the garden part of the garden, part two

It’s a rainy Saturday, and we’re supposed to have 24-hour stretch of rain before it turns to snow tomorrow. Most of our earlier snow has been reduced to sloshy puddles that are now overflowing with even more water. I stayed up too late last night, and as a result, had trouble sleeping. I mulled over some ideas in my head about staging projects outside, and decided to scale back my plant order a bit this morning. I’ve ordered the laurel shrubs that will ship at the end of March, and I’ve ordered the plants for under the dogwood tree to finish off this first border of the upper garden. I’m worried that I’ll be trying to work on the mosaic and trampling new plants at the same time, so I think this is a better plan.

I’ll pick up where I left off yesterday with the garden plan, and explain the last three layers.

Bulbs: I’m showing areas for bulb planting in purple. I have so many favorites, and plan to add to these areas for years to come. I’m going to take some of the funds I was going to spend on the shade garden plants, and at least get a few spring bulbs in the ground this year. Then I’ll make a plan for a larger fall bulb planting session. I love anemones, so those are going to be my first purchase, and likely a few dahlias and ranunculus bulbs. Our neighborhood is just bursting with flowers in the spring and summer, and there’s nothing better than tall daffodils and iris and tulips and alliums marching along old wrought iron fences. The east side of the garden has a narrow planting area, and gets more sun than the side with the seating area, so I plan to plant a variety of bulbs there. I also want bulbs along the front fence area, and interspersed throughout for pops of seasonal color. And although I’m calling this a bulb area, I also see other flowers here as well – like one of my favorites – poppies.

Container Garden: We’ll have an additional layer of structure in our garden when we install our custom corten steel planters (shown in grey) in front of the stone garden walls. I’ve been researching ideas for these for awhile, and really want to create a garden with a lot of evergreen options in it so that these planters look good all year long. Because they are above ground, the plants will need to be hardier to colder temps, so I’ve accommodated that in these ideas. The planters themselves are expensive, and I don’t have a delivery date yet. I see these as being planted much later, when budget allows. Once there’s a good structure to them, I think they will be a great place to tuck in some annuals as well.

2. Buxus ‘Green Mountain’

‘Golden Sword’ yucca and bergenia

3. Lysimachia nummularia ‘Aurea’
4. Pieris japonica

5. Thuja occidentalis ‘Emerald’, syn. ‘Smaragd’
6. Bergenia cordifolia

7. Cornus alba ‘Elegantissima’
8. Heuchera spp.

9. Juniperus squamata ‘Blue Star’
10. Sedum spurium ‘Fuldaglut’

Groundcover: The last piece is some groundcover infill – there will be zero grass in this garden! Shown light green in here. Right now this chocolate clover is a favorite for its gorgeous color, white flowering, shade tolerant loveliness. And it’s beneficial for pollinators and is great over bulbs.

Whew! There you have it – a bit of a plan to start, and then we’ll see where this goes. I feel like I finally have a beautiful blank canvas out front, and I can’t wait to see what this year will bring out there.