Beautiful new gardens have ugly beginnings...

Admittedly in deep denial about everything I have to do between now and mid-July, what did I decide to do? Why, start a new border, of course!

This 3-rail fence encloses the east side of our backyard. The expanse of wood chips in front of that is a parking area for our many (0-1ish) large parties per year.

Right now, there is a robust (but in need of pruning) pink rose bush there. I bought it at the end of last season and guess what? I can't remember the variety.... frustrating!

Here's a close-up to illustrate the "ugly beginnings" part of the post and to see if anyone can identify the rose...

I know it looks like the place where old pizza boxes go to die (and it is). There is a method to my cardboard madness - it's called lasagna gardening - a great, no-till garden building strategy for our heavy soils and always-lurking-in-the-soil bindweed seeds.

The idea is that over the rest of the year I will pile all things decomposable on top of the cardboard (which will keep the weeds down - fingers crossed!) and by next spring, I will be able to do at least some planting. I have used a similar strategy in vegetable gardens in the past but never for an ornamental bed.

I plan to spend a good chunk of my weekend working on this - I'll show you how far I get on Monday.

As much as I love compost (and I really do have an unnatural affinity for the stuff), I'm really, really excited to start thinking about other plants to put here. I need to think about whether I want this to be a shrub border or if I want more herbaceous material. I do love Vanhoutte Spirea, so I may need to find space for one or more whatever I decide to do... decisions, decisions.

In the mean time, you know where to drop off your old pizza boxes!