Fall gardening

Finally the big flower bed that I have been working on for several years is full of dirt and is planted!!  I started working on this massive project 4 years ago.  I have so many rocks that pop up out of our soil that digging a hole is almost impossible without a backhoe so raised beds are the answer on our property.  On the far side of the yard I had thought a really big raised bed would be great for shade plants so I went about designing a rock border and getting them in place that took a whole fall one year to do.  Then I started to fill it in with mulched up leaves, bark, rotted trees – everything I could find and over the next two years I kept adding more and more and gradually it was turning into soil.  Still I needed more so finally I ordered a dumptruck load of soil and had it dumped in an area out of the way – only problem with that is then you have to move the dirt afterwards to the areas you want it.  So last year I started to move dirt, finally this year Mike took pity on me and helped (this was my idea and my project after all and he has his own things to do )and low and behold within a week I was ready to plant. 

Yesterday I went to Lowes searching through their nursery and I got 4 hostas and 2 large coralbells, plus 10 vinca ground cover plants.  This summer I had rooted 7 blue hydrangeas and they were well rooted and ready to plant. A couple days ago I dug up about 10 tiny ferns from the woods and put them aside to go into the garden as well.  I got everything planted this afternoon.  It of course looks pretty empty even with all those plants, but I do know it will fill in within a couple years and each growing season I’m sure I will pick up a couple more plants to stick in empty spaces.  It will look good in a couple years I’m sure.

Here is what it looks like now – I am not bothering to put any mulch down on top of the dirt right now because the big tree above the garden has leaves turning orange already and some are falling every day, I’m sure within a week there will be plenty of downed leaves to help protect the plants and help keep the dirt moist.

another angle:

I don’t guarantee it but I will try to periodically post a picture of this shade bed so you can all see how it is filling in and you all see within a couple years as soon as those hydrangea start growing it will be looking pretty good.