Arbor Bed, The Promise of Renewal

Remember this over crowded, buttercup filled perennial bed?

And my buried garden bench?

And Dirt's buried fence?

Wa - la

Everything is out and now it is time to put on the alfalfa pellets, this is my rate of application, about ten pounds for the approximately three hundred square feet that I have ready here,

and over here.

Sometimes it is hard to tell where to keep going and where to call it a day with a particular garden. I made sure I did this area here along the fence because the tulips needed to be replanted and new ones added in all along the fence. Looking from the yard, the picture above this one, this part doesn't really belong. It is divided off from the lawn border by the lilac hedge, the grape that needs an arbor, and the bench that sits under the arbor that's not there yet.

But looking from the driveway this is one long garden bed. And when the red tulips bloom in the spring before most of the perennials have gotten any size on them it really is a cohesive long bed.

I do like playing with the placement of things so that from one angle the garden looks one way and from another it looks very different, taking advantage of different seasons. When everything is in full bloom and foliage and the garden bench is tucked in here among the lilacs in May and the lilies and lavender in July it is a delightful little cubby to rest in, hidden from a good deal of the daily work but with a view of most of the pay off, the gardens and lawn.

I enjoyed the floor under the bench being covered with growing things but it did get out of hand and then kind of weedy because weeding around structures is not my idea of weeding bliss. So this time I am going to put down some of my weed mat and top it off with sand and rock. I will purpose to plant a few things under the bench, a little mint, a couple sedums, maybe a clump of nigella at the corners of the bench. I know that these grow well in sand and rock because they are always jumping out of the lovely beds I have for them other places in the yard and grow in the sand and rock pathways.Here is the lovely bench covering arbor. No, it's not really there, it's in my head. But I think it may be one of those things that I have to build myself. I don't mind for two reasons; Dirt is talking serious about my chicken coop/greenhouse combo as his next project, and I have a plan for how the arbor looks and I have a sneaky suspicion that Dirt will not be able to see it the same way.

He often forgets that when he and I met I was in civil engineering and I understand a little about construction physics and what is possible, remember the tack box debate Tom and Dirt? Never say never. But really I don't mind that he forgets because for the most part I don't want to build stuff.

Well the frost is just about gone and it is a balmy forty degrees, so I am heading out to finish this job. And start a new one.