Fibermania

The Big Bed

I have been yammering about landscape timbers for weeks, and finally can reveal the results of all that waiting. This is the long awaited Sun Garden. We hope.

Since we live in a bowl surrounded by tall trees, and get a lot of shade, I have tried to find a spot that gets enough sun to really do the trick for sun loving plants. The pondside or west side of our house is the best bet. The yard drops off precipitously into the pond, so a raised bed is needed.
The P.O. left us a lot of freebie timbers, but not quite enough to get the job done. It was a trick to get the size we needed and get them home. Dave's La Bamba was a necessary ingredient, and once it graduated from the fix-it garage we went shopping for timbers. Then the rains came and we couldn't do much but watch movies and wait. Sigh.

The bed was LARGE and we needed lots of Moo-nure, which weighs a ton, believe me. 40 bags at 40 pounds each, plus the weight of the timbers, that's alot. But La Bamba was good for it.

And here is the Sun Garden... in the shade. Well, it was five o'clock by the time I was done planting, so the sun was low on the horizon by then. But I do expect more sun, earlier in the day.

The finished size is something like 16x4 feet and about 16" deep. I had to have a place for my long desired hydrangeas. I have planted two reds and a purple. They are advertised at those colors. Not that pink-that-should-be-blue-in-acid-soil-Nikko variety. We'll see if they are true to form. I did add lots of peat to acid up the mix.

To fill in the big space I added red geraniums, red New Guinea Impatiens, white regular impatiens, and then more dang hosta, as a rescue mission. These are Pearl Lake and were languishing at Wal-Mart in the $2 bin. I put them in the back as filler. Then there was a big empty in the middle and I realized I had saved up 8 big Autumn Joy Sedum for something, somewhere and this must be the place.

The tall stakes behind this bed function as foundation supports, and will be the supports for the two trumpet vines planted in front of the them, one yellow and one orange. I may regret having these vines in this bed, but I ran out of places to put them. All gardening is experimental, so time will tell if this was a good idea or not.

The very steep bank of the pond is mere inches from the edge of this bed, and I held on for dear life as I planted the back row. There was a moment when I slipped a bit and had I fallen, it would have been a disasterous event. Raspberry sticker bushes and icky pond water could have ruined my triumphant planting day.

So for now I will arrange my lawn chair, grab a stimulating beverage and just revel in the view.