Categories
Christine's garden Gardening Home page features

Front bed makeover and patience!

Confession time – In this post, I told you about my big plans for re-doing the front bed, just to the side of my back entrance door. I got as far as ripping out the tree, moving the shade loving plants to the back shade garden and then … well I made lots of plans. And then I researched all sorts of plants, watched DVDs, read magazines, bought more books. And after all that I decided I was just not able to do it all by myself. I got Kathryn from Lavender & Thyme to come and help me with it and today was the day things got planted.

It doesn’t look like much at all at the moment. Little plants. I can’t even really see the vision of it yet in my mind, but I trust Kathryn and she understands what I want here, so now we wait and see. The bed has exactly eight months to settle down and grow, because I hope that by the time my Mom visits in November (from Germany) that this will look pretty and be flowering … it needs to flower specially for her! ♥

So here are the photos and a list of the plants used.

[one_half]Before (4 March 2011)Before: With the tree[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Today after planting (22 March 2011)After planting - 22 March 2011[/one_half_last]

The Plants Used:

The plants used are three Standard Roses – Iceberg; Heliotropium ‘Royal Marine’; Gaura lindheimerii – Pink; Gaura lindheimerii (white) – Angel Wings; Duranta ‘Sheena’s Gold’. She left a narrow row of the Tulbaghia violacea (because aphids hate them so they will hopefully help to keep the roses protected somewhat), we left the Star Jasmine on the trellises and two wild irises were left from before.

Plant Photographs:

[one_half]Iceberg Rose StandardIceberg Rose Standard[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Duranta ‘Sheena’s Gold’Duranta 'Sheena's Gold'[/one_half_last]

[one_half]Gaura lindheimerii – PinkGaura lindheimerii - Pink[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Gaura lindheimerii (white) – Angel WingsGaura lindheimerii (white) - Angel Wings[/one_half_last]

[one_half]Heliotropium ‘Royal Marine’Heliotropium 'Royal Marine'[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Update on 25 AprilUpdate on 25 April 2011 - one month later[/one_half_last]

[one_half]Progress – photo taken 28 May 201125 May 2011[/one_half]

Now I wait (patiently!) for everything to grow …

I found this lovely quote today which reminds me that I now need to be patient …

“You need patience to be a good gardener. If you don’t have patience, and you stick with gardening, it will teach you patience.” – Bill Turull Jr.

Happy gardening!
xxx

By Christine

Dominated by large trees on a medium sized property, my garden is very shaded. With no “full sun” areas I have to plant shade and partial shade loving plants. I love shrubs and flowers including camellias and azaleas but Roses and Irises are my favourite and getting these to thrive is a challenge …

8 replies on “Front bed makeover and patience!”

Amazingly, the plants are already looking “perkier” today. I did a bit of deadheading on the roses, removed some ugly looking leaves, and overall, things looked less brand new today. I think this bed may surprise me …

Hi Chris, I know how hard it is to get that design right. I’m still struggling with it. It should be easier than it seems, but all we want is to do it right! Maybe there is no real right way. Just enjoy it and know that Kathryn has done a great job. You will see it sooner than you think! It’s going to look wonderful! She has done a great job in your garden!! Not like my little helpers who have a way of removing plants ……

Congrats on finishing the project! It must feel great to have that accomplished. I hope everything is blooming for your mother’s visit. Love the standard rose!

A planting bed makeover is always hard unless you cough up the money for bigger plants. All of that bare soil with the small splashes of greenery and color just doesn’t excite. But then two months pass, things have filled in a bit, and it all starts to happen. =)

I do hope so … two months is not long to wait. I might plant some annuals to fill in the blanks – just until the plants have had time to establish themselves, but as we are heading into wibter I think I’ll just leave it be for the next 2-3 months.

Comments are closed.