My New Shed Garden – Spring Edition

Finally we have our new shed. It was installed last Fall. Now that the better weather is here it is time to plant my garden around it. My plan is to have beautiful perennials for the birds, butterflies. hummingbirds and bees. It does look like a hot mess right now, but if I haven’t learned anything in gardening, it’s patience….
Most of the time I plan a garden on paper, but not this time. No matter if you plan on paper or figure it out as you go, its a process if you start your garden in Spring. In the Spring, there’s only Spring plants out at garden centers. You have to wait for the Summer plants to come in, and wait for Fall plants. So its hard to mulch the entire bed. Right now I have been finding all the Spring flowering plants, but have to leave room for the Summer flowering. And you have to space everything to you have even color throughout the seasons. I will just mulch around the plant itself as I plant them for now. I also have to edge the bed, probably with bricks as I have a ton of them…When Fall comes I will mulch the entire bed.



Last Fall, I planted the mini Stella Doro lilies all on the slope they made to make the shed level. They are a plant that anyone can plant and take care of. They fill in beds very nicely, are rebloomers and die down to the ground for Winter. Very dependable.

Years ago, before I filled in most of my gardens (I used to spread at least 20 yards of mulch), I had loads of Peony plants. I miss those huge flowering plants and decided this year I would plant many of them.

I found some huge Monrovia ones that are already 20 to 24″ tall with a ton of blooms on them at one of my favorite garden centers. I had to have those. They were more pricey than smaller ones, but I had to have them so I could enjoy the beautiful flowers this year.

They were:


Paul M Wild Double Peony


Shirley Temple Double Peony


Sarah Bernhardt Double Peony


Coral Charm Peony

Then I found some at another huge garden center right down the street. They were a lot smaller do not sure if they will bloom this year or not. They were:


Red Charm


Lemon Chiffon

I used to have a yellow Tree Peony along my driveway and somehow it got plowed over. I was devastated.

I also planted:

 
Bonfire Patio Peach Tree
This tree is great if you don’t want a towering tree. It gets about 5″ high x 5′ wide. And bears actual peaches!


Caradonna Sage


Girard’s Scarlet Azalea


Candytuft


Golden Flare Azalea


Campion “Clifford Moor”
This will look beautiful all year long as it has gorgeous variegated leaves. Has pink flowers in Spring.


Work in progress…..

I bought some phlox and I didn’t even have a chance to plant them and my local resident rabbit ate all the blooms off of them. Needless to say, I wont be buying any more phlox.

When I bought the plants above, it was before I saw the rabbit ate the phlox. When I saw that, I immediately looked up all the plants I bought and every one of them were plants the rabbits hate if you believe it. It wasn’t planned, but now I will know to check and make sure the rabbits don’t like what I buy. I know from experience, one of my favorite perennials “Coneflower” is eaten by the rabbits.


I have ordered a lot of daylilies from Plant Addicts for my pool garden and the garden up along the patio and they came in perfect and are doing so well.

Until my post for the Summer Plants, I have tons of work to do in the yard. Edging the flower beds, mulching, building a trellis for the new Clematis bed. I ordered some great Clematis from Plant Addicts for the trellis. So are anxious to see how they do. I planted some last year and only one of them survived, so we’ll see.

Til next time!