Planting Time

After the compost fiasco I finally got around to working on the entrance bed.  All of the compost was raked across the entire bed and I started placing pots of plants in the bed trying to get an idea of where to plant.  My idea was rather than till the compost into the bed I would save the expense of a tiller and turn the compost into the soil as I dug in the plants.  This has meant that I'm digging a lot of weeds and picking up glass as I go.  It's a slow process but it is working well thus far.  The bigger question has been where to put the plants?

I started by placing pots and then moving them around

This turned out to be a much harder exercise than I had originally thought.  Who doesn't like putting new plants into a bed?  The joy and anticipation of blooms to come.  But starting from scratch in a new bed turned out to be intimidating.  The plants sat in their containers for days while I moved and pondered.  Sizes, shapes, colours, sun and shade.  There were so many details to consider and I was lost.  I had not drawn out a planting scheme prior to making this bed.  Instead I was operating on a fuzzy vision in my head.  Soft colours like white, purple and pink were in my mind's eye but not a clue how they worked together.


I love white flowers and variegated foliage.

The plants I had chosen all had a cottage feel to them, very breezy and blowsy.  I had assumed they would just go together but when it came to exactly how I was stumped.

A sampling of plants that are in this bed

After many days of moving plants about and getting nowhere I finally had to make a decision.  Any decision, just make one!  So the Artemesia was pulled from alongside the apple tree where it was getting too much shade and placed on the far end of the border where the sun is quite bright.  Once that was done I started to roll along.  What worked with the artemesia's silver colour and could stand full sun?  Bell flowers and that nice blue green clumping grass I picked up at the plant sale.  How about some dark purple Siberian Iris?  And so it has gone.  Each plant inspiring the next choice. 

My planting scheme is not incredibly inspired at this point but it's a start.  As plants start to grow and expand changes will certainly be made.  Perhaps putting chartreuse Lady's Mantle in front of the White Hydrangea Little Lamb won't look as good in reality as it does in my head?  Who can say? - unless someone has already done this, in which case, send me a picture!  But moving small shrubs and perennials is easy enough at this point and I can change the pairings over the next year or two as I see fit.  In the meantime I'm just thrilled to finally see this bed taking shape in front of our house.  I finally have a flower garden!