Thursday, February 1, 2018

Rehabbing Old Beds and Making New Ones


The picture above is of the house when we first moved in; as you can see, it was pretty much a blank canvas.  There were two areas that could barely be called flower beds, one between the garage and the front door (the south bed) and the other from the front door almost to the corner of the house (the north bed).  The corner of the house was dominated by an unsightly juniper tree that wrapped around the corner, as it has been planted too close to the house.  The first order of business was to remove all of the mint from the south bed, plus the two overgrown, but dead, rose bushes.  The only plants I kept were the orange day lilies, aka, ditch lilies, and a miniature yellow rose. I wound up planting blue salvia the first year (2015), added a border made from recycled tires purhased at Menard's and lots of mulch.

 
That fall we planted tulips and daffodils, lots of them.  In the Spring, as they came up, we found that there were some tulips the previous owners had planted that came up outside of our neat border.  This last year, the only bulbs that came up were the ones from the previous owner, as the squirrels dug up all the others.  This year I'm going back two salvias, but instead of all blue, I have a mix of reds and blues that I'll start in the greenhouse, plus I'm looking for some white one to give the bed a patriotic feel.  There are now clumps of ditch lilies on both ends of the bed and I've added two other roses, Queen Elizabeth (a pink) and Pope John Paul (a white).

 
The north bed was also cleared out and hostas and hydraengeas were planted, and again, we found tulips, plus as an added bonus, Resurrection Lilies, aka Naked Ladies, as they come up with lots of greenery in Spring , which then dies back and in mid-July to early August, they shoot up flower stems and bloom a gorgeous pink.



I also dug a bed on the north side of the house and planted Rose of Sharon, yuccas, day lilies, phlox and a rose bush to add interest to a long blank space.


In the Spring of 2016, we bought a Japanese Maple and a peony; there was also the curb rescue hosta and a daisy I bought at a yard sale, all needing a home.  I made finally made good on the threat I'd been making since we moved into the house, and cut down the juniper.  After also cutting down the short section of useless chain link fence, I dug a bed around the corner, unifying the two existing beds into one bed nearly forty feet long.




 



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