Steph
Planting a new flower bed in the front yard wasn’t my top priority when I moved in although I hated the prior beds. When we moved in our yard was overwhelmingly green. In line with what is normal in our area, the few flower beds we even had were filled with evergreen items. I’ve never been a fan of heavy evergreen landscaping. While they are nice in the winter, you. can’t get much more boring than that.
The feature plants in our front bed were azaleas. While I don’t mind azaleas, I do hate the fact that they generally only bloom once a year. While they were blooming, the show is incredible. But the other eleven or so months of the
year, they are pretty dull, unexciting and do not have the most attractive greenery. I’m not sure what variety these azaleas were, but they were very, very pretty while in bloom. Unfortunately, the bloom time was way too short. I also had some Salvia and Astilbe mixed in with the evergreens but it just didn’t do it for me.
The first thing I did when we moved in was rip out two round columnar evergreens by the front door. I may have even done this before anything was unpacked. I hated those things. Over the past two years I have pulled out other things, one by one, until this summer when I noticed there really wasn’t a lot left. One big challenge I had with this bed is that it stays so shady. My grass loves it, but flowers? Forget it.
This spring we cut quite a few branches from our front trees to allow more sun to get into this flower bed. While complete shade works for evergreens, it’s not at all conducive to growing blossoms so we strategically got rid of branches to allow more light through. The area doesn’t exactly get full sun now but it is definitely far better. So I decided it was time to get to work.
The first thing I did was tear out that azaleas as soon as they finished blooming. Fortunately my next door neighbor had a friend that wanted them, so they weren’t wasted. This was a two day project for me. I’m not sure how long these azaleas had been there but those roots were absolutely ginormous. I had to dig underneath on all sides then spend time prying the root ball up. Even then I had to grab the bushes and pull them as hard as I could to finally dislodge them from their longtime home.
Finally it was time to hit the nursery for replacement plants. Because hydrangeas have been my flower this year, I decided to make the bed hydrangea based. I found some beautiful Ravel hydrangeas along with Blushing Bride hydrangeas to landscape with and around. I fell in love with Russian Sage recently so I went with both Denim ‘N Lace Russian Sage and Lacy Blue Russian Sage. I mixed in some Coneflower and Coreopsis and got started.
I have really crappy soil. It is heavy clay packed full of rocks. Because of this I heavily amend the soil while I am planting and always plant the hole twice as wide and deep as my pot. When I first moved in I was new at the clay soil thing, and kind of botched it for the first year. I think I finally have it figured out, and I heavily backfill with good, healthy soil which makes a definite difference.
As I started planting I realized I needed more plants. I also developed a vision of a fountain near the White Dawn climbing rose and Zephirine Drouhin climbing roses I had planted last year. I decided a pretty bench would be an amazing way to finish off the area. I created a pathway through the center of the bed and tucked back by the house I put OSO Easy Italian Ice and At Last shrub roses mixed with more Russian Sage and Salvia. I could not find these roses locally, so I had to order them from Home Depot online. They were expensive and small, but I’m hoping they grow pretty quickly and fill in the space.
It’s only been a couple of weeks since I planted the bed and it’s been super hot. Because we have been in the high 90s most days, I’m watering my new flower bed daily. My flowers have been pretty stagnant other than my At Last roses which are definitely putting out some new growth. I’ll post updates as my bed starts to fill in and grow but right now I’m super happy with how it looks.
