrangea paniculata 'Bobo'
Indigofera kirilowii
Iris 'Purgatory'
Kniphoffia 'Mango Popsicle'
Kniphoffia 'Papaya Popsicle'
Lavandula 'Ellegance Purple'
Lespedeza 'Yakushima'
Liatris pychnostachya
Lonicera reticulata 'Kintzley's Ghost'
Metasequoia glyptostroboides 'Matthaei Broom'
Monarda 'Grand Marshall'
Nepeta 'Kit Kat'
Nepeta 'Little Trudy'
Oenothera 'Lemon Drop'
Paeonia x Itoh 'Bartzella'
Paeonia x Itoh 'Kopper Kettle'
Panicum virgatum 'Cheyenne Sky'
Panicum virgatum 'Northwind'
Penstemon 'Prairie Twilight'
Penstemon Riding Hood 'Blue'
Penstemon Riding Hood 'Delft Blue'
Penstemon Riding Hood 'Red'
Penstemon x mexicali 'Red Rocks'
Phlox glabberima 'Triple Play'
Pinus nigra 'Pierrick Bregeon'
Pinus parviflora 'Aoi'
Pulsatilla vulgaris 'Papageno'
Rosa 'Bullseye'
Rosa 'Lichfield Angel'
Rosa 'Watercolors'
Ruta graveolens
Salix melanostachys
Salix rosmarinafolius
Sedum 'Autumn Charm'
Sedum 'Autumn Delight'
Sedum 'Chocolate Drop'
Sedum kamtshaticum 'The Edge'
Sedum makinoi 'Ogon'
Sedum 'Mr. Goodbud'
Sedum 'Oracle'
Sedum sieboldii 'Variegatum'
Seseli gummiferum
Stachys 'Pink Cotton Candy'
Verbena bonariensis
Verbena 'Snow Flurry'
Vernonia 'Southern Cross'
Veronica incana 'Pure Silver'
Veronicastrum virginicum
Viburnum lantana 'Variegata'
Viburnum 'Spiced Bouquet'
Weigela florida 'Eyecatcher'
Weigela praecox 'April Snow'
Zauschneria garretii

Andropogon 'Indian Warrior'

Echinacea 'Firebird'

Rose 'Watercolors'

Vernonia 'Southern Cross'

Part 2 will cover where I actually started with the yard, the north side of the house.  Part 3 will cover a different business-related project that caused some issues this year.