After receiving irises from Cop Car, I decided it was time to finish up the flower bed under the bay window in the front of the house. So on Sunday, I set to it. To remind you of what that portion has looked like to this point:
I left the lilies there, removed the planters with roses, cleaned out any weeds that had dared crop up since I had last worked the area, and covered the back portion with landscape fabric. The section between the foundation and the lilies is a good two feet wide, so I shouldn't have anything crowding the foundation.
I filled in the areas next to the landscape timbers with a sand/dirt mixture. I had moved some of the cleaner excavated sand/dirt to a pile at the side of the house, so used that to fill in. Once the dirt level was where I wished it to be, I started planting.
Along with irises, I have gathered several perennials and shrubs during my wonderings thru CL, from a former neighbor (stored in the extra raised bed until I was ready to use), H*me Dep*t and other places. Most I got for free, or for $2-5 as distressed plants (amazing what a bit of water will do to revive them). When I was done, hostas and delphinium were at either end of the lilies and a penstemon was next to the stairs. I placed most of Cop Cars irises and some creeping phlox sprigs in front of the lilies.
Once the plants were in, I started hauling pea gravel from the two yards I had delivered a couple of weeks ago.
The lower portion, to the left and next to garage isn't done yet. I was hoping to do that during the week after work, but spent all my time waiting for contractors to show up to give bids for remodeling the bathroom. Maybe I can get it done this weekend, but have more contractors and rain to deal with, so we'll see what happens.
With the light pea gravel and light landscape timbers, the feature seems to blend in with the foundation so I am considering staining the wood a dark brown for visual interest. can't do it yet because the wood is still drying out from it's pressure treating (I conducted a water test the other day to tell if it was ready), but I should be able to do it before winter sets in.
Posted by: bogie | July 25, 2015 at 08:00 AM
What a clean and pretty bed, Bogie. I like it - just as it is. However *grumbling* since it is your yard and since you are paying for everything and doing all the work, it will be hard for me to fault you for doing what you wish to do!
; )
The daylilies and delphinium are pretty, now - without your having to wait for a year.
One of our neighbors has a couple of really pastel (creamy) yellow daylilies that I think are wonderful. I would like such a color to look cool. Anything cool sounds wonderful right now in the midst of a heat/humidity wave. I felt sorry for Manhattan KS when I heard that their heat index was 118. But then, our own heat index was 110 with temperature of 100.
Posted by: Cop Car | July 25, 2015 at 10:14 AM
It looks very nice! I do agree with the idea of staining the wood though. I think it does need a darker touch.
Posted by: Ruth | July 25, 2015 at 06:41 PM
CC - Those temps are brutal! Here up north we are so spoiled that we complain when it is in the high 80's - much less 90's.
Ruth - thank you for affirming my thought. I know you are in a much cooler zone than CC, so aren't influenced by those crazy heat indexes :)
Posted by: bogie | August 02, 2015 at 09:00 AM
Well, we've been pretty hot for our area, but no, nothing close to what CC and her region have been getting!
Posted by: Ruth | August 04, 2015 at 08:28 AM