Dayna's Landscaping

The Fonda Garden seems to look its best in late May through early June.  The goal is to grow various plants that will keep the garden colorful May through October, and endure a variety of growing conditions.  It will always be a work in progress.

It's not all fun and games when you maintain the landscape.  Years ago, mugo pine shrubs were planted on the bridge's raised beds. Unfortunately, they are not all the same type of mugo pine.  Some are large and others are small and compact.  The only way to create an even appearance is to trim the candles shooting out from the ends of the branches on the larger shrubs and refrain from trimming the small shrubs.  This is done every year in the springtime.

 The winter of 2020-21 in Nebraska wasn't kind to Boxwood shrubs.  It was very, very cold!  This spring, the desiccation of branches on boxwoods was obvious.  UNL extension and other gardening experts recommended that if you prune out more than half of a boxwood, then take the entire shrub out.  I did that for one shrub, the others just had a lot of dead top branches with very white leaves.  The following photos show what was removed, and the final appearance.  It isn't ideal with they're lack of fullness, so I'll call it the natural, wild look.  I would hate to remove them all as they've always looked so nice.  Let's hope the warmer weather will bring on enough green growth to mask the damage.

Part of early spring clean-up is to remove old debris, leaves, and trash from underneath shrubs.  In this case, I am removing debris from Yucca.  It's amazing how much stuff you'll find underneath this sharp, pointy plant nicknamed Adam's Needle for a reason.  I took it a step further this spring by removing some of the Yucca, also.  It is too thick, and needs more airflow.  Hopefully, it will look nice early summer when they begin to bloom.

In the summer of 2020, I dug out different varieties of perennials in this space so it would be one mass planting of Little Blaze Bluestem grasses.  I wanted it to look like the horse is running through the prairie.  I divided and replanted several clumps of grass.                                                        June of 2020, before removing perennials                                                                        March of 2021  June of 2021

The following photos show the gradual changes made to the Fonda (Rose) Garden over the years.  This garden is a place for outdoor weddings as well as a visitor stop on the walk to Railroad Town.  It isn't visited often, but is considered one of the main gardens in the arbor. In 2014, I cut down the two largest lilacs with a hand saw, dug out non blooming roses, weeded, dug out other random plants, removed the birdbath, and continued taking photos for reference.  It was a learning experience.                                                                                Benches on the narrow path   Wild look of roses Overgrown lilac shrubs Random ring No symmetry in the plants along the brick walk. Many roses had long canes and never bloomed. In 2015, I cut down the two small lilacs with a handsaw.  I began redesigning the garden with the existing plants to save money on the budget. The four center areas would have the similar plants, two sides with lambs ear and two sides with spur