Another bout of Spring Fever–the perennial border

I cleaned this bed up when we had the really pretty day a couple of weeks ago, and wanted to be sure to get it mulched before the weeds started growing again. This side of the house is the side that faces the road. It is a little tough because it is the north side of the house, so it is pretty shady, and the soil isn’t great because it is backfill–though it’s not as bad as some places in the yard. I had planted some hostas and hellebores (Lenten Rose) that we moved from the farm on this side of the house, but that was all that was there until last spring. I had 20 bags of mulch delivered and I was one short of what I needed to finish this bed.

The house had no landscaping at all when we bought it. Over time, we have added trees and shrubs and last year, I wanted this street facing garden to be more colorful and friendly looking. We bought some Oak Leaf Hydrangeas to anchor the garden and spaced those evenly along the house. We also planted a curly filbert tree at the lower corner. We had planted a white crape myrtle at the front corner of the house a few years ago.

Now that we had the shrubs and trees in, we divided the hellebores and hostas that were already there and spread them evenly throughout the garden. (I love hellebores because it stays green all year long, and blooms in February–even earlier than some of the earliest flowering shrubs, like forsythia.) We ended up with a lot of spare hellebores, so I gave a bunch of them to a guy I worked with.

From there, I added 2 clematis and supports (part of an antique crib that I had legs added to, and a piece of old iron fencing) for them to climb. I also planted some cute little heuchera plants (a favorite of mine), and columbine. I had some plants planted in the area that I used for the cutting garden last year that are more suited to a shady location, so I moved those as well–several varieties of astilbe, several varieties of hostas (praying hands, lemon lime, sum and substance, mouse ears, krossa regal and others), and foam flower.

Some of the biggest hostas were some that I bought bare root from Lowes or Home Depot. They bloom relatively late, and their flowers are really gorgeous and plentiful. I paired them with vines from my sweet potatoes to make this arrangement.

Our locally owned hardware store delivered pelletized lime, and spring fertilizer with preemergent in it when they brought the mulch, so we spread that stuff yesterday too. If you live in the same zone as we do, it’s time to get that stuff down to prevent crabgrass and other weeds from sprouting. (We were one bag short on that as well.) DO NOT USE in any bed where you will be growing vegetables, herbs, fruits, or berries.

We are both feeling the after effects of our exertions yesterday. Happy Super Bowl Sunday!