Live and Learn

Today I cut another new garden bed. This has been a slow work in progress. Each year I learn from previous year's mistakes and do things to improve my garden. Last year, we cut a 'concave' curve and planted a bunch of stuff. Then I realized it was all shade about 20" from the deck and I could never see the flowers comfortably if I stood on the deck. What a wasted effort! Also, part of the space would be in sun, so I had to plant 2 types of plants; both shade and sun. What a pain!

Last Year: (All shade, just my luck!)


I learned that the garden bed had to be really deep to space plants out appropriately AND to be able to step into the bed and work on the plants. Before, it was just narrow enough that I could not fit into the garden bed, but deep enough that I really hurt my back trying to stretch over to the plants. Because of our half/half issue, I decided to bring the garden bed out and plant a large Crepe Myrtle shrub which requires full sun. The shrub grows very thick which will create ALL shade below it, so I can plant all shade plants below. This weekend, we'll till the soil and I'll move some hosta to the garden bed.

In other news:

• I planted my Lupine, Snapdragon, Forget Me Not and Ranunculus seedlings into the garden.
• Potted some plants my mom gave me that she thinned from her garden.
• Redefined my 'island' garden bed.
• Potted a bell pepper in a large pot. Testing to see if it grows better than in a garden bed.