My New Winter Border
Hello, a few more rainy days this week, which gives me a chance to catch up on everyone's blog posts, as well as another of my own.
I finally got everything cleared out of the original section of my North Border, so that on Friday and Saturday I could plant the growing collection of potted evergreen trees and shrubs accumulating at the side of my house. I have just about finished planting all the major trees and shrubs, and I only have to mulch it and plant a few areas of evergreen perennials and pockets of bulbs.
The photo above shows what the border now looks like from my kitchen window. As readers may remember, the North Border used to be a rectangular strip planted with perennial and annual flowers:
The North Border last May. |
I was dissatisfied with it, however, because it gave me nothing to look at in wintertime and it was hard to keep such a large border weeded in summertime. So last fall, I removed the grass from a curvy smaller section in front of the original border and this spring I have been moving many of the plants from the back section into the new section, which I might end up calling my Summer Border.
I have used only relatively common trees and shrubs that I was able to purchase locally in reasonable sizes, as most conifers are fairly slow-growing and I am fairly impatient. I tried to find a variety of colors, textures and sizes, although I mostly tried to avoid very dark green conifers, as I was afraid they would not be visible against the backdrop of the large Western Red Cedars of our windbreak.
Also, I tried to avoid the look of a random collection by grouping the trees and shrubs in small groups by color, trying to repeat the motif of groups of three.
I'll show closeups of each part of the border, starting on the right end, listing the cultivars and showing how I tried to form groups and vignettes that I hope will look nice as the trees and shrubs mature.
This is the same photo as at the beginning, to show the Winter Border in its entirety to conclude. |
I think I've made a good start on designing and planting my Winter Border. I didn't actually plan it out before planting, I just bought a selection of contrasting shrubs and trees and then laid them out and moved things around until it looked right, before beginning to plant from right to left.
There's still a bit more to be done: mulching, and I'll still add a few more groups of perennials that remain evergreen here in Iowa (a pretty short list, to be truthful). I'll also put in a few pockets of early bulbs such as daffodils, crocus, winter aconite and maybe some early tulips. And I also want to add a group of three rocks, and perhaps a statue, if I find a suitable one.
It feels good to have finished the major part of this project that I've been thinking about for the past half a year, and I'm looking forward to putting the last finishing touches on it and then seeing how the trees and shrubs grow over the next five to ten years.
Hope your own projects are progressing well this spring. Thanks for reading! -Beth
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