Driveway Bed 2025- Report #1

I had to pull weeds fast to finish weeding this, this evening, because the bugs came out. Almost gave up, but I persevered. It doesn't look like much, but you can compare it to the even more barren space in the link at the end.

Last fall, I talked about a plan. I actually did get a bunch of plants and bulbs moved into this space. Here's how some of them are doing.

On the west end in the back is the plant I dug up in New York. In fact, I've split it and it's now in four places. It is a wild sedum called Orpine, Hylotelephium telephium. It's basically the parent of all the tall garden sedums. The deer sampled it this spring, but I think they didn't like it- just bit off pieces and left them.

Obviously, I've added a row of iris. None of them bloomed this year, but they are looking healthy. I have no idea what colors... I just dug up some corms and plopped them in! Surprises for next year.

What you may or may not be able to tell is that there are a bunch of daffodill and grape hyacinth stems in here too. A couple of the dafs bloomed this spring and a lot of the grape hyacinth. I encourage the latter because they bloom early and the leaves die back quickly. The daffodil leaves can be problematic.

On the east end, I got three globe thistles moved up here. Two of them look good. The one in the middle had some early leaves that seem to be gone now. Maybe it just needs another year. I'll get a few more of those moved up here this fall. They are the large prickly-looking leaves

Between those, the yellow-green, is a variegated artemesia that Ellen gave me long ago. It's not a favorite because it doesn't stay in one place very well (a lot of the artemesias wander), but it isn't invasive like a couple I've had, so I'll leave it to fill in spaces.

The coarse strap-like leaves are the weed I love, Viper's Bugloss. It's a biennial, so I just try to move any sprouts I see in the fall to spaces that are better for them.

The Coneflower from Cathy and the Coreopsis I bought a couple of years ago are looking pretty good. Some of the blue Globe Bellflower that I moved here is going to bloom. I don't think you can kill that stuff. I stuck in a bunch of stakes with no labels at places where I thought something was a plant I wanted to keep. Most of those have nothing. One Star of Bethlehem appeared, however!

I will show you this surprise. I'm pretty sure this is a verbena I dug out of a ditch a long time ago and that I thought was dead. We shall see!

The stunning success in that flower bed is the Wood Sage, Salvia nemerosa that was a gift from Marie. It will keep blooming if deadheaded, so I may cut these flowers off before I leave Monday so that it won't just set seed and be done before I get home again. The big clump isn't blooming yet. It's too tall to be right in front where it is, so I'll need to move these at some point.

Anyway... it's the beginning of the fulfillment of a plan. The one plant I bought for this bed last year was marked as hardy. I had my doubts, but foolishly believed the tag. Ha! It's dead.

We got 0.6 inch of rain last night. That was a great drink for the gardens.

I spent almost all day checking and packing gear for the New York trip. That's pretty much done. Just a few odds and ends I can't really finish until after Saturday. The fact that it was quite wet outside inspired me to stay in and work on that (well, that and general approaching panic at being ready to leave!)

See A Point of Reference