If you read this blog sometimes, you may remember my ventures of gardening last spring/summer. I was very excited and geared up to get lots of perennials going in our 500 flower beds...wait for it....from seeds! It was a little bit of a heartbreaking/bittersweet endeavor. A) I am a cheap-o when it comes to certain things and there was no way I would have been able to afford to put in big, luscious plants in ALL of our flower beds...plus, I wasn't certain I would take care of them if I did say win the lottery and plant a whole bunch! Well, I patiently checked on my little precious seedlings every day! Weeds would start poking up and I would scream patiently ask Tyler not to pluck it just in case it were one of my flowerlings! I think 8 flowers budded they were no more than 1 inch tall. I planted probably 9 different varieties and 8 Johnny Jump Ups trickled through.
It was a fun and cheap experiment but in the meantime I have read several books...what nerds do when they want to learn how to do something really well. My favorite being written by a native to my state about what plants will thrive here! I am obsessed with it and have been cultivating a plan for each and every one of my flower beds!! There was a lot of thought that had to go into it...where to put annuals, how much will I spend on each bed, how much will the annual bed cost to re-flower each year. That sort of planning is what I am good at--from the olden times when I had a paying job:)! I didn't realize so many of those skills would come in handy in my new career!
To date, I have two beds c-o-m-p-l-e-t-e!! My front annual bed and my herb garden!!! I am so excited and cant wait to move on to the next. Here are some photos of the annual, front flower bed!
These were taken Day 1 of planting so I promise some day in the hopefully near future I can snap a photo and there will be huge, luscious plants to photograph!! Here's what I decided for this year:
The very back is lined with three Hydrangeas-which bloom all summer and are Perennials-so DO COME BACK EACH YEAR!! I actually killed some 50 year old shrubs that once grazed this location but I started feeling surrounded by shrubs, I needed more COLOR! I kind of feel like I have three new babies--did you know that the color of your hydrangea is determined by your soil?!?! So exciting!!! I keep waiting for the ultrasound first bloom so I know if its going to be pink or blue!! And I don't care which, I just want to know!!
The center of the bed is filled with Dahlias, Impatiens and double Impatiens and a few coleus (the purple leafy thing and the hot pink and lime green leafy one). My Coleus were HUGE last year-even taking a hit by hail, left to smithereens and came back bigger and stronger! The Dahlias are very sturdy and have withstood our wind VERY well. I have had decent luck with Impatiens as well so we will see. Tyler loves white flowers so I gave in to a little of his sweet heart's desire.
The front of my bed is lined with hot pink Verbena. It is a trailing flower so it should be lovely in a few weeks! I wanted purple but it turns out this will be perfect since I have an adjacent bed that is long and skinny and I have Ice Plant-which blooms hot pink flowers all summer too and trails. Hopefully that Ice Plant will come back!!
Stay tuned for the next edition of Gardening with Heather where we will discuss planting an herb garden to make your backyard smell fresh and not like a 90 pound dog uses it as a bathroom!
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