My newest flower bed...

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Jova
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Location: Terre Haute, IN (zone 6a)

My newest flower bed...

Post by Jova » Sat May 01, 2010 8:37 pm

Hello everyone... I finally finished up the raised cactus bed (check out my build thread in the cactus forum for that one) and decided to finally do something with my front yard. For some background information, I live in a house on a farm that was previously owned by my grandparents. I've been here 10 years now, and every spring I had 12 plants that looked like some sort of perennial lily spring up in my front yard, all in a perfect circle. After talking with my father, who was raised on this farm, I found out that there was once a large flowerbed in that section of the yard, with those plants outlining the bed. In the 20 years that no one lived in the house, the bed had since just turned into yard, and I had always just mowed down these plants every spring. So this year I decided to do something with this old flower bed, and I already had the perennial border in place. I don't know exactly what these plants are called, but my mother calls them "naked ladies". From what she has told me, they grow up green in the spring, and then die back and pop up a flower in the late summer. Either way; last weekend we tilled up the area around and in between the circle of long-time perennials, preened like crazy, laid down landscaping fabric and spread 2 square yards of mulch over the area. We moved a flowering cherry tree that I accidently planted on the border of the bed last fall (I didn't realize it since I couldnt see the circle of plants because I mowed them all down) into the center of the bed. To make a ridiculously long-winded and most-likely boring post short: here's what it looked like before:
Image
And here's what it looks like now:
Image
Currently, plants for this bed are somewhat up in the air... Other than the flowering cherry that's already there, I plan on transplanting some of the moonflowers that come back every year in my other flower beds, as well as some giant zanzibar castor beans that just came in today, also going to try some musa basjoo's. The basjoo's have always come back bigger every year, but this will be my first attempt planting them outside of the 5ft protected range on the warmer sides of my house. We'll see how they do. We're still going to have some extra room in this bed (it's pretty huge) so if anyone has any suggestions, we'd love to hear them. Otherwise, I guess I just wanted to post some pics in an attempt to make me feel a little bit better about getting sunburned and sore over the weeked:) Thanks for reading this lengthy post:)



lucky1
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Post by lucky1 » Mon May 17, 2010 3:37 pm

Jova
Sorry I/we missed this post.
Only the "before" picture appeared; did photobucket bomb the second pic?
OOPS, second pic just popped up! Great.

I think it's cool that you're resurrecting your grandparents' flower circle into a flower bed and keeping some of grandparents' stuff (that you used to mow) :lol:

I look forward to more pictures, once your sore back heals.
Barb
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BILL MA
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Post by BILL MA » Tue May 18, 2010 6:25 am

I missed it too, nice Job!

Bill

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hardyjim
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Post by hardyjim » Tue May 18, 2010 6:39 am

Nice space to work with.
I wonder if those are Day lilies,are the flowers orange colored?

You may want to try a cold hardy bananas such as Itinerans if that spot is
exposed to wind,Basjoos can get pretty messed up without some protection from wind.
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ROBRETI
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Post by ROBRETI » Wed May 19, 2010 7:40 pm

Hi Jova,

It is really cool that you have incorporated family history in this bed. Good luck with its further development!
Rob

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Jova
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Joined: Tue Jun 02, 2009 7:56 pm
Location: Terre Haute, IN (zone 6a)

Post by Jova » Fri May 28, 2010 9:08 pm

Thanks for the replies everyone! Here's a pic of the bed currently. We planted a circle of red day lillies inside the outer circle of lillies, then planted 4 salvias and 2 musa basjoos in the center, planning on putting 2 castor beans toward the back section of the center of the circle. Everything is still really small right now, but I'm sure it will look pretty impressive next year:)
Image

ROBRETI
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Location: Oakville, ON

Post by ROBRETI » Sat May 29, 2010 5:25 am

Hi Jova,

It is going to be very beautiful. Loving care is felt by plants, I am (almost) sure :-)

Good luck with your planting!
Rob

DesertZone
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Post by DesertZone » Sat May 29, 2010 8:36 am

Nice flower bed and nice view of the country side. 8)
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