It is Almost Time!

What can be more inspiring on Easter weekend than celebrating life and joy outside digging in the dirt? To me, this is just as much a religious experience as sitting in church.  This may sound blasphemous to some, and in no way am I negating the importance of this holiday or church, but I feel closer to God when I am enriching His soil and really connecting with the spirit of nature.  I’ve also never been one who felt very comfortable in church, or a church family, but consider myself a very religious and spiritual person.  So my main desire this weekend is to create a spotlight of beauty that comes from my soul, seeds, and sweat.

I am already piling my gear up and getting ready to head Dallas way to BFS’s house. The goal for the weekend is to get all the soil ready in the front bed in order to add my highlights and edging plants,  and then my specimen at a later date.   I would love to plant it all in one go but unfortunatelythe plants on order with the AgriExtension Office won’t be here until the 19th.

In the mean time, Imy plan is to use white as the main color accent.  I am usingSweet Alyssum (white)  along the border edges and in a few large patches throughout.  Alyssum is great because it is a heavy flowering and scented plant.  Perfect for sitting on the front porch on beautiful spring and summer nights.  When the flowers start to die or look sparse, then simply hedge them back and there is a new burst of growth and blooms  fit for a rolling country meadow.   Two of my favorite spring flowers are Shasta Daisy and Sweet William.  Sweet William comes in a variety of colors but I chose the white variety, and should be fabulous bunched together with mounds of daisies  in a wave of white.  This may look super magnificent on it’s own without the addition of the other plants.

So much has to be done first, however, to get the dirt ready for new vegetation.  The grass that infiltrated the beds has been “dealt with”, and hopefully will not be a problem, and as you can see from the picture above,  I have the soil amender and mulch ready to go.  Since the soil hasn’t been worked with insome time, I will need to replenish and balance the nutrients in the soil.  Amending the top soil with one part organic mulch and one part enriched soil (enriched with organisms, enzymes and other good, growy stuff) should do the trick.  Once that is thoroughly mixed in,  would be beneficial to let it sit for a week or two to acclimate. But since I’m there, and won’t be back for a few weeks, I wanted to go ahead and get the border and accent plants in.  Then, I will put a 3 to 4 inch layer of Red Cedar Mulch down.  Red cedar has an advantage that some mulches don’t have.  It detracts bugs and roses love red Cedar.  Also, the reflection of the red has been theorized to produce healthier and bigger blooms.  Side note:  Tomatoes and strawberries love red mulch.  They have been proven to yield a larger and tastier crop.

Once all this is done, I’ll let the sprinklers do their job and let the flower babies grow.  I cant wait to get back around the 19th or so and plant the specimen plants and ornamental grasses  (Little Blue Stem, Mexican Feather Grass, and  Blue Muhly grass)

Specimen Plants

(From post on 2/27/09 Garden of Delight)

In the perennials category:  White Oxalis: These are a fantastically hardy plant that is drought resistant and attracts butterflies. (Butterfly attractiveness is one of the main things I look for in a perennial.) I also ordered passion flower vines. This vine features a super spaceship looking blue flower. I was told to order 2, one for the butterflies and one for me. I also chose Cotton Lavender and Green Santolina. These make amazing ground cover and fillers in a natural landscape.

In the Shrub category: I added a Hardy Flare Hibiscus that I plan on babying in a container for a few years, and an American BeautyBerry. I have heard wonderful thing about this bush and it produces long stems of beautiful and tasty berries.

In the rose category: I chose a few eye poppers and nose tempters. The Antique Cadenza is an amazingly hardy, deep red, climbing rose shrub with an out-of-this-world fragrance. To compliment this rose shrub, I added the Duchesse de Brabant rose. This rose is cream to pink and equally fragrant. Maybe later on I will add some white Knock-Outs to add more ooompf….Phases…phases! I have to learn that I can do things in stages and not all at once.

So that is the plan for now.  I am very excited to only have to concentrate my plantings on flowers for now.  I have my vegetables safely tucked away for the night in the garage growing in their little buckets because the news said that there was a chance of a freeze tonight.  I already have a wee tiny little tomato and the tops of a few peppers are blooming out, and am so excited that I chose to do a container vegetable garden this year.  It may take a few years to perfect it, but I’m digging it so far and can’t wait to see how to utilize it in small spaces year round.