The Front Walk Bed

 

"By all these lovely tokens
September days are here
With summer's best of weather
and autumn's best of cheer."
~unknown author

When we moved in, the garden beds along the walkway leading to the front door looked like this.

 

The walkway moves you alongside a long deck. Under the deck is storage and the deck skirting is inexpensive lattice, which many folks consider something to be covered up. So naturally a previous owner planted vines to do so. There are aggressive vines and there are well behaved vines. In this case they choose 2 very aggressive hydrangea vine varieties. Fast to grow and cover no doubt they were told but when you plant under a deck, the vine will eventually get up to the height of the deck and beyond, and into everything stored under the deck, so you now have an annual pruning and untangling chore to add to your yearly list of things to do. And bear in mind if you plant vines…vine trunks grow wide too and will break your lattice as it outgrows the space it intertwines with.

 

 There was also some sword Fern. I love ferns but there are other varieties I love more than our native Sword (Polystichum munitum). There was also a thick carpet of invasive violets covering every inch of dirt, making weeding a difficult and unpleasant activity. And seeding its way into the lawn and nearby beds so - out it goes.

Deck skirting can be beautiful but this lattice is ugly and at this point brittle and broken in some places so in the future my better half will replace it with something wonderful, because that’s what he does. He builds our beautiful hardscapes.

In the meantime, my job is to get rid of all the wrong plants and put in some better choices.

 

Months ago, I cut all the vines close to the soil to stop their progression and kill them. A couple months later I dig out the sword ferns and violas and clean up the whole area. Much to my dismay I also encountered yards of weed barrier cloth, 4-6 inches under the whole mess, so I had to get it out too. I hate the stuff but that’s another post coming. Needless to say, if I wanted my new plantings to grow into a healthy garden, I needed to get the weed barrier cloth out.

 

 Then I planted. Yay! The fun part. I chose Sarcoccoa ruscifolia for its eventual size and late winter fragrance to go by the front door and I underplanted it with Pachysandra.

  

For the narrow bed under the deck, I chose Ilex ‘Sky Pencil’ which should stay well within the height of under the deck (a tad over 5 feet) and if it should reach the top, it is much easier to control than a vine. Then I underplanted it with black Mondo grass and a lovely variety of heuchera for shade named Dolce Silver Gumdrop. I thought the silvery plum leaves with black veining would brighten the shady bed and look stunning intermingling with the black mondo grass.

 

 I am glad I spent time at my former garden taking cuttings and divisions. It has saved me a lot of money in new plants. Black Mondo grass is very costly, and all I have here, I have brought with me. And it will spread. Same with the pachysandra. Cuttings are easy to root in place if you keep it moist as it forms new roots. And the heuchera I bought on sale and in a few years’ time, I will be able to propagate more from these 3 and fill in this space.

Now all I have to do is keep it watered and wait till it all fills in. No worries…I have plenty of other areas needing work in this yard. Stay tuned!

In bloom in my garden today: fuschia, heuchera, sedum, germander, Agastache, calendula, dianthus, salvia, coryopsis, geum, rose, nepeta, cuphea, verbascum, asclepias, thyme 

Authors photos