Our Latest Project

Jamey finished up our latest project this past weekend and we are very pleased with the way it turned out. Since I dislocated my back a week ago I was only allowed to direct and was strictly forbidden to do any labor. I had come up with the notion we needed some type of hedge at the end of the patio bed. My original idea was to go with a traditional boxwood hedge, but after more consideration we decided the impact of Knock Out roses in bloom would be more appealing for us. We really wanted more evergreens in the garden… we just couldn’t resist the roses though.

We extended the right hand side of the bed an additional 2 1/2 feet to accommodate the roses and continued along the side of the patio. The area beside the patio just needed to be wide enough for the roses we don’t intend on adding anything else to this part.

In the pictures this looks like just a small strip, but it’s only because this is a very large bed we are re-shaping. You can get a better idea of the size by looking at the patio table in the background.

It was absolute misery sitting there and watching Jamie do this all by himself. I wanted to get in there and do something so bad I couldn’t stand it, but I was having difficulty just sitting and standing so I’m glad he put his foot down. Didn’t he do a fantastic job though? We were both very pleased with the way it turned out.

By next spring this should be an incredible hedge of deep pink and red blooms. I think they are actually supposed to be red, but as the blooms mature they turn more of a pink. I can’t wait to see them in all their glory.

In other news, our little winged harlot, Jezebel has settled down to just one fellow and is busy raising her family. He seems to be a good mate and kept her supplied with food during those last days on the eggs before they hatched.

My grandmother's “English Dogwood” is approaching full bloom right now.

The amaryllis are also starting to open up as well. Here’s hoping this post finds you in spring cheer.

Progress

Well everyone, the new bed is coming right on along and starting to look like a flower bed. We’ve planted it for the most part so it is symmetrical on each side sort of in an ‘S” formation, but opposite so it looks the same if you are standing in the front or in the back. So far we’ve planted 2 Japanese Maples, 6 Buddleia (1 Adonis, 2 Nanho, 1 Honeycomb, 1 White Ball and 1 White Profusion), 1 Texas Lilac, 6 Mexican Heather, 2 Black and Blue Salvia, 1 Royal Purple Mexican Sage Bush, 2 Purple fountain grass, 1 Albelia Kaleidoscope, 5 Lantana (1 New Gold, 2 Confetti, 2 Purple that I don’t know the name of). We also transplanted the Red Crinum I got from Jeanne last year. We got everything mulched with pine straw, if I had know how many sticks were in it we would have raked it up on the side of the road. We are just getting started on this bed and these are just some of the large back bone plants for it. Of course we will be loading it up with filler plants. We also built two of four trellises that will go up on the back fence. One has a yellow Lady Banks Victorian Rose on it and the other has a white Lady Banks Rose on it that we bought by mistake and decided to keep. We also bought and built a wooden arbor and planted Confederate Jasmine on either side of it. The arbor was a gift from one of the pharmacists that works with Jamie. She doesn't garden, but she knows what we lost and how much we loved it and wanted to help. Since the storm we also replace two of the Texas Redbuds (we use to think were Eastern, thank you Annie) and removed the destroyed White Oleanders and replaced them with Natchez Crepe Myrtles. We also added a Pink Dogwood in the center of, and about six feet behind, the new bed. I wish I had more pictures for you, but right now the plants are so small you can barely see them for the pine straw mulch. I know it doesn’t look like much, but it’s a start and we feel good about it. We’ll get some good pictures once everything gets a little growth on it. Now if we can just get the grass to cover the remaining Bobcat tracks.

The New Patio Bed

Jamie and I started on one of the new beds last Saturday. I’m getting very excited about watching everything come together. I would say we are about half way thru with what we are calling the “Patio Bed”. I’m still having a hard time adjusting to the barren back yard. I get myself past it by realizing we have a blank canvass. Lately ideas have been pouring into my mind so by the end of summer we should be noticing some major differences in the garden. Right now I’m flip flopping on whether or not to put up a privacy fence. We would have a much better back drop for the garden but, our neighbors on the right hand side put one up a couple of years ago and we never see each other. I really, really like the elderly couple that lives on the left side, so they are my only hesitation in putting up the fence. I enjoy meeting at the fence post to talk.

My Oh So Hard Working Other Half

This bed would already be done were it not for the tremendous amount of tree roots we have to dig up. There were three very large forty year old trees back here and they had many years to stretch out their feet. In the background you can see I’ve pushed the chain link fence back up but it still hasn’t been repaired. I think I can fix it myself, it seems pretty simple.

Looking at Jamie standing there you can get a better idea of the size of the Patio Bed. As big as it is you can tell from the picture it still only covers about seventy percent of the original area. We may extend it just a couple of feet more on the left hand side or Maybe not. I have some ideas for other beds and I may need that area for something else. I climbed on the roof to take the picture.

Jamie Sure is Phoe-toe-genical

Well, you should have a general idea of which direction we are heading with this bed. We have two Japanese Red Maples to plant on the very ends of each side and a Stellar Pink Dogwood to go in the center towards the back. All three will grow to fifteen or twenty foot trees and will eventually provide some shade for the bed but still allow it to get plenty of sun. I’m concerned about the pink dogwood being in full sun, but if we water it well enough it should do just fine. The ones in the front yard were thriving just fine in full sun. The leaves did get a little crispy during August sometimes; it didn’t matter though because Fall is close enough at that point they are only a temporary eye sore.

This little Redbud is the first step towards replanting the garden. We bought two of them to replace the ones broken off in the storm. I got such a sense of satisfaction from planting it in it’s new home. I hope it does well for us.

Eastern Redbud