The last few afternoons here in Mid-Coast Maine have been absolutely beautiful! We’ve been spending about 6 hours each day in the {soon to be} front yard vegetable garden digging out old plants and working on the fence. Lucy has been busy outside too, aerating the garden and working on her tan mostly.
You wouldn’t believe the amount of day lilies I’ve pulled up. I don’t know what it is with New England and daylilies, but people here LOVE them. Seriously, daylilies are to New England what rhododendrons are to the PNW. You just can’t escape them.
We are nearly done digging out the previous owners plants. And in the end, we’ll only be keeping 4 of their plants. 2 poppies and 2 peonies. I’ll need to move the peonies, but since poppies have a tap root, I am going to try to work them into the garden space.
The garden soil here is really nice.
It’s loaded with worms… and that’s a good sign.
The HH has been hard at work on the fence. And so far, so good. Well, sorta.
The front panels are up and level and looking good. Having a level fence is key, right?
The only problem with having a level fence {vs one that slopes to the contour of the yard} is that if the ground isn’t level, there tends to be gaps in the low spots.
And that’s a super easy problem to fix if you’re only talking about a few inches that can be easily covered up with a line of bricks and some garden soil.
But when you get to the sloped part of the yard… things start to get a little trickier. A 12″ gap is a little more challenging than a 3″ gap to fill, that’s for sure.
And so now we’re trying to figure out what to do. Do we continue along the side garden with the same 3 foot panels we have in the front and have a huge gap, or do we get 4 foot panels for the side garden and just build a little sloped rock wall into the landscape along the front?
Decisions, Decisions.
All I know is this… Gardening season is finally here, and I couldn’t be happier. A few more weeks and I should be ready to get some plants in the ground. Yee-Haw!
Have a wonderful Thursday everyone,
~Mavis
Kristen says
Mavis,
What about full perennials on the outside of the fence to trick your eyes to fill the gaps?
Jamie says
Daylilies are invasive in the northeast – but they are also edible (note some people have reactions to them). We have them all over our beds and have been snipping off the shoots and sauteing them in stir-fries for dinner lately.
Carolyn Rust says
What do they taste like? What kind of reactions?
I have several patches of day lilies in my yard in PNW and have been working to dig them up, but if they are edible they may be worth moving.
Jamie says
The variety I am talking about are Hemerocallis fulva. Stomach ache is the most common reaction I have heard of (also stated in Northwest Foraging by Leda Meredith). We used the U.S. Army Field Manual field test to see if we were sensitive or not before trying them in whole meals. They taste a little bit like green peas. We only eat the early shoots and the flowers (which can be cooked like squash flowers). There are a lot of good sources online about safely eating these plants.
Tammy says
Day lilies are ubiquitous in the Michigan area we lived in. I hated them passionately.
christina says
I would just use rocks to fill in as you have so many. What about deer? they will jump that fence in a flash. Did HH use concrete in the post holes? just curious that maybe it’s not necessary in Maine since the ground freezes in winter.
Mavis Butterfield says
Nope. Pea gravel. That’s what we did with the last fence.
sharon says
Peony when you say taproot does that make them difficult to move? I have some that need to be moved but don’t want to damage them.
Mavis Butterfield says
Poppies have tap roots, peonies are tubers. You can move the peonies. We did it at our last two places and they were all fine.
Katie says
I would just step down the fence one section at a time I think.
Idaho Girl says
Agree with this 🙂
Brianna says
We have a chain link in our backyard where previous owners did something similar trying to keep it all level. They actually used logs to fill in the gaps and covered it with dirt. Well, the logs are all rotten and the dirt has sank and settled and the gaps are well below the bottom of the fence. We end up with rabbits, rogue cats, and blown in trash all the time in our yard. It is more effort to fix now than it would have been had they just put the fence in with the natural contours of the yard. Sure, it looks nice to have a perfect straight top, but the gaps below are an eyesore and do not keep things contained in the yard or out of the yard. Two years ago we had a fawn get into the yard and mom couldn’t jump the 8’fence or get in and we were gone for the weekend. We found the fawn in our yard dead when we got home and mom was laying on the other side of the fence. She didn’t leave for days. I would just keep the fence and build it to go with the contours of the land.
Mavis Butterfield says
Oh that is awful. 🙁
debbie in alaska says
Oh Brianna, that must have been heartbreaking. My heart hurts reading that.
Jennifer says
I assume you’re going to plant things one at least one side of the fence so it’s probably going to look fine in the end there. If you’re worried about keeping Lucy and then maybe just put some chicken wire in that area but won’t be visible behind the plants.
Jen says
4′ panels in the side yard and rock wall in front. A big gap on bottom would look weird unless you put rocks along the entire fence, on all sides.
I still can’t get over your view. It’s beautiful, even at low tide.
Linda Sand says
Can you transition from 3′ to 4′ in such a way as to keep the top level but fill in the bottom? I suspect your eyes would ignore the transition at the bottom since you would likely hide that behind plants, anyway.
Deb says
I would build raised beds just inside the fence. It solves the problem and looks tidy.
Diana says
I would say that getting 4′ vs 3′ panels would depend on how far down you’re going. The more the ground drops, the bigger the gap and 4′ may not even be high enough. I have a sloping yard and 200’+ of picket fence. I followed the contour of the property, for the most part, and it looks great. Gaps that high in the bottom of the fence are escape points for Lucy. And since she loves to dig, if she sees a gap, she’ll probably go for it – mine do, lol. I like the idea of having the garden inside the fence and putting rocks on the outside. The rocks can be decoration as well as security.
Looking forward to seeing the finished product.
Dianne says
Yes, follow the slope. We are on sloped land as well. I like your idea. Since it would be too much to take down and re-do, rocks along the outside of the fence would look very nice!
Susie says
I like the idea of the 4′ panels, keeping the top level, and either a rock wall or plants/hedge to camouflage, either on one side or both.
Lynda says
The fences follow the contour of the land…if our pasture fences were level, some of them would be 8 feet high!
Jennifer says
Interesting about the fence height. And the pea gravel vs. concrete. When we got a fence we hired a fence expert after over-thinking it for a long time. It surprised me how expensive it was, but then again, what doesn’t? We have flat land and no dogs, but a touchy neighbor.
I’m a newish reader enjoying your blog. In the photo of you with a rock, it looks as if you’re about to bowl a strike!