Street Beds

The bed in the top-right section of the picture above has been reworked. In spring, when the above picture was taken, the bed looked okay, with daffodils blooming early, followed by ajuga, but as the daffodils died down, the bed looked pretty bare, with just 2-3 irises and daylilies, some scraggly strands of flox, and a couple of weak looking sedums. Step 1:       [Step 2]       [Step 3]       [Step 4]       [Growing] August 28, 2009: Following the instructions for planting some mixed reblooming irises, a trench 2"-4" deep was dug out. The soil in this bed was built up ten years ago when the landscaping was done, so the soil is pretty good, but there were no worms or any other signs of life in it, which is very unusual for our area, so the dirt taken out was mixed with some compost to get some texture into the soil. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Step 2: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Step 1]       Step 2:       [Step 3]       [Step 4]       [Growing] Viewed from the driveway, this will be the back row of the bed. Some 2-3 irises which were already on the left side of the bed will remain. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Step 3: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Step 1]       [Step 2]       Step 3:       [Step 4]       [Growing] Ten mixed reblooming daylilies were added, starting on the right of the back row where the irises ended and swinging down the right side around the few daylilies that were already in this bed. The row of existing daffodils (which have died back for the year) remain in the center and the sedum is in the bottom left corner to the right of some beardtongue. Nandinas are still behind the bed where they were put many years ago in a futile attempt to screen the utility hardware. The ajuga was moved to the beds down the driveway and the remains of the flox was pulled up and tossed. Ferns which pop up in front of the bed were left alone.       See two weeks growth. See original planting. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Step 4: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Step 1]       [Step 2]       [Step 3]       Step 4:       [Finished] Coming soon: In front of the daffodils will be primrose**, which gets to 12"-18" and blooms from early summer on. In front of them will be crocus and helleborus*** for more late winter / early spring color with the daffodils. Close in front of them will be cyclamen which grows to 4"-6", blooms in the late summer, and has foilage which lasts through the winter, and Magic Carpet Thyme, which blooms all summer. (See blooming schedule, below.)       See Thyme.       See Cyclamen and Tango Lily.       See Helleborus and Blazing Star. By season: winter - helleborus, crocus, cyclamen (foilage). spring - daffodils early spring, then in May to June: beardtongue, irises and daylilies. summer - thyme, primrose and daylilies go all summer, irises, cyclamen, and sedum in late summer. fall - some of the above will bloom in the fall and some foilage will last. ** After the Primrose arrived, I looked online for information about the best way to plant them and discovered that they are extremely invasive and hard to get rid of. (Sigh... one of these days I'm going to learn to research BEFORE I order instead of just relying on the seller's description.) I ordered SIX of these plants, and now I'm not sure if I should plant ANY of them. I definitely will not plant them in this bed as planned, but there are a couple of other spots around the yard (in poor soil and outside the sprinkler system) where it might not hurt to have them spread. They are actually supposed to prefer poor soil and little water. In place of the Primrose in this bed, I'm figuring on putting White Blazing Star. *** Wayside Gardens sent an email saying that they would not be able to send the helleborus, which was a major dissapointment. The helleborus would have started blooming in the winter and on into spring. I can order some other type of Helleborus, but none that look as good or have such large flowers. See previous picture. See previous picture.       (In back are 3 new Olina Tango Lilies.) See previous picture.       --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Finished: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Step 1]       [Step 2]       [Step 3]       [Step 4]       Growing:     April 2, 2010 I was disappointed that although the Helleborus plants came up, they did not flower. Next year, hopefully. Out of the 10 Cyclamen bulbs, only two little leaves have appeared, but they do not bloom until late summer, so there is still hope. So next year at this time, the Daffodils should have plenty of company. There is no sign of the 5 White Blazing Stars yet. The Irises and Day Lilies look good, as do the Olina Tango Lilies.