The first new bed is planted up!

[DixieDreamer]

The first new bed is planted up. On Tuesday we have a "BobCat" being delivered that we are renting for a couple of days to move the top soil and compost around, but I could not wait until then... and hand shoveled the dirt and compost into this first bed... mainly because I had young plants in seed flats that desperately needed to be planted out. Thought I would share with you the first phase....

Here is the empty bed and the HUGE pile of dirt that was dumped in front of this section.

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Here are the other piles and sections waiting to be completed.

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And here is the first bed after I shoveled in dirt, mixed in copious amounts of compost from our huge compost pile, and then planted in the young plants.

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The front portion of the bed has a Verbena "Romance Red" interplanted with an annual variety of Salvia "Blue Bedder". I am hoping to get the spikes of blue/purple with an understory of crimson red. The back portion of the bed has Marguerite Daisy's "Butterfly" which is a sunny yellow perennial that blooms most of the summer. Mixed in among the daisys are some Candytuft "Purity" which is white (is it blooming so you can see it!). Also mixed in with the back section is some Pentas "Butterfly Red" which will hopefully pull the red color into the back border. In the corner next to the steps are two Monarda (bee balm) "Snow White" which is a white variety. I am hoping this will soften the edges of the steps and add more contrast to the bright colors in the bed.

Lot's more to do. Will continue to show the progress as we press on with this project.

 

[Snowwark]

Wow Dixie, those are big projects you have underway! How long did it take you to do up that bed yourself? Did Bullesye_Girl help you out?

That front bed is going to look great!!

 

[amid chaos]

Oh, that is beautiful...did you do all the stonework too? I love the curve of the beds.

 

[DixieDreamer]

Kim - I pretty much did all the shoveling myself. DD played in the dirt (not helpful in the least ... but heck - she IS a kid!) and DH helped shovel for about a half hour. It took about 1 1/2 hours to shovel all the dirt into that one section. It took another hour to bring in the compost from our compost pile - using my big wheel barrow. I then rototilled it in and planted on the following day - probably took two more hours to do all that. So it was about 5 hours altogether from beginning to end.

Vanessa - I did all the stone work myself. I started it last fall and finished up this spring. I like the curves too! That was the main reason I opted to go this route... because the beds that were here before were rectangular in shape... you combine a very boxy house with boxy shaped foundation plantings and you get ... BLAH! So I wanted to add some curves and multi levels. I also wanted more color. My xeric garden was too blue and grey. Hopefully this will all come together.

 

[Mamu]

Thats a big, big project. I'm sure all that hard work will reward you with beautful gardens. Looking forward to seeing pic's when it's filled out. Looks like it's going to be magnificent.

 

[kathymc]

looks great - keep us updated. I just put in some verbena for the first time - don't know how it will do, but I got all sorts of bright colors in one flat!