The nice thing about being on call on the weekends is I have to stick around home. Today that allowed me to get to work on the flower bed bright and early, before the sun started to get really hot (its finally warming up in Michigan!).
As a recap, I got in over my head at the store:
OK so when you look at it it doesn’t seem like a lot. Trust me though, all those tiny little flowers with the delicate roots that always seem to almost break when your removing them from the plastic holders – it’s a lot.
So I got to planting and almost right away thought “this is too hard”.
Kept trucking on I did! & three hours later the bed was 90% finished.
Side note: Don’t judge the border work. We are attempting to grow grass and it definitely looks messy right now. Once I mulch and reline the border it will look fabulous!
I say 90% because I want to add more (surprise) hosta (you can see some already waiting to be planted, that I bought today, again) and some perennials. I found some bulbs at the store today that can be planted now, and are shade tolerant so fingers crossed next Spring they come up and wow me with their beauty.
As of right now, I’m happy with the color and variety.
For those of you wondering “Hey Kristi, I know you don’t have a lot of sun where you are located. What kind of flowers can you plant in shade?”. Good question. I have done A LOT of research on this because I didn’t want to have only hosta or green plants in my garden. I wanted color! There are a ton of perennial and annual flowers that tolerate shade. I planted the ones I liked the most but you can certainly do whatever your heart desires!
Currently I have hosta, hydrangea, astilbe and foxglove planted from last year. These are perennials (foxglove is actually a biennial) that will come back year after year.
This year I will have replaced to hydrangea and added a couple more hosta variety. As for perennial flowers I am going to plant ixia bulbs that will come up next Spring.
Annuals (flowers you have to replant every year) are as follows:
Coleus: Black and hot pink
Begonia: I put in clusters of red, white and pink
Celosia: yellow
Impatiens: hot pink and white
There are so many more out there I haven’t gotten a chance to try yet. One the well house bed gets cleaned up I plan to plant other shade flowers there. There are a lot of possibilities so I’m excited to explore all the options.
Today I also replaced one dead hydrangea with a new one.
This new addition is a different type then I had planted before but I’m game for something different. Fingers crossed this one doesn’t die. The other one will be replaced tomorrow with your general mop head type.
I really do love hydrangea and I want some blooms!!
The Little Island Farmhouse 