A promise yet to be fulfilled [01/24]

I’m Nathan Langley and this is A promise yet to be fulfilled, a seasonal weekly newsletter on my garden developments at home in Sudbury, Ontario!

This week got off to a shaky start, as I came down with a stomach flu over the weekend (ugh – come on!). Luckily, it was short-lived, and I was able to get outside to enjoy the sun and warmth on Tuesday.

Besides the obvious spring cleanup that needs to occur throughout the property, I spent my time this past week mapping out the existing pond and garden space. It was a bit tricky with the oddly shaped ponds and various mature shrubs in the way, but I was able to get some preliminary notes down on paper. Then at least, if the weather turns, I can translate everything into a scaled drawing on my iPad and get to work on a design for the backyard.

The paper notes are a bit of a jumble, as I don’t often intend for them to be to-scale at all. Or readable to anyone but myself. The important part is that the measurements are done, and I will recreate the drawing in the same order I wrote it all down so that I don’t mix anything up.

I’m not sure how much of the existing plant material will stay to be a part of the new garden. I’m honestly trying to keep an open mind at this point and to not get too attached to anything existing, or new, for that matter. Most of the shrubs will likely go (there are three non-blooming Forsythia that are taking up valuable space, and one lilac that may not recover from the drastic pruning I gave it in the fall).

But who knows! I still need to see how my experiments from last year weathered the cold before I start making decisions anyway.

I have to keep reminding myself that it is only April, and that there was still a foot of snow on the ground around this time last year. Not only that, but I have a bit of time before the May-long weekend to think things through and play with different ideas before I put anything new into the ground.

Until next week,

n