Every garden has a trouble spot or one of those areas that you just never get right the first time you design it. For me it is the front flowerbed right up against the living room window.
The planted up rusty chandelier is directly across from it. I planted it there because you can see it from the large window. To be honest I also hoped to distract people from the other side, which has always given me grief.
The chandelier was planted up with yellow creeping jenny but I had to remove it. This Spring we are seeing warmer then usual temps with less rain and a lot of Sun. It usually does a lot better before warmer temps hit and gets established, but this year it just kind of dwindled, so I put it elsewhere and bought myself some Grape Punch Calibrachoa.
Which seems to be doing much better. The pots themselves are clay and I also think that is drawing water away from the plants and I think the Creeping Jenny is a water lover.
Back to the trouble spot.
This area at its halfway point is all shade and never gets water unless I hose it down. The overhang on our roof prevents rain from getting in the corner next to the patio. So that spot is always dry as a bone. I knew I was going to be revamping this spot this year with what I thought would be a large white ceramic pot.
But I found other goodies instead. The bench is a nice 5 foot wide teak wood bench that I got at Costco. Please don't go by their online price, there is no way I paid four hundred bucks. My local Costco had this for $230.00. After seeing the prices on amazon and other stores for smaller ones, I raced back to get it!
This area used to be filled with hosta and Astible with one lonely Hellebore. I relocated those to the left hand side, which you can see a portion of them in the left hand corner.
The concrete pots I found at Lowe's. I was shocked at the price. I bought two.
Then went back the next week and bought 2 more!
They have ONE left, and I may even go get that one too. I adore concrete pots! Especially at thirty bucks each.
I could not find concrete pillars for less then the price of gold, so the gerbils in my blonde brain finally remembered some leftover pavers we had in a pile on the side of the house that might work.
So I am trying them out. Not bad for a buck a paver! After I got the bench on there and the planters good to go I knew I needed some carpet for my bare feet.
Hence the ground covers I planted. Some of the yellow creeping jenny wound up in here. I also found some other goodies which like full shade.
Below:
The green little tufts tucked in between the pillar and the bench are Silver Edge Japanese Spurge. They like full shade and get about 6" to 12" tall and 18" wide.
The bright yellow is leftover creeping jenny.
The hard to see dark purple ground cover is Chocolate Chip Ajuga. I lost the file where I took a picture of the plant tag but it has the name chocolate so I knew I wouldn't forget that name. It like partial shade and only gets maybe 5" tall.
The brightly colored ones below are called Burgundy Glow Ajuga.
My favorite.
If you look hard enough you will see a old hosta trying to grow behind the bench. Also toward the front I found plants called "Ground Tiles" at Lowes.
The tag does not say what the plants are, which burns my butt. But I planted those in a sunnier spot toward the front.
They look like succulents.
I am debating on adding moss.
Moss that grow in the woods not the Irish Moss I see now at the garden centers.
But unfortunately whoever prices that thinks it is equivalent to gold. Fifty square feet would be one hundred dollars.
I may still get some. I am debating. I just think that's a bit pricey.
Another small issue I had was last Fall. The PeeGee Hydrangea Tree I got needed pruned and unfortunately it was not pruned correctly from the grower. So every time I had to trim it, it just looked warped and contorted.
Not in a good way either, so while Greg was walking around with the hacksaw I had muscles cut it off so it would come up as a shrub.
Which left a nice hole in my flowerbed.
I saw a nice Big Cis Plum in here (in my head) but I went to a trusted Garden Center for one and was told they get Gall really easy in our area and they weren't worth the trouble. That's why they didn't carry them, nor did any other garden center. Believe me I checked! I put 250 miles on my car in 5 days looking.
So I am going to try this Purple Smoke bush which came already "limbed up".
I may even try braiding the trunks or trying to wind it onto itself. They used to do this in Louisiana and Florida with Crepe Myrtles and I still remember the look to this day.
In my blonde brain I think this is going to work both as a small tree form and with a braided trunk.
But the purple smoke bush fairy might be laughing her as* off right now, so we'll see! You know me by now. I have to try!
It's been raining here all day today which is nice, we needed it.
Penstamon is blooming and looks so pretty! I need to find about 4 more to fill up this space more.
Well, that's it for the problem area in the front. If the purple smoke bush does what it is supposed to and turns into a nice small ornamental tree form and the ground cover / steppables do their job, I have one less problem area in my flower beds to worry about.
Wish me luck!
