Planning New Garden Beds and Borders
It is high time for me to try and start planning new garden beds and borders at my new house. This spring will be my first springtime at this new house, and I don’t know what may or may not be sprouting up, but I am anxious and hopeful that it will be something I love.
There are quite a few large shrubs here and some smaller ones around the foundation, but I know I will need to add more…and possibly remove some of these that I have watched this past year.
What is most important in planning new garden beds for me? I have to be able to take care of it! I am sure not as young as I used to be, and not as young as I sometimes “think” I am, so I have to be careful not to “bite off more than I can chew.”
Wow, some of these expression may sound weird to you but I am past middle age and this is how we talk sometimes, we old geezers.
I think I have some peonies but it remains to be seen if they will come up this year. They were in a pitiful dried out conditioner late last summer and, in the fall, I just raked away all the old dried remains. So I am not TOO hopeful.
It is a pity because I just love peonies. If they do not return, it will take me a long time to get some good ones coming back.
Perennial Plants I Am Planning For My Garden Beds
Heuchera or Coral Bells
These are really a favorite of mine and I did bring some from our house in North Dayton. In all the shuffle, I lost the tag so I am not sure of the varieties that I have, but I would like a few more with some different colors of foliage.
Hardy Hibiscus
I love the huge flowers this plant has and I’d like to find a great pink one or even a white/pink combination. Planning a bed against a red brick house is hard for me because some colors just don’t seem right. They “clash.”
Maybe that is just me but luckily it seems that pinks and pale yellows are going to work against red brick including lots of green foliage.
Hardy Geraniums
These hardy geraniums are one of my most favorite plants. First of all they are mat-forming and smother weeds. Some varieties bloom for short periods and others bloom throughout the summer, off and on.
I have had Blushing Turtle in my garden and it really grew and grew wider and wider, smothering weeds but wandering around my hypertufa troughs, just like I wanted. But it doesn’t bloom all season.
The Rozanne variety is also a wonderful bloomer all season long. I had this at the top of my boulder hill at my last house and it grew to well there and was beginning a long cascade over the boulders. Wonder how it’s doing?
Annuals in the Plan?
Cosmos will be in my garden plan because they are such a wonderful flower, easy to grow from seed, and keep blooming all year long until the frost kills them in Ohio.
That little cosmos flower has a long stem and easily goes into bud vases or large flower arrangements. I can grow a huge mass of cosmos with a single seed packet and that will be the most inexpensive thing I do.
Hardly ever see them for sale at garden centers since they are so easy to grow.
What Else In My Garden Plan?
Probably some type of ornamental grasses and of course, where ever I can put them, I will have sempervivum.
I think I will do some large containers for bushes like spirea or small evergreens. Of course, all will be trial and error, but if some die, I can just regroup and try something else next year.
Looking forward to Spring to get started!