In Wyoming, spring is not marked by a day on the calendar nor does she show her face until long after the rest of you have embraced her warmer weather, tender greens, and first blushes of color. Living in Wyoming is always challenging, and sometimes beautiful, but it’s this time of year I find myself anxious for the long winter to end and I’m ready for the warmth of our too short summer. But before summer, we must have spring. It snowed here yesterday and when I went to town at 2 o’clock in the afternoon it was 36 degrees. Spring isn’t coming any time soon. Despite the seemingly never-ending winter, the snow will eventually stop, the temperatures will warm to the eighties and maybe even a few forays into the nineties and we will have a few months of wonderful weather. It will be dry; the ranchers will complain that there isn’t enough water, but we haven’t gotten enough rain in as long as I can remember. I’m not sure if it’s that we never get enough rain or if the ranchers just think no matter what, it’s never enough. I tend to think the later.
As winter slowly shifts towards spring I start to dream about landscaping and digging in the dirt. I dream of converting my very ordinary and quite boring yard into a garden full of trees, shrubs, and flowers with little paths and secret spots to sit and read a book. It would be an oasis in this barren, windswept land. Reality is quite a bit different. When we bought our house in May of 2001 we had great grass – very green and healthy – and a wonderful sprinkler system. However, we did not have a single tree, shrub, or flower. Not a one. There were two small flower beds, but I think they must have planted only annuals because there were no plants coming back. The first year I think I bought some annuals and potted them in pots on my patio and in the two existing beds, but there wasn’t a lot of money and there were so many things we needed for the house that the outdoors was largely neglected. Well not neglected because nothing is neglected with Travis around, but I didn’t do anything to make the outdoor space our own. The second year I bought some perennials and set out to plant them around the house. The problem with my plan (aside from the fact that I didn’t have any plan at all) was that the previous owners had established a rock border between the house and the grass and under the rock was landscaping fabric. You know, that black stuff that’s supposed to keep the weeds out and doesn’t do a damned thing except make it almost impossible to keep the grass out. Anyway, back to the perennials. Travis wouldn’t let me remove the rock, so I just cut holes in the black fabric and planted my perennials amongst the rocks. That kept me happy for another year, plus I took the bar exam the summer of 2003 and I don’t think I did anything except study. I certainly didn’t make time to plant or care for flowers. So I guess now we’re up to 2004. That year I took the rock out of one small area behind the house – just off the patio. Travis was not pleased and refused to help so I hauled all the rock out by myself, ripped up the landscape fabric (with great pleasure), mulched the soil and planted some perennials. I filled in the bed with some annuals and was quite happy with my work. That same year I talked Travis into planting a crab apple tree in the back yard. Progress, yes indeed. In 2005 we bought some small junipers for the front lawn in the hopes that one day they might act as a wind break. We also bought a tiny lilac bush and a few more perennials for my “new” bed. And of course, there were annuals for the pots. Last year I held my breath and prayed that the trees would come back (Travis was sure they would all die over the winter), and they did – survive, that is. I added a couple more perennials to the three beds I have and annuals, once again.
As 2007 approaches planting time I find myself dissatisfied with the results of my past efforts. I’m sure that is mostly because I didn’t have a plan when I started, and even if I had, I imagine my desires would have changed over time. I like all the things I’ve planted, but I’m not happy with the lack of cohesiveness of the design. Ok, let’s be honest, the complete lack of design. I find myself wishing for a large, glorious, country garden – full of not only flowers, but trees and shrubs as well. Maybe something like this, or this. The problem is that my knowledge in this area is quite limited, and my growing season short with harsh winters. I need to not only figure out what I want, but then determine what plants I can use in my zone (zone 4) to make that vision a reality, and then the most challenging aspect of it all will be to convince Travis to not only let me try, but to help me with it. To some this might seem like a mountain to climb, but I am determined. I found a great website dedicated to flower gardening – Flower Gardening Made Easy, and she recommends a couple of great books – A Foolproof Approach to Garden Design, Rodale’s Illustrated Encyclopedia of Perennials, and my personal favorite, Clueless in the Garden. I have also considered checking on the availability of a landscape design class offered by the community college or the university community enrichment program. However, I tend to learn best on my own if I’m given a good book. That is, after all, how I learned to knit. As for hiring a professional, I’m hesitant to hire a landscape designer for a couple of reasons. First, I don’t have the money right now – the whole not having a job really puts a damper on the disposable income, and second, I want to figure it out for myself. Hiring someone seems to me like I would be cheating, or admitting that I can’t do it. And especially when I have all this time on my hands. I know I should have been working on this over the winter, but it didn’t even occur to me until this week. So, I figure I can work on a plan over the next few weeks (I won’t be able to plant anything until the end of May or the first part of June anyway) and then work on Travis for a couple of weeks. I should get everything lined up just in time to start. My tentative plan is to work on the design and planting the trees and shrubs this year. I’d like to work on laying out the beds and getting them prepared for planting next year and I’d like to incorporate a raised bed off of my patio as a border to that space and as a place to plant herbs, at least in part.
If any of you have suggestions for resources or thoughts on my existing space, I’d love to hear from you. If you think I’m insane, I’d like to know that too! I need to order a couple of books, or maybe see if I can get them from the library (right, Carole!) and get started on the design phase. I’m sure you’ll be sick to death of all this landscaping business before I’m through. I’m nothing if not anal and obsessive.
