January and February seem to be traditional months to start planning spring and summer gardens, and I am no exception. Right smack in the middle of winter, I am thinking about green growing things.
But first, some deconstruction is required. This is one of the beds I’ve been needing to revamp. It’s 28’ long and 2’ deep, flanking the paved driveway.
We moved into this house in late 2011, so it may have been 2012 or ’13 when hubby installed this pine edging to create a raised bed, where I grew green beans for several years
then hollyhocks last year.
He also created 2 pine beds in the front yard, but untreated pine only has an 8-10 year life-span, before it rots and becomes ant food.
At least a handful of years ago, we picked up a load of local free bricks. It still amazes me that anyone would want to give them away, as construction materials are not inexpensive, but I am grateful every time I see the pile, as they make it possible for me to do my favorite garden bed edging.
Ever since I saw Martha Stewart laying a sawtooth brick edging in her Turkey Hill garden, *many* decades ago, I knew it would be the only edging I would ever use, no matter where we lived. I used it at our Saugerties, NY house. I've been using it here at our Cape Cod house.
The first beds to get the edging were the 2 front rose beds. Then a few years ago, I edged the two semi-circular front-of-house beds. There’s a lot more edging to do, as time and energy allow!
So this past February I considered planting green beans again, but, decided I needed the garden to require less work and upkeep, so I ordered a selection of spring-planting flower bulbs from Longfield Gardens, knowing I’d be re-working the driveway bed.
As I am a romantic!, I love soft colors in the garden - whites, soft pinks, soft coral, lavender, lilac. I chose 4 spring to summer flowering bulbs - gladiolus, astilbe, ranunculus, and lily of the valley. The 3 white tinged with pink begonia bulbs I potted up indoors weeks ago, and set them by a sunny window.
I shopped around online a fair bit, as I always do when purchasing *anything*, and found that Longfield had just what I wanted without breaking the bank. Bulbs aren’t as inexpensive as seeds, of course, but I don’t always have good luck with flower seeds, so I looked on this as an investment, like buying perennial bushes.
I did consider small azalea bushes for this bed, but I really wanted a cutting garden, and the front of the house has plenty of perennial bushes, anyway.
I will be covering the bulbs in late autumn with some type of a frost cloth, as the glads and ranunculus aren’t hardy in our zone 7, and I have NO intention of digging them all up every autumn and having to replant them every spring!
It’s taken several days to get it *almost* done. I just need to tamp the soil down directly behind the bricks to help secure them in place. There is a small gap in front of the bricks, between them and the driveway, which hubby will fill with a special sand that hardens, but will still allow for any broken bricks to be replaced, if need be.
I soaked the gladiolus bulbs while I was working on the bricks. As they’re the tallest of my selection, they are lined up next to the house. The astilbe are spaced about 20” apart, with the extra glad bulbs interspersed. The ranunculus (tiny corms, so I didn’t photo them) filled in the front of the bed.
The bed doesn’t get the same amount of sun down its length, so I grouped the lily of the valley at the far end, next to the bit of picket fencing, as it’s shadiest there.
I am hoping these little beauties will be happy in this environment and produce tons of blooms to beautify this side of the house, which is SO grey between the aged cedar siding and the paved driveway, and provide plenty of cut flowers for indoors!
Happy Spring!
Dawn
