All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.
This one is along the sidewalk in front of the house and adjoins the first bed made. I excavated two long rectangles 30 x 4 x 2 ft on both sides of the sidewalk and filled them with rich soil, The bed facing the yard was built up in the center to make it a mound sloping on both sides. (I don't know why, I just thought it would look better than a flat bed). I put edge trim along the cement to stop the rocks from falling then I laid down fabric, covered that with rock, threw some random large rocks in there and started planting.
I had to throw my pet rock in there as it had a little history and has been with me for 32 years.
I was backpacking in 77 at Lake of the clouds in the Upper Peninsula in Michigan. If any of you have been there you know how far & steep it is down to the bottom.
Pay no attention to that meat head in the photo. Hey it was 1977.
I saw this rock and thought it was neat. I hauled that S.o.b. on my back for two days and all the way back up to the top. There is really nothing special about it as it is just a vein of quartz and iron but I hauled it and have stubbed my toe on it lying around the house for 32 years. I'm putting it somewhere damn it. Sometimes I wonder why I saved some stuff throughout the many moves and years.
On each end of the bed I put an emerald arborvitae globe. These were beautiful at one time. I am nursing those now as I speak. Friggen deer ate those to twigs. They may have to be replaced. Did I tell you I hate deer?
On the outer side facing the lawn I wanted it to have the taller bushier plants. I put a row of perennial seed from a box in a 8 inch strip the length of the bed to see if anything came up. It all came up and now I have to thin them. I wish I knew which plants were which from seedlings so I could selectively thin. If you recognise any please feel free to post a comment.
The second row I put a mixture of different Sage (meadow,russian) along with a mixture of Corepsis (golden shower,early sunrise, Sunfire) I then mixed in firewitch & delphinium.
Meadow Sage/Blue Queen
Coreopsis/Early Sunrise.
Cheddar Pink/Firewitch.
Corepsis/Sunfire.
For the center row I staggered Hosta (plantain lily) & blanket flower. The blanket flowers got a fungus and will be ripped out. I really like those things they keep blooming the more you deadhead.
Plantain Lily
The sick blanket flowers.
I haven't figured out what to put in the last row closest to the sidewalk. I'm thinking something real low lying. I did put in a row of pink & white alyssum but found out they are annuals. I'll let them die off. I don't want to plant anything that I have to plant again. I know this sounds stupid but I'm trying to make it as much as a maintenance free yard as possible. (yeah right).
On the other side of the sidewalk I had four boxwood stuck in the sand from my previous attempt at landscaping. On each end was a potentilla bush. Those things are nasty & scrubby. They never look good even at their best. The deer had destroyed this row. I hate deer.
I had to think of what to do with this section. I didn't come up with anything so I threw more soil, fabric and rocks. I wung the potentilla's in the burn pile and put in two Golden Privet on each end of the boxwoods.
Well that's the second bed. I do have a small square at the start of the sidewalk up to the house but I have not really thought about that one. I want to finish these other beds completely before I start bouncing around again and end up with nothing finished.
I was thinking something with running water though as it is right under a bedroom window.
I will yank that deer eaten arborvitae & start fresh.
.JPG)