Springtime in Lake Chelan is such a happy place to be!
The vegetables we planted in the Chicken Garden have just begun to pop and the rest of the property is turning that lovely vibrant green we crave. After such a long, cold winter, we are all happy to be outside and back in action!
Exciting news for us: the flower garden is underway! I spent some time researching flowers, picking out seeds, and designing a layout for the garden. The flower garden will be on the Meadow, along the road coming up our hill, so anyone driving by will be able to see it. My vision is to have an array of bright colors, and for the garden to be an immediate attention grabber. I included a picture of my garden layout below.
Originally I thought it would be neat to have a field of Lavender – but Sunflowers are our thing! – so I scrapped the Lavender fields and decided to plant Mammoth Sunflowers on the northern half of the garden.
I opted to purchase my seeds and plants this year from Lowe’s and Home Depot, where I could also purchase some other garden supplies I needed. I do love a one-stop-shop. I was able to find almost everything I needed through them, with the exception of some of the less common flowers – Bells of Ireland, Amaranthus, Agastache, Queen Anne’s Lace and Butterflyweed. Those I found online through Park Seed and Burpee, a couple well known heirloom seed suppliers. Our 6 rows of Lavender were mostly all propagated from the garden of a family friend, and we supplemented established plants for every 6 propagations. I bought the established Lavender plants at Lowe’s.
I positioned the garden to run North and South, and chose the placement of each flower carefully, taking into consideration whether the plant is a sun-lover, a shade-lover, or somewhere in between. I paired my plants up in rows depending on the amount of space they need to grow, watering needs, shade/sun needs and of course – depending on their color, so similar colors would be spaced out – purely for aesthetic. We laid down black ground cover where the walking rows would be and covered them with wood chips. This part of our property had been barren for so long, it was a wonderful sight to see something neat and structured being put together here! During the set-up process, we had many neighbors pausing to ask what we were up to.
With the flower garden underway, the rest of our work is maintenance of these 26 acres. Between all the trees and shrubs we’ve planted, various vegetable gardens, large fields to keep mowed and borders to maintain, we’ve got our work cut out for us. It’s a good thing we have a team of can-doers who like to be outside!
