Nyborg Cemetery

I’m currently in Nyborg, Denmark for Unity’s Hackweek. They brought a bunch of employees to a seaside resort and let us program for a week. It’s tempting to just stay inside, but I’ve managed to sneak away a few times to look around.

For gardening fans the most amazing discovery was Nyborg Cemetery. We walked by it on the way to see the Nyborg Slot (a castle), but I had to return and check out this amazing garden.

The first thing you noticed walking into the garden were the terraces. Graves were built into them.

I took a closeup of the following plant. From above it looked live a succulent. But up close it looked almost like a fir. A very low growing ground cover.

The garden was built for discovery. I went one way while the rest of my companions went the other. I found this lovely fountain which was somehow completely hidden until you turned a corner.

Ultimately the thing I enjoyed the most was the geometry of the foliage. It felt very elegant, very much in keeping with the strong lines of modernest Danish design while staying incredibly lush and verdant.

You can see how the garden interacts with the neighboring homes in this picture. It’s delightful.

I feel like modernism is so frequently associated with spare rather than lush. Love these lines.

Although from some vantages the repetition can fell a bit overwhelming. 

And finally I took a photo of this lovely grave. I just really enjoyed the detail. Forgive the zoom, I try not to tromp around on top of things in graveyards. 

Now I really want to visit more graveyards like this. I’ve visited some in New Orleans. Which are your favorites?

I’ve been fighting this bed for years. It started out with giant Nandinas, a large legistrum, and native Morning Glory strangling everything. We asked the firm we hired to do a low-maintenance fun for this area. They came back with a block of feather grass and a block of giant muhly.

So after a bit of planning and the generous donation of feather grass from garden blogger friends Diana (http://www.dianasdesignsaustin.com/category/sharing-natures-garden/), Jennie (http://wwwrockrose.blogspot.com/), and Bob (https://centraltexasgardening.wordpress.com/) – I feel like I have really filled out the space.

Etta and Julie helped me with weeding, and a Puller Bear helped me remove most of the numerous Hackberry and Pecan volunteers. 30.5 bags of mulch later and the job is done.

The non-grass plants are Greg’s Mist Flower and Heartleaf Skullcap. Hopefully this week will be full of rain (as forecast), everything will establish, and I can enjoy this garden and think about it less.

I’ve been fighting this bed for years. It started out with giant Nandinas, a large legistrum, and native Morning Glory strangling everything. We asked the firm we hired to do a low-maintenance plan for this area. They came back with a block of feather grass and a block of giant muhly.

So after a bit of planning and the generous donation of feather grass from garden blogger friends Diana (http://www.dianasdesignsaustin.com/category/sharing-natures-garden/), Jennie (http://wwwrockrose.blogspot.com/), and Bob (https://centraltexasgardening.wordpress.com/) – I feel like I have really filled out the space.

Etta and Julie helped me with weeding, and a Puller Bear helped me remove most of the numerous Hackberry and Pecan volunteers. 30.5 bags of mulch later and the job is done.

The non-grass plants are Greg’s Mist Flower and Heartleaf Skullcap. Hopefully this week will be full of rain (as forecast), everything will establish, and I can enjoy this garden and think about it less.

What a difference

Oh look you can see the agaves again:

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Here we have some Texas Beargrass all tied up like a shoelace to keep it out of the way. I find this endlessly amusing. The non-gardeners I hang out with don’t have a clue what I’m on about.

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Lantana is already sprouting. I hope we don’t get another hard freeze and I regret having this uncovered…

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And a shot of the path to the back. I really like the bump out to preserve the big muhly. I’m currently growing a ton more of this from seed. There’s going to be so much of it. Great for preventing erosion. Low maintenance. Chokes out weeds. Looks magnificent in the sun. What’s not to like?

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It’s starting to come together…

Ah. What a beautiful day for gardening. The optimism of winter when we clear and plan on how we will control nature this year. Only to have that hubris come crashing down with the proliferation of winter weeds. Anyway the area is almost cleared. Some seeds are in. Another batch coming soon. Wildflower meadow hopefully beginning this spring.

What I’ve Been Up To

So at some point this year I pretty much gave up on the yard. It has been too much. I started working full time at an office (I was working from home 3 days a week). And I just couldn’t keep up. I wanted to live in a garden home before we moved to this 0.4 acre yard. 

Julie talked me down and we decided to go with a design firm. They created a really nice rejigger of the front yard. And some designs for the backyard we decided we don’t want to afford. But it did get us to distill what we really wanted, and come up with a list of tasks to finish. 

So we have started a flurry of activity focused on getting the yard to be more maintenance free and hopefully get a nice outdoor area setup under our tree in time for new years.

First up was getting rid of one of our backyard paths. This thing was horrible. It was a combo of stepping stones and open spaces full of weeds that was pretty much unmaintainable. We needed to be able to maintain a drain so we made the path go from our shed to that drain. That’s it. 

I feel like the fallen leaves make it look like it has been there forever. So the area where the path was will become a wildflower meadow. We don’t use it. We rarely look at it. Yet I spend a ton of time fretting over it and maintaining it.

Oh and that pile of wood on the left? That’s our old stage that I finally got around to removing. Another check off the list. And I got it done before someone fell through it and injured themselves. Based upon the rot of the boards I think it was only a matter of days before someone did fall through. 

And to replace the stage. Well we’re working on that. But there’s a delivery in our driveway. Stay tuned…