Looking upward

So ... it has been a while.

I will give no excuses. There will be no tap dancing around the fact that I have been MIA.

I could ask the one person still looking at this blog for forgiveness but ..... I am not sure if anyone is there!

So let me ramble to myself and hope someone will stop by to say hey!

We have had strange weather for a winter in Iowa. We had two weeks of lovely warm sweatshirt weather in December and two more weeks of the same type of weather in January.

February also had lovely clothesline-drying days.

Then spring arrived.

With 10" of snow.

And now ... we are experiencing below normal temperatures.

So I sit. 
And anxiety sets in as I not so patiently wait for warmer weather.

This can mean only one thing.
I binge watch gardening shows.

I have fallen in love with Monty Don and gardening shows from the BBC. Seriously.

But I learned some gardening lessons that I will be applying to our mixed perennial beds.

Rule #1 ... Limit your plant palette to SEVEN plants.  Yea ... that is not going to happen but a little of this and little of that makes a garden schizophrenic.  And we all do it! There are just so many wonderful plants.

And I want all of them!

But this year, I am trying to plant larger drifts of the same plant to make a larger impact.

I am certain there will be no beds with only 7 varieties of plants but we will try to make the beds more cohesive.

Rule #2 ... Gardens need a focal point and a way to get there.
Aha!!! That means pathes. Today, I am searching out the medium I want to use.

Rule #3 ... Grow up! No, seriously. Grow up.
Last year, I started with honeysuckle planted to cover the little gazebo and a couple of climbing roses. We have always had a lots of clematis but we still need more.
Honey is currently building screening that will support climbing roses. And I am looking at a climbing hydrangea to scramble up a tree.

We are working on yearly plans to focus on specific areas in the garden. We have always worked on projects every year in the garden ... but we might work on a feature near the fire pit or bench under the apple trees.

Now .. we are focusing on small sections to pull together a specific area together. 

Garden plans are done and are being implemented.  I really hope you will like them and will stop by to see them all.

Maybe you are the one person still reading this!!