Spring Garden Update! Beautiful changes! // How’s It Growing?

My name is Laura and I’m a home gardener in Southern New Jersey zone 7b. Thank you for joining me in my garden!

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How’s It Growing? C/O Laura Boissonnault
PO Box 370 Paulsboro, NJ 08066

Hi everyone happy spring it may be spring on the calendar but it certainly doesn’t feel like spring outside oh it’s been so cold and I can’t complain because I know a lot of my garden friends have had snow but it’s all to be expected I did have to recover my

Fountains because I am taking no Chances with those so I’m really glad I did because it’s filled with ice right now it’s been so cold but I have one big change I wanted to share with you guys this is newly completed and I know I’ve

Talked about it and I wanted to show you from in here because I think you need to be able to see the perspective of the way things are moving along so Mark and I install just two fence panels yesterday I’ve got a lot of work and tweaking and bed shaping and

Things to do these are just put in here we will not be putting an arbor in because I think visually this is enough with such a small space I don’t want your eyes to be overly distracted so no Arbor here at all just two simple fence

Panels and what I’m going to do is end up planting my dalas in the back and then plant lots of perennials in the front so you know cone whatever I can fit conb flowers uh Salvia lots of of perennials along the front for like a little cottagey look so I’m really happy

With it I think it looks really nice it really defines this space I’ll be moving the Stepping Stones because they don’t make any sense right now and maybe I’ll divert them over to the greenhouse like have it go from the back patio to the greenhouse we’ll see I don’t have to use

Them they’re they were really cheap just stamped concrete papers that I got from Home Depot probably 15 years ago so um I’ll relocate them somewhere they used to be back behind our trash cans area so um that’s that you know someday big plan you know stepping stones that are like

Blue stone or something really pretty some kind of slate you know coming from the patio over to the greenhouse would would be the ideal solution but my bank account has not unlimited funds and unlimited plans unfortunately and things that I want to do so I just wanted to

Show you from the inside I think it looks really really good from the house it looks really pretty looking out from the family room and I think it really just defines this space and makes it feel like okay now you’re in the vegetable garden this is its own

Separate place I can do my little you know Whimsical hang the basket which I already have up there let me just show you from the outside oh first I did replace those boxwoods I was telling you about that had the boxwood Leaf minor after two years of trying to fix this

I’m done I seriously it was just too much and I felt like if they were becoming a host plant for the leaf Miner and maybe going to infect my other boxwoods I just I was done um you could actually hear them like a crackling like a snap crackle

Pop seriously when you walked over you would just hear a little click click click cck click and it was the sound of them eating my boxwood leaves from the inside out and I replaced them with these are those Cranberry Creek box Woods that that everybody’s talking

About now um and they look great they were really reasonably priced I got them on Amazon and I’m really happy with them I think they look better than the ones I had in there so so there’s that just place them in their n Nursery cans for

Now I still have to plant them um they came right as we were going to get some rain so I just kind of plopped them down in there but I will be planting those up soon and I think they look great so you really have to imagine that you know it’s winter we

Don’t have things actively growing at the moment but I’m going to make some beds all around the vences and have like I said perennials growing in front so it’s not just going to be two big panels floating like this it’ll be softened up by the plants all around it and you know

You’ll see the de the uh Del is floating above and them perennials in the front so it’s more just just serving as just like a little division a place where I can plant some things and have it seem you know like there’s a purpose and I’m not just throwing

Plants right in front of the vegetable garden I really feel it was necessary I really like the look of it I think it looks pretty simple and just enough and once that Fountain is running and flowers are growing it’s it’s really really going to look beautiful but as

You can see I have a lot of reshaping and tweaking to do which leads me to this area area with the knot Garden I am going to change it uh what what I’m going to change it to I don’t know something like this but maybe smaller scale you can see it’s encroaching now

On that it’s just really large and um a lot of Maintenance I see in the future not that I’m not up for the maintenance you know but if I can make things maybe a little bit more toned down and simple here um then I’d like to do that but

We’ll see I don’t know uh I do want to paint the shed we still have that on the agenda but it has been absolutely torrential rain and cold so we haven’t been able to do any of the things that we wanted we came out here in the wind

And the cold yesterday to put these panels in so they they’ve literally just gone in the ground so if you see anything that’s off or funky and doesn’t make sense that’s because these just went in another change now you probably won’t notice but I had a Japanese maple

In the back that was coming over the bench here in the back well last year I moved it there it was where kind of where the Obelisk is and I just moved it over here I don’t know why look sometimes you do things and you don’t

Even know why you do it I guess I thought it would be pretty to have a canopy over the bench so that’s what I did uh but not really considering the fact that you know I’ve got the arbites back here and it’s going to grow into the arbites

Of course uh I could see that when I planted it but I guess I thought it would be okay then I saw the branches were starting to get a little bit too close and I didn’t want to prune on it and ruin the shape of this beautiful

Tree so last weekend I went out and I dug up that tree one one more time hopefully the third time is the charm because I think it’s the third time now I’ve moved it honestly uh but let me show let me show you where I moved

It Arbor gone I don’t think I showed you this so the arbor is gone one which I think opens up this whole Space so much more I still have to take the climbing rose out um but I felt like if I was putting those pickets in it was too much

To have an arbor here too so I’m really trying to like minimize visual obstructions that aren’t plants if that makes any sense it’s such a small space here I don’t want it to be visually abrasive uh and have too many obstacles and just like no rest for your eyes you

Know so the Japanese maple I planted here um I had a couple comments on Instagram where people were angrily yelling at me and all Cals that it was too close to the house I assure you it’s not uh this is a Bloodgood Japanese Maple these are shallow rooted trees

That are ideal for foundation plantings that can be planted closer to your house so do your research uh I mean you don’t want to plant a giant Maple at the corner of your house but this tree you know your Bloodgood Japanese Maple and many Japanese maples are you know

Specifically perfect for this type of situation so now instead of having you know the the plastic of the vinyl Arbor I feel like I brought a living canopy here it was so underappreciated in the back by the arbites that now you know we’ll get to enjoy that canopy from from all

Sides you can see here how pretty it’ll be we’re already able to really love the look of it through the window it’s it’s really really pretty prettier uh in person than I think I can capture on a video but let me just back up like this so

Now see it’s nice and simple it’s you know those two panels are not obstructive or intg Rive and then once they’re softened up by the plants I think it’s going to look really really good so no Arbor bye-bye Arbor hello pickets and then the the uh Arbor that was here we

Moved just over to our little side this is where we keep our trash cans look at all the daffodils coming up tulips coming up but we moved it to right here and it looks pretty it just adds that was always just a Big Empty void of a

Space that now I can grow something on or not I I I will of course um but just having the structure there looks really pretty and charming and it’s set back um you know I really like it there and I felt I was able to still use it without

Having it be a main major focal point uh it was always a Remnant and a leftover from when we had our driveway uh a couple of you had great feed back when I was talking about how I’ve never really felt right about this space um and they

And they said uh you know you’re not feeling it because it still kind of looks like a driveway and they were right there’s a lot of gravel here I think I need to really soften these edges instead of having everything be so blunt uh create some more curves in this

Space and getting rid of the arbor that was a distinct entry point from our asphalt driveway also eliminates that driveway look and it starts to make the spaces feel connected like one Garden instead of you know this is the end of something it’s such a small space I

Really wish you guys could see because when you’re dealing in person with such a small and limited area you really are restricted and you have to be you know choosy in what you’re doing um otherwise things are just going to be like chaos and I I don’t need chaos not in the

Garden um so I’m really looking forward to this Japanese maple I think it’s going to be so beautiful fingers crossed that it made it it it does uh appear to have made it it’s been really good for a week now and um yeah I just uh I’m very

Hopeful for that the arborist did come out and my neighbor who’s so gracious and kind um a agreed to have the one major limb that is coming over the greenhouse to have that removed uh maybe sometime down the line they might consider taking the whole tree down I

Hate to ask that but again it’s a silver maple and you guys even waigh in on that not the best tree they will drop limbs it grew up from you know a propeller literally and it’s just not a really good tree um as far as the height it’s

Going to get maybe I don’t know 80 ft something crazy like like that and um yeah we’ll see I’m very grateful that the one limb is going to come off so hopefully soon uh that will help make me feel a little bit less paranoid uh about

Having it come out and over like that and then of course I got the October Glory that I planted uh over 10 years ago now I was pregnant with my son Leo when I planted that tree I can still remember thinking someday you’re going to look back and

Remember planting this when you were pregnant and I do um um and I planted that before that just to give you some perspective so this tree I planted before this one ever went in the story behind that and I’ve told it before there was a Bradford Paar which we know

Is a horrible tree an invasive species we don’t like the Bradford Pear poo poo let’s get rid of them uh again weak branched they’re not native they’re just awful trees and it actually crashed and collapsed and like broke through our old wood fence and fell into our yard so when that came

Out um I think a couple a NE the neighbors a couple doors down gave my old neighbors a a sapling a tree that grew up from a propeller which is this and now you can see yeah so when I planted that Maple I never thought that it would be competing with this other

Maple uh and if it was a better tree that wasn’t so so you know capable of dropping Limbs and getting so massive um I wouldn’t mind at all I mean and then sadly I think my neighbor might have to have her Evergreen taken down oh that

Makes me really sad because I love love love the look of that tree um but it is leaning badly it’s actually leaning against the shed back there and causing a lot of problems um actually into the roof and and causing like like right now the shed has become a support for that

Massive Evergreen so safety is always the number one concern sorry for all the noise out here it’s dogs and airplanes and so many so many sounds um but that’s it I just wanted to give you an update because I felt like this was a major change with the Japanese Maple and then

A big change with the fence panels and the arbor down too so onward and upward lots of things to to do this year um all right thank you guys for watching this update I hope you guys are able to enjoy your early spring and um getting out

There and gardening when you can either in between raindrops or snowflakes or something uh thanks for joining me in the garden and I will talk to you guys in the next video