You can't get a nicer view and backdrop than that for your garden of peonies! The soil looks like it is going to be great too! The trees previously on your lot would have been conditioning the soil all the time they were growing there. There must be ample organic materials and compost built into the top layer of soil by now. Will you be growing roses? I bet they will love your soil. Will you be permitted to raise chickens on your property?

Liz - Given it's literally 0 degrees here right now, pics of emerging peonies made my day.

Looks like you've done an amazing job with these plants. Looking forward to more pics as they develop!

Thanks everyone. I'm sure we could raise chickens, I've never done it before, don't know if we will. Might try the bee thing, though. Do you raise chickens, Karen? I ABSOLUTELY will be growing roses! They're really hard to keep alive here in CO, I'm so looking forward to an amazing smelling rose garden! I'm not sure about the soil, the only place we've dug is near the lake and it was really sandy as you'd expect. Added quite a few bags of compost to raise the plants up a bit and get something organic in there to keep them growing....was told the area is notorious for clay. Didn't look like a lot of clay in what little of the disrupted soil I saw but I guess I'll find out in March!

It's snowing and cold today here in Colorado as well. Another 10 weeks or so before we start seeing signs of peony life here! We'll be in Alabama on 9 March, bet everything will be up and budded!

Liz, you have an amazing lot, with such wonderful views of the lake! Your garden is going to be fantastic once you all move to AL! I hope the experimental plants are doing well, I'm looking forward to seeing how they're doing!

Does the lake ever rise, and would it affect your experimental garden?

Liz - just one thought, we use our chickens, ducks and geese to weed our peonies. (once flowering is done for the season)

So it's free labor + free soil fertility + eggs.

Makes them a tempting proposition to be sure!

Annette, the lake is manmade and there is a spillway at the far end of it, drains into a smaller body of water. That land won't be sold as it is severely impacted by floods. We should never have any problems with the lake itself but do have 2 streams running the entire length of our property down into the lake. During dry season they have a trickle of water, I'm sure it'll be a lot more during wet season. I'm hoping to dredge out the bottoms of both and make them more solid, deepen them where needed and probably even put a pump on at least one of them to make the water flow more consistent. I want to make sure we don't have any spots where the water is pooled and not moving so it doesn't get stagnant and become a mosquito breeding mess! Plus there are a couple of areas already formed that look like they should be nice sounding waterfalls. I know Jeff took pics of a couple of spots on one of the streams but I don't think it gives a really good view of either; there was just too much stuff going on with the heavy equipment cutting down trees and sheering off what little branches they had....I'll get more and better pics when we're there in March.
Cate—the turkeys do that for us here! Unfortunately they also break off newly emerging growth, I have to put tomato cages around my tree peonies so they don't get damaged. I also ring the bigger beds with fishing line to keep out the deer, started adding a few rings much lower to keep the turkeys out as well, at least for early season. The turkeys don't damage anything plant related after the growth is more than a foot tall or so.

lyndakerfarms said:Liz - just one thought, we use our chickens, ducks and geese to weed our peonies. (once flowering is done for the season)

So it's free labor + free soil fertility + eggs.

Makes them a tempting proposition to be sure!

I would love to raise chickens on my property. It is too open right now to do it as I don't want to disturb the neighbors. Chickens and raw compost are quite messy. And they are so cute to have around. As soon as you have a shovel out, they will go after you for worms and grubs. Their favorite food are Japanese beetles grubs!

Great photos Liz and a beautiful location especially with the lake. So glad to see your experimental garden is coming along and you have buds the first year. Best of luck with the transition to warmer conditions and I hope you, Jeff and the peonies will be very happy.

Thanks Craig! I could use a southern winter today--we had over a foot of snow over the last 2 days. Just finished shoveling the front sidewalk so my little dogs can go outside!!! Decided to fill some bird feeders while I was out there--it's even deeper off the pavement, my snow boots weren't much help, needed snow-hip waders!

Liz, sorry to hear about alll of that snow! Before you know it, it will be time to move to AL.

You have such wonderful plans for your new property. It's exciting that you have the 2 streams going through it! I can imaging how wonderful the waterfalls will sound once they're done. I'm glad to hear that the lake has a spillway, and that you wont get any flooding.

Liz - I have to agree - your parcel overall just looks heavenly.

Now that I know you have turkeys, I feel silly to have even mentioned chickens!

We don't grow turkeys anymore - someone was coming on the property and stealing them!

but -when we did - it was the turkeys and geese who were are #1 weeders. They forage so well!

sounds like you have a GREAT set up!

The turkeys here are wild, not domesticated. Like having them around, they keep the insects down, but the numbers are getting a bit crazy...Some days I see 2 or 3 walking around the yard, other days 30....

Jeff went to Alabama without me this time! He did take pics, almost all of them with no ID, though. We were both there at the beginning of March, will have to find the pics from then as well. It looked like I have 4 or 5 that have buds, 1 very close to opening but I won't see it. When we were there early March only Abalone Pearl and May Apple had buds so I assume the one close to opening is Abalone Pearl as MA is a lacti, should open a bit later. He called me from there and did a video chat, saw a few that I thought were goners actually came up. 2 that grew last year do appear to be lost, though—Cherry Pie (tree peony from Klehm's) and Garden Treasure. Garden Treasure is easily replaced, I have 2 here in CO, but only the one Cherry Pie. I actually expected to lose more since they had an incredibly rainy fall, winter and spring so far and the beds were not raised more than an inch. Most of the soil there is heavy red clay but there was lots of sand in the area I planted, ammended it with bagged compost and planted—think the sandy-ness probably saved them from being waterlogged. Guess I can't complain since these plants were 99% on their own for the last year and a half since planted.

Next up is building retaining walls up the hill that my garden room will be on. I'm HOPING to use a modified gabion wall. I've seen them all over Pinterest but never considered them until I saw a smaller, modified one that I fell in love with. Jeff suggested that I build the wire mesh boxes (using hog panels) here mostly and that we trailer them out there to save time so that's the plan. The wire boxes will be 4'long, 8"wide and 3' tall with the lower 8-10" below grade and hopefully 5' 6x6s buried around 2' in the ground as additional support between them. Here's the inspiration pics:


The steps will have wooden posts at the turn and I haven't decided on step material. I'm leaning toward wood for color contrast but it'll depend on the stones we can find there locally to fill the boxes.

I put together the first 2, weren't difficult EXCEPT that I had to bring them home in the back of my jeep and they're 16' long! Had to take my bolt cutters with me to the store and cut them down to 4' lengths to get them in. Not too terrible when I'm just buying a few but it would probably take me forever if I were to purchase 20 or so at a time (which I really need to do). Each 4' segment requires 11 cuts....does anyone make powered bolt cutters??!!

Your peonies in AL look great. Considering they have been alone most of the time, I think one could say peonies will grow there for you!!

The walls will be a lot of work, but so pretty when all done!

Thanks for updating us!

Liz, your peonies look great! Actually May Apple is a hybrid too, also early so you will see which one blooms first

Great idea with the walls, they look very nice but a lot of work! When do you go to Alabama again?

You're right, Anya—don't know why I thought it was lacti. It's pretty easy to tell which will bloom first though—Abalone Pearl is already showing color while May Apple's bud isn't full size yet.

We'll probably not go back out until June or early July and hopefully I can get the first hundred to 2 hundred feed installed. It'll be laborious but not very technical, just have to level each 4' section and install drainage pipe behind it in gravel. I think it'll be less fussy than doing pre-formed stones and look really cool. I should be able to put together 60-100 boxes to take out there, each one only really takes 10 minutes or so once I have the materials here at the house. I'm going to have some seriously strong arms from that bolt cutter when I'm done!

Liz, the peonies look great! You will love the new zone and all the peonies you will be able to grow. I admire your desire and ability to put up the wall. It looks fantastic.

Your peonies look great in AL, Liz! They seem to grow very well in AL warm climate! I also like your retaining wall inspiration! Those look wonderful. It will be quite a project but the hardscape will definitely elevate your garden.

Liz your peonies look great as for the bolt cutter I USE A CODLESS GRINDER WITH A CUT OFF DISK sometimes they will cut to size any way good luck