A few weeks ago I was contacted by some folks who have homes in a tiny house community a few miles from downtown. Last year they had a pollinator garden designed and installed and were looking for someone to take over the care and maintenance of the garden. The garden is designed to be low-maintenance over time, but with our rainy springs and super hot summers, the weeds had begun to invade the spots between the plants. After three days of weeding and mulching, the established plants have some breathing room and when the heat recedes in early fall, I’ll be dividing several plants to fill in bare spots. After consulting with the neighborhood, we may fill in with some comfrey and other additional plantings.
The garden includes mountain mint, black-eyed susans, butterfly milkweed, blueberries, oakleaf hydrangea, wild bee balm and golden ragwort. The unique rattlesnake master and hairy beardtongue are also planted there. It was a pleasure to rescue the site from weed encroachment and I’m happy to help it establish into a perennial site of beauty and a haven for wildlife.
While much of what I concentrate on relates to food production, I have plenty of time to do general landscaping as well. In particular, I enjoy helping folks convert spaces that were overwhelmed into a more manageable style.
This is achieved by choosing perennial plantings and adding heavy mulch cover and/or weed barrier cloth.
For this cozy backyard, the homeowners and I tag teamed removing grass, digging paths and laying down a weed barrier cloth then adding small river rock. We’ll keep the area mulched with wood chips for weed suppression and they’ll spend more time enjoying their space and less time doing tedious maintenance.
