I Learned How To Make A Little Garden

I started gardening in the spring season of 2007, when my son turned a year old. It all began when I went online to visit the websites of The Butchart Gardens and Stanley Park, places I visited in Vancouver B.C. The memory of being surrounded and invigorated by the beauty of nature at these parks made me purchase seeds from The Butchart Garden's online store.

I grew annuals from indoors and sowed hundreds of poppy seeds outdoors. I believe I made a mistake sowing the poppy seeds because i washed them away with my watering. Soon, my indoor seeds sprouted and seemed like they took forever to grow. Being impatient and wanting instant gratification, I planned my patio bed and purchased a few ground cover, grasses, and flowers on the internet.

Planning everything that would grow in my patio bed took a lot of research. I had to consider the foliage, bloom time and color, deer resistance, the plant's size at maturity, etc. Eventually when my seedlings were strong enough to resist tugging, i took them outdoors to harden them off in the weather. I then transferred them to larger containers. The bigger plants were planted directly in the ground. I mulched a bit and pulled out tons of weeds. At the end of summer, I added violas and an azalea bush purchased at a bargain.



Aside from getting information from online nurseries, visiting the gardening section of our local paper was quite helpful. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has videos that show how to start with seed, propagate plants, etc.

Somewhere, I read that there is no real green thumb. Plants just need to be watered and cared for well. That's what I've been doing all season long.



See my patio bed below. It all started with a memory, then came an idea, then my experiments and mistakes. Now I have something to care for, watch, and photograph every season of the year. After being a stay at home mom.

Save The Hostas and Hydrangeas

Here is a neighbor's house that sits behind ours. According to the Allegheny County Website, it was built in 1890. The picture above was most likely taken in the 1980's or 90's and the residents then loved to garden. To the right of the foundation of this house are ferns, a few of which remain today. On the right side of the house, plants are now growing in the middle of a hedge of weeds, wild bushes, and poison ivy that separates this property from ours.

It was only this season that I spent time investigating this hedge. I found a hydrangea arborescens annabelle bush which has grown about 12 feet wide and 5 feet tall. Hydrangeas are not in my garden ambition because I always thought they were hard to maintain. And here they are, blooming non-stop inspite of this year's late frost.

In May it was a joy to see blue-green foliage on the ground until recently, I found hostas in trouble. I believe they are the blue umbrella ones. These hostas were just a dream and now they are here. They have spread about 15 feet wide, around the hydrangeas. They are approximately 2 feet tall.

There is a lot of vinca on the ground and forsythia is in abundance. There are wild bushes of berries which explains why i see the backyard birds underneath. Poison ivy is everywhere.





There are lilies growing under the tree by the road. I do not know for sure what they are, all I remember from the past seasons is orange blooms. They have not bloomed yet this year and there are no buds. Right in front of the lilies are blue ornamental grass, 'fescue' as I was told.



Like any gardener I have dreams for my backyard. For now, I would like to save the hydrangeas and hostas and whatever other treasures there are. As a new gardener and a transplant from Southeast Asia, I am clueless where to begin, and how to clean up the hedge. All I know is that my backyard has some good plants, and I would like to preserve and propagate what a previous neighbor had planted with love and devotion. I am blessed with what is growing in my backyard, it is a gift.


Between the hydrangea and hosta blooms, are stems with buds ready to open. More lilies i think.