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A Message from Margaret Roach

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Help with bed design

Tagged: design

This topic contains 4 replies, has 3 voices, and was last updated by dirtgirl 4 years, 7 months ago.

Viewing 5 posts - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

Author	Posts
Author	Posts
October 1, 2008 at 4:27 pm #18400
dirtgirl
October 1, 2008 at 4:27 pm #18401
dirtgirl	I have a bed that has to be completely reworked due to loss of mature trees destroyed by storms. One tree was an oak that was over a hundred years old (a heart breaking loss). The bed is enclosed on the North and East sides by the brick walls of the house and porch. It faces West. It is 12 ft. deep by 28 ft. long with a 7 ft. drop from the porch to the Southern end. The combination of the afternoon sun and brick wall can make for a dry situation but we have access to natural water and we water often. I would like a couple of small trees. It is okay if they overhang into the yard. I would like to create a bird and butterfly habitat, and incorporate some spring flowering bulbs, and at least one climbing vine if I can find one that can take the heat of the wall…or it could scramble through a shrub if that would be better. It would be nice if it had a few evergreen plants/shrubs/trees so as not to be completely bare in winter. We are in zone 7a – 6 b, but we often have a severe late spring freeze after everything is up and beautiful. We have lost so much in the last couple of years that replanting has gotten really expensive. Also, I don’t want to make a big mistake with this bed. Any ideas would be so appreciated– ideas completely different from my own are very welcome. I am very weak in tree and shrub knowledge so I could really use help there. If this is too big a request for this forum, I completely understand. Thank you.
October 3, 2008 at 4:59 am #18402
kate swift	sounds like a great spot for an herb garden if you like to cook. Lavenders would love it too. Maybe a crape myrtle in the lower corner? They are lovely in winter. What about boxwood for evergreen? Or maybe a trio of those tall skinny cypress or arborvitae, check with your local nursery re: hardiness zones. The good news is, you have time to get your major trees and shrubs in before winter, and you can take advantage of the end of season sales. It’s always best to start a new garden by planting the ‘anchor’ pieces first, anyway. Good luck!
October 3, 2008 at 1:48 pm #18403
margaret	So many possibilities! A blank canvas after a loss is both exciting and upsetting, I agree. I wonder if you can do without the kind of shade the big oak would have created, and instead use some big, wildlife-friendly shrubs that are more like small trees, such as some of the bigger Viburnums. See this post: [url] http://awaytogarden.com/think-fall-yes-fall[/url] Viburnums are the delight of many birds, and have multiple seasons of interest for the gardener, too. In small trees, one of my favorites is the Stewartia, with its summer flowers and hot fall color, plus year-round beauty in its bark. It is slow-growing, but have a read: http://awaytogarden.com/hot-plant-stewartia-an-ideal-small-tree Kate is so right: your dry-ish conditions and the wall and so on conjure images of an herb garden, but if you make more shade with some trees that wouldn’t mix so well with herbs. Like I said, so many possibilities…
October 6, 2008 at 9:01 am #18404
dirtgirl	Thanks Kate. :-) I’ve long wanted to grow lavender and hadn’t thought to include it here. The soil is on the clay side but it has 23 years of mulch that will be tilled in, and our creek recently gifted us with a huge amount of sand that was left neatly piled on the bank after the last flooding rains. We have a Sarah crape myrtle sitting in a very large wood chip pile waiting for a home (two years she’s waited). She is about 10 feet tall and 6 feet wide now, and will look lovely in the position you suggest. Margaret, viburnam’s sound perfect. Thank you! Do you think I could use three in the upper corner where the porch meets the house? How would you place them? Would you get all of one variety? I’m not familiar with the Stewartia tree, but it sounds lovely. If I put the crape myrtle in the lower corner and the viburnums the upper, what to do with the middle? The brick is very dominating reaching 13 ft high on the lower end and 6 ft high on the porch end. There is siding above the brick. The crape myrtle will extend just a bit past the lower end of the house as the bed extends about 4 feet or so. More questions: I love the herb garden idea but I want to keep the ground work (weeding) on this bed to a minimum—would large pots here and there work as well? Boxwoods—I like the idea of them, especially the smaller variety but where would I put them? There is a nursery near that has such beautiful ones. I’d love to bring some home. I have some Maximilian’s Sunflower that I’d like to incorporate if I can figure out how to work it in. Is there a spring/summer flowering something I could plant in with it? It is just the most wonderful plant, but it can look really ragged at the bottom. We’ve had it at least 15 years. The orientation of things is troubling me with this bed. I think it’s just the drastic change, but I feel some excitement now towards the new possibilities. I can usually see so clearly what the final result will be…but not this time. This is the very first time I’ve had any help in planning a bed. It feels much like an early and unexpected Christmas gift. Thank you both, sincerely. This is just one spot of several that we lost completely. If I can get it going right, I think the rest will fall into place. Thanks again.

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