Now I Know Why It's Called the Garden State

If your like me, a girl who grew up on Long Island, you always wondered why NJ, a state covered with refineries and all the other ugly sites from the Turnpike is called "The Garden State."  That was my feeling about NJ for most of my life.  To me NJ was a Turnpike and Great Adventure.

But then I met my husband and learned that NJ is full of farmland.  Just down the street from his parents home is a huge pumpkin farm and apple orchard.  Next door to his parents, his Aunt owns a corn farm.  But it was still a huge shock to me to discover Gaskos, a huge and beautiful garden center in NJ, whose arial photograph still shocks me, but not as much as the prices!

My husband and I have been fighting for some time about whether or not to landscape the front of our house.   Conscious of our minimal income I wanted to focus on the backyard this year and wait at least a year to worry about our front yard.   I have grown up knowing that shrubs are EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE!   To put a bunch in new beds would cost us a fortune we didn't have.  But my husband hated the overgrown bushes in front of our house and felt like we should re-landscape.   "It won't cost a lot of money" he said over and over again.  The argument continued until my mother-in-law sent us the flier for Gaskovs.   Then it became clear, we were fighting a different fight... I felt like they were super expensive, he knew they were not, well not if were purchasing them in NJ.

Here is the thing, the small shrubs at Gaskovs were 3 for $30... $10 a shrub.  Thats unheard of on Long Island.   So we hooked up my husbands snowmobile trailer and drove the shrubs back from NJ.


Here are some of the things we got that were 3 for $30...  Boxwood, Variegated Boxwood, Japanese Skimmia, Azailias, Bayberrys, Alberta Spruce and Leyland Cyprus.  

We also bought Hostas for $.99 each.  Deer do eat them, but for $.99 it was worth the try.  If they eat them its basically like we bought them a candy bar.

This was not our last trip to Gaskos, but more to come on that soon.

FINALLY READY TO LEARN

I bought a house in 2009, but until this year we have neglected fixing the outside pouring our money into the inside of the house.   So here we are in the process of re-landscaping the house.  In this process I am going to learn about gardening and take you along for the ride.    Some tricky things to face when gardening at my house...

1) Shade - the front of my house faces North, which means its in the shade the majority of the day.
2) Deer - they are like rats around here.  Sure they seem all pretty but when the come up and eat the bushes by your front door and stare at you like your crazy when you try to chase them away... they become a big problem.  I have downloaded lists of things deer don't eat.  But as my mom always says... deer don't read the list.
3) Money - we have been throwing money into our house along the way and don't have a big budget when it comes to re-landscaping and especially planting.   I hope this will change as I continue into future years, but for this year I have to do a budget gardening job.
4) Me - I KILL EVERYTHING!  I cannot keep a plant alive.  So this is going to be a big learning experience.

So I bought some books on gardening and landscaping, started doing some research and I am ready to start.   Stick with me and we can learn together.