Overcoming some challenges in my edible landscaping project

I love planning out my gardens but unfortunately a plan is not real life. Real life gives you a winter that never ends and destroys the outside of your house. Real life reveals that the shrubs in the front of your house that you were just going to neatly reshape to fit your edible landscaping plan are too big, even after pruning. Real life is no fun.

It all has to go.

So I took a deep breath, gathered the troops, stared reality straight in the eye, created a new plan and call in reinforcements. This was my week - for real.

My lilac bush is in full bud.

Here is the new plan. The house will be painted, with the painters coming at the end of April, beginning of May. The shrubs and the dogwood on the side of the house are out of here. The landscaper will hopefully be here to remove them before the painters need to start on the front of the house. A Master Gardener friend, who knows a lot more about trees and shrubs than me, has a gardening business and he is helping me redesign the landscaping against the house.

The peas and lettuce  I planted will have to go.

The only casualties of these changes will be the peas which are just starting to emerge and my poor rhubarb. Where the peas are on the side of the house is where a new dwarf kousa dogwood tree will be planted. We are off to such a late start planting this year because of the weather, I think I'm just going to plant some peas in the back beds and hope I get some kind of a yield.

At least the rhubarb in my back beds are healthy and strong.

I'll transplant (again) the rhubarb I have in the front yard, in front of the new dogwood tree. I was going to plant pumpkins in this spot after the lettuce was finished but I will have to find another place for it.

The dogwood is planted too close to the house. It will be removed and replaced with elderberry bushes. The yews are history.

Where the dogwood is right now is where we will plant two elderberry bushes. The new shrubs in the front of the house will all be dwarf varieties and we are looking for evergreens to provide color in the winter. The rest of the plan will stay the same including removing all the grass and replacing it with edible plants. Hopefully, all of the work will be done by the middle of May which wont push my plan back too far. I have plants already growing indoors that are destined for the front. I may have to get creative to keep them happy while we wait!

Radishes

In my back vegetable beds, the first directly sown seedlings are emerging.

Spring is blooming and color is everywhere. It makes it hard to feel upset about plans gone array when the trees are budding, the crocuses are glorious and I can be outside for more than five minutes without needing a hot drink and a blanket.

It's going to be very busy around here over the next few weeks. There's going to be more noise before there can be more green but I think the end result will be worth it. I just want my rhubarb to survive!

See you in the garden,

Sue