After The Flower Tower: Plans For Summer Gardening

This post is part of series sponsored by the Home Depot.
Opinions and photos are mine.
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As I mentioned at the start of this series, we have kind of ignored the garden and our yard for the past few years running. Given the taste of success with our Flower Tower from Home Depot’s Garden Club, we sat down as a family and made a list of things we want to work on this Spring and Summer.
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1. Revamp our raised bed garden 
In the beginning we planted honeysuckle behind the garden bed, and it was lovely for a number of years, but it seriously has taken over. Last weekend, in between the two snowstorms, Bryan took a chainsaw (literally) and cut that sucker down. It made me sad, because I used to be able to see and smell it from our kitchen window – but he was right to do it. It was hurting the whole point of having a raise vegetable garden – actually growing vegetables. We also need to clean up around the bed, turn over and freshen up the soil. (Here are the Home Depot’s instructions for a raised bed if you don’t have one already.)

BackyardSept08_04

2. Trim back some of the bushes, especially the 10 foot tall smoke bush
Not joking. It was over 10 feet tall. It is gorgeous, but it was leaning out into the yard like Sigmund The Sea Monster. We asked the peeps at Home Depot, and lucky for us, Spring is the time to cut back smoke bushes. And cut back Bryan did. So much so that when Dex saw it, he said, “Does Mama know you did that?” Ha! We are crossing fingers it will come back strong.

Red Veins

3. Get a handle on the weeds
Dex is at an age where he wants more money and is more capable of doing the extra chores to get it. So he is on weed patrol this summer. We are not really fond of spraying the lawn with chemicals, especially with our dog (although we know there are some safer alternatives.) I would just prefer to use my tiny manual laborer. Dex the Dandelion Killer!

Dandelion Drops

4. Add drip irrigation to the front garden bed
Our house faces east, which we actually wanted. When it snows in Denver, we may get more inches than other parts of the country, but our blazing sun melts it faster. When you have an east-facing house, the rising sun eliminates shoveling quite a bit of the time. That blazing sun – and our usual drought conditions during summer makes it hard to grow flowers on that east side of the house. There is one bed between the walkway and the patio that never gets enough water, and flowers just wither there, with the exception a few amazingly hardy coneflower (echinacea) plants. This summer, we’ll fix that!

LadyBug_1 
5. Add more “vertical gardening” flower pots.
We love our Flower Tower and we are going to add a few more around the yard of varying sizes in existing pots, but Bryan really wants to experiment with other vegetation. Several of you suggested herbs, and we think that is a great place to start! With a small yard like ours, it is the perfect way to maximize space.

Gardens_30

What about you? 
What is your yard or garden like now?
Where would you like it to be?

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It’s home improvement time, and The Home Depot has everything you need to #DigIn for Spring. No matter what projects you want to tackle, they have great values on all you need. They’re ready to help you with renovation ideas and expert advice, too.

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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Home Depot.

This article has 8 comments

  1. WilderJanie

    I dont have to do anything really since we are in an apartment, but I look forward to your pretty pics!

  2. kriddie

    I’ve got peas, lettuce, spinach,parsley & Swiss chard growing now. But gotta wait until it stops snowing before I can plant everything else (tomatoes, peppers, squash, zucchini, basil & more!) So excited for summer! Love your posts about the #Digin campaign & can’t wait to see all the pix of everything you grow this summer!

  3. Jen

    We joined the apprentice gardener program for C and she is loving it. We also belong to Zahradka farm CSA. Our porch is full of container veggies just waiting for the ground to get a teensy bit warmer. I’m considering going vegetarian for the summer just because we will be under attack from veggies!

  4. Corey

    I had Kale and spinach that survived the winter, So I added more spinach and some lettuce to the raised bed with the spinach. Next week. The kale Raise bed will get some saplings and seeds. Sugarsnap peas, green beans, and 4 type cucumbers from seeds that I will have growing up a netting, plus on sapling I bought from a neighbor kid. 5 tomato saplings. 3 cherry, one beef stake, and one unknown from the neighbor kid. Also a pepper from the neighbor kid. My blueberry bush, this year I’m netting it to try and keep out the birds. Radishes and spring and regular onions, from seed. Mint in a pot that survived from last year. Strawberries is a pot that survived from last year. I still have one raised bed untouched and undecided. And will likely plant a few things, also outside outside the beds.

  5. Jenn

    I honestly hate gardening! But thanks for sharing your pics.

  6. Guru Girl

    Your gardening visuals are beautiful. Almost enough to make me want to put in some of the work you describe too. Almost;)

  7. Felix Lee

    We have vegetable garden this year. It feels great to be eating veggies fresh from our garden.

  8. lawn care calgary

    I am in love this post! Keep up the good work!!!!!!

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