Campion Garden Improved!

Thursday morning was cloudy, so I focused on a great cleaning of the inside of the house. After so many days of focus on the yard, the inside needed some love. Then I went shopping. Now that we have a homo sapiens invasion, shopping Friday-to-Sunday sucks. 

Then I started working on the Campion garden. When I got this place, there was a large grove of Campion, a wildflower, growing here in a bed of weeds and vines. It was never a garden; it’s time to do a massive weeding.

It was lovely to begin a task so much simpler than my last project, tilling the fruit tree area and covering it with topsoil. Patience and perseverance are key. The Campion garden (Cg) is the penultimate eyesore in the backyard.

After just two hours work in the morning, the Cg looked vastly better. I’d cleared the area closest to the boardwalk. In the newly cleared area, I put four Chrysanthemums, and then, scattered amidst the Campion, I planted several beautiful blue Liatris. And on the west end of the garden, I planted another Hydrangea. 

By the end of the day, the Cg needed no apologies; it looked grand, but there’s still a lot of weeding to do so that’s what I’ll do today and the weekend. 

It’s amazing how great it feels to turn yet another “raw” space into manicured beauty. Yes, I know. I’m old school in the garden. I’m all about ultimate control—at least, in some gardens.

And, gosh I feel good about my backyard. It is like a park now—a park with dead lawn. Remember, there was absolutely nothing here when I moved in. Not even soil. It was sandstone, weeds, forest fall and vines.

I also feel good that Dianne is coming on Monday and Pam and Sue a week later. I’ve known them all since the seventies.

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Late summer has large fat baby birds visiting with their parents. Only now, they feed themselves. Pinecone Park is positively infested with families of birds. And there are many species! Some come for suet, others for seed, some for the billions of fruit flies that emerge from the compost and others come to drink and bathe in the fountain and bird bath.

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Last evening, I baked a beautiful French-style tarte aux pêches for my neighbours, Shelly and Kevin. They’re facing a challenge and I want them to know I care for them both, very much; they are my alarm “first responders.”

The courtyard.

Looking out back from the deck.

The essential hammock; the wasteland is in the back.

The Fern Garden.

This is what the wasteland looks like. All weeds and vines on top
of a decade of forest fall—needles, cones and caps. This is what
the land under my fruit trees looked like until the other day.

The naked earth is where I'll seed next to the central garden.

This is the area under the fruit trees. It's now ready to be seeded.

Ivy is now growing on the base of the fountain!

My back door access.

A wildflower bouquet I picked on my walk yesterday.

And this is where the Campion garden meets the boardwalk.