Reviewing my 2020 Garden

Well now that it is October, it is the end of the growing season in the Green Bay area. In 2019 it was freezing cold on Halloween, so I am hard at work winterizing my garden and cleaning things up for the long, long winter months I endure each year. I wanted to take some time to review the plants that I bought and acquired for the 2020 growing season, many of them foundational plants.

The first plants I put in the ground were two massive boxwoods I found on Facebook Marketplace. The woman had five plants under her front picture window and only two plants fit in a minivan. The woman gave me the tag that she had from when she first bought them, they were Green Velvet Boxwood. When I bought two more plants from Stein’s Garden and Home, I bought the same type. I also ended up buying four Japanese maples and three of them are in my backyard. From The Tree Center, I purchased a Bloodgood, Inaba Shidare, and Kiyohime. From Fast Growing Trees, I purchased a Viridis. The Viridis is in the front yard and I bought it after my Inaba Shidare started turning green instead of its amazing red color. In doing some research, it was suggested that red colored Japanese maples turn green in the shade.  From Proven Winners’ website, I ordered four “Show Off” Forsythia and four “Lemony Lace” Elderberry. Later, in the late summer, when I found Ivy Trails Gift and Garden in Green Bay, I purchased a black “Laced Up” Elderberry. From Ivy Trails, I also bought some other perennials like Allium Millennium and “Arizona Apricot” Blanket Flower. The only other big foundational plant was an “Ann” Magnolia from Fast Growing Trees as well. When I dug the hole for the magnolia, I discovered tree roots in the area. I may have to dig up the magnolia and dig out some of the larger tree roots so that the magnolia has a better chance of becoming stable in the soil.

In a future post, I will list some of my 2021 plans and plants. The 2021 season will focus on expanding the front yard and side yard areas. Maybe I can also figure out how I want the backyard lawn area to look while keeping some of the curves and grass areas.