longer days, more gardening adventures part 2

With eastern exposure, the planting bed across the driveway gets almost as much sun as the bed on the west side of the house. This planting bed sits between my neighbor’s fence and my asphalt drive and is only about 2’ wide. When I first moved in, it was nothing but Bermuda grass and I soon found out why. The soil is full of rocks. Every time I plant something new, I feel like I’m gardening in a rock quarry. On the bright side, the soil drains very easily.

Nevertheless I’ve removed most of the Bermuda (worst gardening chore ever) and amended the soil with soil conditioner. On the left is my recently transplanted butterfly bush, which I cut back to about 18” in height. The other 5 shrubs you see are Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus), a plant very near to my heart, which hasn’t quite leafed out yet. Between the Rose of Sharon groupings are several Hollyhocks (from the Hollyhock House!) that have over-wintered.

Beneath the shrubs are several sedum varieties as well as mint (Mentha). This aromatic herb (non-native) spreads quickly by way of underground rhizomes and I like to caution people that it should be planted in a contained/ well-maintained area. In the right corner of the bed are coral-blooming Canna Lilies. But after this past winter, I’m not holding my breath to see if the Cannas will make an appearance this summer (they can be borderline in zone 6b).

On the right edge of the photo, you can see the outstretched branches of a Mulberry tree (Morus), which has little to no landscape value. However, because this volunteer (which is actually rooted on my neighbor’s property) started growing in a fan-shape on my side of the fence, I’ve elected to train it as a ‘living fence’; to create a vertical screen between the two properties. Nothing against my neighbor, but I don’t prefer to see into her living room from mine.

The main goal of this bed is to increase my gardening space as well as improve the aesthetics of the space. Also, I’m not sure how much longer my neighbor’s fence will hold up, so I wanted to get some plants going ASAP. On one hand, it may have been more prudent to plant a row of Arborvitae or another evergreen, vertical screen. However, all of these plants were free to me, and will provide much more seasonal interest than a green wall.

And like the last blog post, this photo is not much to look at right now; but hopefully by this summer, there will be tons of beautiful blooms!

longer days, more gardening adventures

Last Saturday I worked in the garden until after sunset, which now is almost 7:00! Thanks, Daylight Savings Time. I weeded, planted, divided, relocated, mulched, and watered. I worked mainly in the planting bed on the west side of my house (picture). With almost due west exposure, this bed gets the most sun of any of my planting beds and eventually this bed will be home to my future tomato plants.

An early goal of mine was to screen the a/c unit on the left and for that, I choose Euonymus 'Green Spire'. [Normally, I am NOT a proponent of Euonymus in general, but these plants look pretty good all year, are very cheap, and as far as I know will not become invasive.] The Euonymus hedge has been planted for a few years now with an initial investment of less than $50.

In front of the Euonymus hedge are ornamental grasses (still dormant), and a new patch of sedum that replaces the Black-eyed Susan’s (Rudbeckia) that I just relocated to elsewhere in the bed. The large shrub, butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii), which now reaches the top of the brick wall, is a personal favorite. In fact I plan to do another blog post specifically about this plant.

In front of the butterfly bush is Lambs Ear (Stachys byzantina). I believe I have the variety called ‘Big Ears’. This is a neat perennial with silver-green foliage and I can’t help but feel the soft leaves every time I’m nearby, they really do feel like lambs ears. In between the butterfly bush and lambs ear are my beloved peonies (which are just now starting to poke through the soil).

You can barely see the corkscrew willow (Salix matsudana) under the electric meter. This is a very cool, graceful plant with an extremely fine textured, medium-green leaf and yellow bark. Between it and the butterfly bush is my recently planted climbing rose (no clue what variety). There is a small trellis for the rose now, but I will probably run some wire for it to climb on this summer. The climbing rose takes the place of another butterfly bush, which I cut back and relocated to the planting bed across the driveway.

Near the middle of the bed, there’s a medium green groundcover that has basically taken over this portion of the planting bed. As of yet, this Sedum has remained unidentifiable. I have probably 10 different sedums growing throughout my various planting beds; they’re great low-maintenance perennials that come in a variety of foliage and flower colors (I’m a huge fan). But this one grows faster than any I’ve ever encountered. I’ll probably remove portions of this to make room for my tomatoes!

The blue pot will eventually be planted with herbs and/or seasonal color, and probably won’t remain in the bed. Behind the pot, against the house are a row of tiger lilies (Hemerocallis fulva), which will bloom creamsicle-orange. This plant is also fondly called ‘ditch lily’, and is a fine example of what I call a ‘native invasive’.

In the right corner of this bed is a newly planted upright rosemary, although the variety name escapes me now. I’m so excited about this rosemary and once it fills out (about 4’ tall) I think it will really help to anchor the space. My kitchen door is right around the corner, and I’m looking forward to using this herb while cooking!

Behind the rosemary is a patch of Pachysandra terminalis ‘Green sheen’. It’s an amazingly care-free evergreen groundcover, probably deserving of its very own blog post. Pachysandra has beautiful shiny dark green leaves of a medium texture. While no one buys this plant for the bloom alone, the dainty clusters of white flowers are quite nice; mine are in bloom right now!

This is my favorite planting bed because of the variety of foliage and bloom colors that all work so well together. I’m also really pleased with the year round presence the pachysandra, euonymus, butterfly bush, lambs ear, sedum, and now rosemary will provide. But in the summer, this bed literally comes alive with all of the warm flower colors of plants that haven’t even come up yet.

Throughout the bed are Black-eyed Susan’s (Rudbeckia), Tennessee Coneflower (Echinacea tennesseensis), other sedums, and various daylilies (from my uncle). I’ll take pictures along the way to document the bloom/growth progress. Bottom line, the garden doesn't look like much now, but i promise, an amazing transformation is in the works!