Garden Renovation

There are parts of the flowerbeds that I have always disliked.  I ordered flowers for one part that just never worked out.  And the flowerbed lacks some consistent design elements to tie the various parts together.

The flowers I didn't like are the Knautia.  They looked good in the catalog pictures...

They perform badly in my garden.  They are floppy, invasive, sparse-flowered and look like a pile of weeds most of the Summer and Fall.  Its probably my fault.  I've since read that they want poor soil and full sun.  I have good soil and partial shade.

So it was time to give up and remove them.  Here is what they looked like...

I scraped along under the soil with my nice sharp metal spade through the entire bed of them (about 6'x10').  That left a nice pile of compostable material...

That offerred me the chance to start bringing some consistency to the flowerbed design.  I have 2 paths through the flowerbed.  One has Stella D' Oro along one edge.  I would like to have them on both sides of both paths.  I had 3 of them in a corner that has become shaded, so I transplanted them to the cleared space.  I also divided 2 of the other Stella and moved the divided half.  I expect the remaining halves will recover quickly.  I mixed some organic 2-6-5 into the soil I replaced.

Now I have a nice 2nd row along a path edge.  The space between the paths has Stella on both inside edges...

When I can divide all those again (or buy some new), I will place them on the outside edges of both paths to define the paths better.  That will give some good structure!

The other interesting thing was that I collected some orphaned Columbines.  I have one patch of 7 of them.  I noticed a single one where there used to be a patch.  I also discovered 2 that somehow were growing in the woods.  So I dug those 3 up and added them to the existing patch.

There are more there than it appears.  Some are hidden by old spreading butterfly bushes. I may order another 6 next Spring to increase the patch

The next step in the flowerbed renovation is to remove some of the shrubs at the back.  The 5 butterfly bushes are 15 years old and getting clumpy with deadwood at the base to the point where they resprout new growth poorly.  The colors (alternating purple and white) never quite looked right.  I think I will replace them with new red ones.  That should tie the color scheme together better.

I also have 2 variegated Euonymous shrubs that I like for the all-season color, but they simply grow too large (advertised 5' tall x 3' wide, but in reality are 6' tall and wide).  I am going to try and find places to relocate them as large specimen shrubs, but they have to be moved out of the flowerbed.  They may not survive cutting back and transplanting, but I will try.

There are 2 flowering almond shrubs.  And 2 Nandina, nice polite shrubs which I like for the colors and berries.  They should be moved.  I have good spots for the Nandina against the front foundation.  I'm not sure what to do with the almonds.  They are nice shrubs in Spring (rare for a shrub) but the fence line is too crowded.  Well, with the Euonymous and Nandina removed, maybe they can be between the new Butterfly bushes.  I'll have to see how much space there is.

Aside from renovated areas for structure, and reducing shrub clutter along the fence, my goal is to increase the size of patches of plants that are doing well.  This past Spring, I did some of that, combining 2 patches into one or buying more to increase a single patch.  Over the past few years, I've gone from 3'x4' patches to 6'x8' patches.  It is starting to look better.


More to come over the next couple of weeks...