Do you ever wonder if sometimes projects take on a life of their own? How does that happen? Well my front perennial flower bed is one of those projects! Since our house is only a block from the middle school and a on a direct path to that school, we decided that the best wall material would be preformed pavers along the sidewalk.
That way if any of the brainiacs that walk by decided that the wall looked like it could be walked on at least the pavers could take it more than the greystone rock we were building the rest of the flower bed walls with.
Of course we have creative ways in doing things in our household. Josh's method of leveling the pavers was to jump on them...not pretty looking but quite effective. Everyone in the house pitched in with Sean and Ian off loading brick pavers from the back of the truck, Josh laying the pavers, hubby had already cleared a few roots out of the way with the axe and of course, my job was to supervise and photograph the progression.
It didn't take too long before the wall was almost done. Less than an hour and most of that time was spent in the preparation of the area for the wall.
Of course there was much discussion as to how we were joining both the inside and outside walls together. Once we settled on the how to's, the wall was complete.
Gone were the ugly evergreen yews that had to be trimmed 2 times a year. Josh had removed them the week before. In their place was a beautiful new stone wall and a vision of what my new perennial bed would look like.
This past week I was able to begin planting some of the perennials that I purchased last week at The Perennial Farm along with some hybrid tea rose bushes that I had picked up at some of the local garden centers. We planted 6 fragrant rose bushes along the sidewalk side of the perennial bed. Some requirements for roses to make it in my bed, is that they not only have to be beautiful, they have to be very fragrant.
I planted some annual impatiens as well...you always need that pop of color that annuals always provide. We still need another truckload of dirt to finish filling n the bed and the old azaleas need to be removed and replaced with some newer ones.
As you can see, some of Mother Natures creatures are enjoying the perennial gardens plants. I love this echinecea...It's called White Swan and the flower head is huge. I have planted about 10 different echinecea varities...Can you tell that this is one of my favorite perennials?
I also planted a dwarf Bee Balm that we found at a local garden center. Isn't it pretty and the bumble bees have already visited it, so I think it was a nice addition to the bed.
This swallow tail butterfly really, really loves my echineceas. He spent the good part of the first day flitting from one plant to the other.
I'm hoping to finish the bed this coming week and I can share with you the whole project. One more truck load of dirt, some bush removal, some more planting to do, some mulching and we should be pretty much done. I can't wait!
