Thursday, July 05, 2007

A Gardener's Whims

I spent a fair bit of time standing in front of this raised bed today, trying to decide what was wrong with it and what I should do about it.

Now, resident-lawnmower-man can't see anything wrong with it, but then again, he will ask me if his pants and shirt match.

The problem is two-fold:
(a) The Campanula persicifolia grew 4 feet tall and looks like isolated towers among its shorter perennial companions in the middle of the bed. The ones snuggling up to the Pacific giant delphiniums look more appropriate.

Then there is a greater problem: (b) Color clash. The Aruncus dioicus (Goatsbeard) and Filipendula vulgaris flowers are cream-colored and the campanula and columbines are pure white. Oh, the crisis of garden color palettes! I think that I prefer the creams, but I am attempting to separate the two while moving tall plants towards the back of the bed.

Here you can see my unnamed rose bush, which appears to be the same type of rose the neighbours have in their yard -- obviously some very hardy type with purplish-pink flowers. In the foreground is the stalwart fuzzy-headed Artemisia l. "Silvermound". I added the cedar bark mulch recently because I can't plant in that area, having to leave space for the Artemisia.

I have a nice group of Digitalis grandiflora now. I think that these yellow flowers are the hardiest of the foxgloves, though not necessarily the showiest.

This is my "shade bed". It is also a catch-all for all the plants whose flowers clash with the pinks and purples in the rest of the yard. Yes, it's a red-flower seclusion area.

4 comments:

Jane O' said...

I love your raised bed. Very neat and organized looking. GReat stones!
As for color clashes, I don't worry about that a whole lot. Take a look at nature. It doesn't seem to mind a bit where it plops flowers and what color they are.

Linda said...

Your raised beds look lovely with all the stones around them. What a huge amount of work that must of been. I'm always moving plants around because after awhile they get too big for that spot. You have a great showing of foxgloves.

Gardenista said...

Marie- yeah, I think I spend too much time worrying about bloom colors, and then they die and I cut them off anyways!
Crafty- Thanks. Yeah, we hired a family member to do much of the grunt work and RLM hauled in most of the stones himself. It was a huge amount of work, but looks nice now.

Philosophical Karen said...

I love the formal look of these beds you have shown. You've done great work with the space you have.