Our Garden Update

Nic + I have been working in the garden SO MUCH this year, so I thought it would be fun to give an update on what we’ve been doing!

We have multiple flower gardens and some have needed some love since we moved in, nearly two years ago! This has been a slow process but we have tackled so much since we’ve been here. We’ve really tried to do everything ourselves, so far! Recently, we called in 1st Response Pest Management from Columbus to come help us keep our bugs down. I’ll talk more about what they did later in this post.

Our gardens have been tricky because they are primarily shaded but we do have some partial sun/shade areas. We have very little full sun (6+ hours per day). We also have very large maple trees that surround our house and tower over our gardens. While we absolutely love these trees, they do present a challenge when determining what can be planted.

The maples’ branches and leaves prevent a lot of rain from reaching our plants, so in some places, I’ve had to make sure I have drought tolerant plants there. We may have to consider some sort of an irrigation system down the road if plants are not thriving as they should.

Another challenge with our yard is that it is sloped. Thankfully, the previous owners installed erosion-friendly retaining walls, which is amazing! Otherwise, I’m pretty sure we may just have landslides everywhere.

They also had tarps installed, which I’m sure definitely has helped with weeds, bugs, and erosion over the years. However, since we are redesigning and planting, the tarps ended up getting in the way more than helping us! We took them out (I hope we don’t regret this) and when we did, we had SO MANY ants, both pavement and carpenter, that surfaced and created little sand mounds everywhere.

So, we called 1st Response Pest Management to come and spray for the ants as well as for general pests. Full disclosure: I’ve always been SO against pest control… both at this house and our last house. I didn’t trust some of the big box companies and I also didn’t feel like having them spray was worth our money nor my worries about it not being safe for pets and kids. With 1st Response, I voiced these concerns to them and they put my fears immediately to ease. They reassured me that once the spray is dry, it’s safe.

So, Ed came from 1st Response and sprayed our basement, crawlspaces, garage, and our exterior. 1st Response is a small, locally-owned and operated business that really puts customer service first. I can highly, highly recommend this service because we visually saw those ants disappear within a day or two. 🙂 We are currently thinking about having them come back for their Mosquito Control service, too. You can read more about their residential pest control services HERE.

In terms of a plant update, here’s what we already had in our garden that we are keeping:

• Hostas
• Weigela
• Roses
• Spirea
• DayLilies
• Stargazer Lilies
• Evergreens shrubs & trees

Here’s what we’ve already planted in our garden:

• Annabelle Hydrangeas
• Limelight Hydrangeas
• Endless Summer Hydrangeas
• Petite Shrub Roses
• Green Velvet Boxwood
• Firelight Hydrangeas
• Lilacs
• Coral Bells
• Astilbe
• Burning Bushes (these are invasive in some areas of the U.S. – but not where we live)
• Oakleaf Hydrangeas
• Lavender
• Peonies
• Rhododendron
• Ferns
• Tennessee Pink Redbud tree
• Redbud tree
• Stellar Pink Dogwood tree

I have a wishlist of plants that I’d still love to add to our property once we get ready to tackle more areas. Plants such as a Japanese Maple and Autumn Ferns are on this list! Check back to the blog soon… I’ll be sharing our garden layout with you and how I designed the spaces!