My first entry on this great site! We have spent the last week tidying up our front yard. Luckily, it didn't really need much work, as my husband has it looking very tidy already, but I felt it needed some colour (flowers!!!!), and all the planters along the driveway wall needed cleaning out.
I had gotten inspired my new mag which I bought while home in New Zealand. It is the Notebook, from Australia. There is also a website, which is very nice, and inspiring (www.notebookmagazine.com). There was a short article on Dahlias, with some beautiful photos, and I thought it would be nice to have some in the front yard. We were down in Rome on Sunday 1st April, to go to Ikea, and there is also a HUGE homewares shop next door, so in we went...and they had bulbs on sale, and great range of Dahlias! I chose a small selection of pinks and whites (we already have well-established lavander and jasmine plants, and I didn't want to clash!).
During the week, I reclaimed a tiny patch of wall space, by transplanting the strawberries down to the back yard, around the new olive tree. There is a nice stone circle around that tree, which hubby organised last year...only he had planted it with grass (lawn obession). I dug out that grass, and the strawberries are very happy with their new home! I left the raspberry canes where they were, as they had already been cut back, and are coming away nicely again...already some fruit beginning to form, as it has been such a mild winter.
So....my wee patch left behind was dug over, and I added some rotted horse manure and compost, and left it a couple of days, then in went the Dahlias! My nearly-4 year old daughter helped me dig the holes, as did my 1 year old son! We also had to make some holes in hubby's other patch of special grass, as I had bought way too many tubers!! Anyway, there is a big old telephone pole in that corner of the yard, and the jasmine plants haven't quite covered the gap, so the two white dahlias should grow up and fill in the hole! We also planted a "Pink Lady" lily, between a lavander and a jasmine, for an added burst of perfume! I love scented gardens!
So...then it was onto the planters. I went with my mother-in-law to the nursery to get some pansies, and petunias, and picked up a scarlet carnation to plant in front of the dahlias, to cover up the dirt a bit, until the dahlias come up! We weeded the flower holes along the driveway (when they concreted the drive, I had them leave 11 rectangles along the wall to plant flowers in), then added manure, and put 2 pansies in each one. We have a range of colours from yellow, purple, pink through to red. Lovely splashes of bright! When I started weeding the first planter, I discovered that it was full of oxalyis (spelling??)...so out with 4 year old's sandpit sieve, and we sieved all that soil, mixed it with the manure, and back in it went, to be planted with petunias! Big job! Had to do another 2 planters like that, too!
HOwever, yesterday, we finally finished, and it looks a treat! Hubby got out there with the hand mower, and trimmed the grass again, then daughter helped me put left over terracotta tiles (small rectangles) around the main dahlia bed, to deliniate it from the lawn. It is a bit piecemeal, but the idea is there, and I think it looks like SPRING!!! Can't wait til those dahlias start peeking up through the soil!
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