The heat wave is gone this week and the weather has just been so perfect. Let’s go for a little walk outside. I want to show you what I’ve been working on out here for 15 minutes every day.
I re-learned something that I’ve forgotten about this year. You guessed it. Mulch. You see, I’ve been working away at ripping out all this landscaping fabric and pink stone that we’ve got in every single flower bed around this house.
During the process I’ve had images in my head of big full perennial garden planted to the brim, with something always in bloom, perfectly timed with the seasons.
Then I realized that’s a whole lot of plants. Big, expensive plants. Big, expensive plants that take years to grow.
If only there was something to help me fill in the gaps. Some kind of product that would make my garden look less neglected, but would still allow me to plant new things without having to spear my way through layers of plastic and fabric.
Oh yeah.. Mulch.
So I can take an area like this:
And then go to the local recycling depot, which is where people take things like this branch knocked down during a storm….
To be turned into this stuff!
To be picked up by me for free to use in my garden!
After a bit of weeding of course.
Chris started to make this neat path in the garden too using our free mulch. You can see it needs some of my weeding skills as well.
So that’s one little corner checked off my list as looking presentable. As you can see, though, I have a fair amount of space left to fill in to fulfill my flowery visions.
The free mulch sure helps though. Check out your local recycling centre. Maybe you can get free natural mulch too!
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.