Comments on: Pondering Land Use

By: Jan

Jan — Tue, 27 May 2008 05:37:38 +0000

If I have that big area of land then I would do the same as with you. I would put up an ornamental place, make it all green, develop it well and come up with a business out of it.

By: Five views of one path: Garden Bloggers’ Design Workshop | Cold Climate Gardening

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 02:25:15 +0000

[...] realize this until we moved to the rural 15 acres where we now live, when I struggled with how to turn acreage into a garden. That a path exists gives a sense of safety. You know you wonâ€™t get lost or swallowed up as long [...]

By: Kathy Purdy

Kathy Purdy — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 12:12:35 +0000

edenZ3, that would be easier to do if the flora was natural, that is, native. When the plants are not only alien (meaning not native) but invasive, taking over, it’s really not smart to sit by and do nothing.

By: edenZ3

edenZ3 — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 10:33:32 +0000

Other than the area directly surrounding your home, leave the majority of it natural…don’t mess with it. Let the natural flora and fauna be.

By: windyridge

windyridge — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 04:04:38 +0000

This was an excellent post. I have a few acres not under pasture or woods and was so overwhelmed with the possibilities I didn’t do anything at all! The native plants idea is a start.

By: Rundy

Rundy — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 16:17:06 +0000

Re: Bill’s comments about deer.

We have plenty of deer in this area but they haven’t yet bothered any of our gardens. I think that while we have a vigorous deer population there is also plenty of land in this area for them to forage on and we still have enough of a hunting populace to keep the deer population from spiraling out of control. The deer may find our garden delights more tasty but they are still sufficently people shy, and have enough to eat elsewhere, that they don’t venture that close to our house.

The only problem I can remember us having with deer is one or two springs they nibbled off some branches on some of my young trees.

What we do have a big problem with is rabbits and voles. A good cat does wonders for both of those problems, but right now we don’t have a cat . . .

By: Talitha Purdy

Talitha Purdy — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 21:15:39 +0000

What can I say? Speaking of different perceptions, the potted rosemary that you said does “fine”, I remember being kicked of the steps mulitple times–to no damage to the plant, true, but several broken terra cotta pots. One of them broke, if I remember right, about 15 minutes after you potted it up in a brand new, just-bought, terra cotta pot. You’ve since switched to a plastic pot, with less casualities, but I think the steps situation is just a reflection of the larger picture. I can think of many other plant casualties around the house (wasn’t there a double-blood root and a bike not too long ago?), and your recactions have been from mild to, um, less than mild. Not that it really matters, but a certain other person does have a reason for thinking otherwise.

By: Kathy Purdy

Kathy Purdy — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 14:28:24 +0000

See, Bill, you can live with a person and not realize that the two of you have a different perception of what is going on. In general, I don’t put prized flowers by the main entrance. Last year, I bought a Salvia ‘Black and Blue’ to go in a nearby flower bed. But I found it at Lowes long before the last frost, and I knew it was tender. So, for the time being, I potted it up and put it on the steps, where I usually put my (potted) rosemary, which does fine there. Little did I know how brittle the salvia stems were. Not only were several broken off by passersby, but I broke off the rest of them trying to finally plant it in the ground! And it took the whole d–n summer for it to recover, just in time to get knocked down by frost!

But for the most part, I don’t think I have anything planted around the doorway that I am not expecting to have damage. Sure, I am disappointed when it does get damaged, but (from my perspective) my disappointment is mild. A certain other person seems to think otherwise. What can I say?

By: bill

bill — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 13:51:55 +0000

Talitha has a good point I think. We have had lots of accidents of grandkids running and falling onto prised flowers or thorny rosebushes, followed by discussions of, why would you put flowers where kids are going to play?

Are you plagued by wildlife though? Most of our flowers and vegetables have to be secured from the deer. I am not sure I could have a secret garden unless it consisted entirely of things they won’t eat or molest (and apparantly not much falls into that category).

By: Kathy Purdy

Kathy Purdy — Sat, 25 Mar 2006 21:01:52 +0000

When there are no longer small children wanting to play on a lawn, I will certainly consider moving the vegetable garden there. And once we move the vegetable garden down to the house, we can plant swaths of poppies where the vegetables used to be. We do have some fragrant plants by the porch, and have had more that I planted that died or weren’t as fragrant as I thought, or they are fragrant but the fragrance doesn’t carry.