Sunday, May 29, 2011

Project: Moving the Seven Sisters

I have pondered which is to be preferred: A brand new home on a bare lot with a perfectly clean palette on which to create your own gardens just the way you want. Or to take over an established garden with shape and design, the hard and expensive work done, trees, shrubs, spring bulbs, perennials planted, a mature lawn, and gardens shaped and planted.  Such is the Garden Spot, but it seems that we are spending our gardening energy undoing what the previous 4 owners did to the Garden Spot, trying to make it our own. Today we removed the evergreen spreaders in the front of the house and then dug up the 7 cedar trees on the patio. Now I have two fresh palettes to plan and plant. We transplanted the trees to the back of the property where we are trying to create more of an nature habitat. One at Onez asked her followers what they would be doing this week-end to celebrate World Environment Day. I would like to think that for gardeners every day is dedicated to the environment as we do our best to improve our bit mother earth. For us here at the Garden Spot, we find our joy in the habitats that we are trying to create.

Before our work began, I spent quite a bit of time taking pictures of these little warblers that were feeding on one of the snowball bushes on the north side of the house. I spied them from the bathroom window, so the pictures are not as sharp as they should be. We will have to dig out the snowballs bushes, for, as you can see, they are rather diseased. Non-the-less, the bushes seem to attract the little warblers. I also "chased" a bullock's oriole all day, but couldn't seem to get a decent picture. Once we spotted the orioles at the feeder, we put out grape jelly and orange wedges. One male kept returning, but I just couldn't get a good picture.

A female Virginia warbler (vermivora virginia), one of the little warblers that migrates through northern Colorado, feasting on a snowball bush. 

Her companion. He is quite colorful. I took these two pictures out of the bathroom window


Today's first project: remove these spreaders from the front of the house.
 

Well, that wasn't so bad, was it? A clean slate now. 

Clementas that is hidden behind the bush. It is supposed to grow to the top of the trellis. 






Now for the Seven Sisters.


These cedars have been transplanted to the back of the acreage where we are trying to create more of a bird habitat. And that is how we recognized World Environment Day at the Garden Spot, something that we try to do each day. 


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8 comments:

  1. Great photographs of the birds. You certainly worked hard on World Environment day moving the cedars, not an easy job but you have moved them to another area and not disposed of them so excellent!!! We are hoping to spend some time in our garden today, cutting the lawn and plenty of weeding, although my daughter and her husband are coming over with Harry, so all will stop then!!!

    Have a great week, Jackie in Surrey, UK.

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  2. Wow, you've been busy. How lovely to have such a big plot to work on. I'm lucky that David Austin roses can be found in most of our garden centres. Lovely clematis :)

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  3. Thank you for the mention, Ann. You have a wonderful garden. You can choose to keep it the way it is or change the look whenever you wish. I can see the hard work involved but I am sure there is a lot of joy in seeing the outcome. Frankly, moving the 7 sisters seem a little overwhelming for me.

    You have lovely birds and beautiful flowers. Environment Day is celebrated daily in Garden Spot. :)

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  4. Wow! That's a lot of work, moving those spreaders! The seven sisters, too? My back hurts from twenty minutes or so in the garden. I've been watching the birds, too.

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  5. Mom-Your snowballs are not "diseased" - they have aphids. Treat them. Moving the Seven Sisters and getting rid of those nasty junipers were great decisions. Now we can do something fun and pretty back there. You should let me do some wonder work for you. Oh, I have a new follower too!

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  6. That Clematis is beautiful and will probably thrive now that it has some breathing room.
    I think it is better to take over a garden, at least you have something to work with! I started with bare bones and it has taken 10 years to get my lilac tree to actually grow more than one clump of blooms.
    Thanks for your comment on my blog about the A. Violet.

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  7. Quite a bit of shifting you've been doing, sometimes not an easy task moving plants. I shifted a few overly mature shrubs this year as well, a great feeling re-doing a patch u really don't like. The clematis is really pretty. Keep up the good work! Kelli

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  8. Oh what a beautiful clematis...I just can't seem to get one to grow.

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Back in the Swing of Things

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