Gardening Dreams

Finally...here is the (much anticipated) post about my perennial bed. Keep in mind: "Gardeners, I think, dream bigger dreams than emperors." - Mary Cantwell, memoirist

Here are the plans that I drew up following my early Spring Landscaping Class.




This is a picture of the front of the house, and the bank (on the right) which I don't want to mow.



I started turning over the sod with a shovel, but after about 3 hours of work over about 3 weeks, I only got about 3 square feet done. A couple of weeks ago, JP rototilled it in about an hour. He also moved lots of top soil from the pile that was excavated from our barn site. I pushed and raked the soil around, and it looked like this before I put the perennials in (although there are 2 bushes in already).



The first thing I did was to terrace in 7 big, flat rocks (that I dug out of the garden or yard) to use as stepping stones down the bank. Then I added lots and lots of plants. It doesn't look like much in the photo, but there are at least 30 plants in there, which will eventually grow and spread. I also plan to add some Daffodil and Snow Drop bulbs in the Fall. I did stick pretty much to the original plans, but I also added a Cotoneaster, several Columbines, half a dozen Yarrow, a few Chrysanthemums, some Irises, a Jack-in-the-Pulpit (that I dug out of the woods), and a Lupine. I still have some Thyme to plant around the stepping stones and a couple of Geraniums (free at Simmons for picking 3 full baskets of strawberries) to stick in.



My hope is to eventually have it so full of flowers, that the soil won't erode, and I won't need to use wood mulch. While everything is still so tiny, however, I think I will need the mulch to keep everything from washing away. Perhaps I'll have to fill it up with annuals this year!


We are also planning to put 2 feet of landscaping fabric covered with river rock around the foundation of the house the whole way around. I still want to find a little weeping cherry to put between the girls' windows in front (we fell in love with this one at our last house).


It's a good start, I think, and I'm looking forward to seeing color there every year.