It started last year with the Dogwood ‘Prairie Fire’ that I just had to have when I saw it at one of the Nurseries I was visiting. I meant it for the garden along the house, but I set it by the composter when I brought it home. After a week of seeing its sunny leaves every time I stepped off the deck, a new garden was born.
This year I extended the garden – a lot. This is what it looked like last week right after bringing in a yard of compost for it. The bright yellow flowers of the Golden Lights Azalea make me very happy but the overly linear look of those plants marching along in a row wasn’t working for me.
The Garden Reworked
Aaand since I came home with last night with what is for me at least, a very extravagant number of new plants, I’ve now reworked the garden. I have rearranged it into five groupings of plants, each with their own shrub or tree.
Here it is from the top. I like the more organic and free-form look of rocks as edging, but I’ve been burned by rock edging in the past. Keeping the grass from growing up and between them is nearly impossible.
Using rocks as edging would let me add some curves to this garden and curvy is good, so I might still go for it. I’ll just lay some landscape fabric under the rocks and put a strip of gravel or pea stone between the rocks and the grass.
The mini ties are in rough shape but for now they are against the fence. It’s a bit of a low spot here so to keep the garden soil off of the fence I’m going to need something behind it. I’ll probably just use pressure treated 2 x 6″ lumber.
Here’s the view from the bottom. The best part about photographing as I go along is it reminds me I need to do things like put my shovel away. I’m notorious for leaving my garden tools out and the weather doesn’t do their handles any favors.
First Grouping
It starts with a Silverleaf Dogwood. Right next to it, a Hosta called Hanky Panky. The group of three to the left is Hibiscus ‘Perfect Storm’ at the back, moving clockwise is Monarda ‘Leading Lady Lilac’ and then Phlox ‘Opening Act Blush’.
Eventually it is my goal here to have a page or post for each named plant variety I talk about. Personally I find it frustrating when gardening sites mention plants without any information about the plant’s growth and care. It probably won’t happen until over the winter though.
Second Grouping
Still moving towards the top of the garden, here is a Hydrangea ‘Endless Summer’ in pink, Japanese Forest Grass ‘All Gold’, and a ‘Fire and Ice’ Hosta. The petunias are Shock Wave Deep Purple. It’s not the best light for petunias, but the more suitable areas in my yard are already in use for veggies.
Third Grouping
Here I have a small Japanese Maple ‘Tamukeyama’, two Heuchera ‘Silver Scrolls’ and Japanese Forest Grass ‘Aureola’ along with Shock Wave Yellow petunias. To the right in the very back there is a Perovskia ‘Denim ‘n Lace’ that looks like a stick or dead leaf. It just a bare root when I got it at the end of May, so it’s just starting to break dormancy and green up.
Hosta ‘Hillbilly Blues’ in the background, Azalea ‘Golden Lights’ center stage and the small hosta is ‘London Fog’. Just to the left of where the picture ends is another ‘Prairie Fire’ Dogwood that I started last year from the first one and behind it is another ‘Hillbilly Blues’ Hosta. The petunias here are Shock Wave Denim.
Mingled in among all of it are Dragon Wing Begonias. They should be red, but there’s also a chance they might be pink. Hopefully I didn’t end up with a mix of red and pink but whichever color they end up being, they’ll be gorgeous once they get going.
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