My first garden has come to an end. This garden was created about 15 years ago to keep the kids off of the neighbor's split rail fence between our houses. It was a mixed shrub and perennial border. Because I had more time than money, I accepted any plant that was offered to me. Many plants came with the warning of "be careful, it may get out of control." With all the space I had to fill, that was no problem. For a number of years, I kept the garden under control. The ditch lilies filled in quite nice. The lady bells reseeded where I wanted them to reseed. I always left some of the seed heads of the coneflowers on through the winter so there would be more plants. The pastel yarrow slowly crept through the bed. Then, the kids grew up and I started working at a nursery full time - with a lot of overtime hours in the spring and fall. While I wasn't paying attention, the invasive plants took over. The white lace flower, salvia and daisies even escaped the garden and took over the lawn. The plants that behaved and the poor shrubs in the garden couldn't compete with the out of control perennials.
I have spent several weekends this summer digging up the perennials with a shovel. Then I went back through the garden with a pitchfork in search of roots, especially daylily roots. The bed has been turned over many times and Round Up was repeatedly sprayed.
The new garden is coming along. So far, there are tree form Tardiva Hydrangeas, Green Velvet Boxwood, Gold Dust Abelia and Sky Pencil Holly. The chaotic mess of a garden is being transformed into a formal garden that will hopefully behave itself and look good year round.
I just hope all the compost I recently added and the regular watering doesn't resurrect the plants I'm trying to kill.
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