A tale of two flower beds, told breathlessly in pictures

May 20, 2019

A tale of two flower beds, told breathlessly in pictures

Once upon a time, we bought a little blue house in Massachusetts. And this is how it looked the day we took possession.

Mulch Boy, Rosie, and Charlie (the pre-Daisy days).

And the front beds looked like this.

A few random (and soon to be hated) ornamental grass thugs,
a few now-forgotten annuals, and some misplaced hostas.

Like the bed above, only on the other side of the front door.

Side of the house. A showcase.

Not surprisingly, one of my first tasks was to attempt to liven up these beds, whose best features were the rocks (precious rocks!). So that fall I plopped in a few perennials (Montauk daisies, a rugosa, and some juniper) and planted 200 bulbs or so.

Daisies and juniper.

I may have also moved some rocks.

The next Spring, I was delighted and surprised when all the bulbs came up.

Tulips! Daffies!

Hyacinths! Tulips! Daffies!

As the years (all three of 'em) passed, I added more perennials and shrubs. This is last year after a boatload of additions.

Poppies, dianthus, toad lilies, pincushion flowers, and some new shrubs to replace
the thug grass I was finally able to dig up with Rod.

Over here, some new little shrubs, baby blueberry plants, and the triumphant
elimination of the thug grass.

It's been a process, but somehow i've never quite had a full vision of what i wanted to do with these two beds until last year, when I started to consider the rock borders. Now I have a rock fetish; this is well known. I was thrilled when we bought the house to see so very many big rocks. Yay, rocks!

And yet, somehow, in particular with these front beds, they just didn't please me, and I couldn't figure out why. So last fall I began considering digging up the border stones and using them in some other way. This would definitely help with lawn-mowing, as a border trench is easier to mow and requires no weed-whacking. And it would free up a bunch of stones for other uses. My ideas: 1) little stone walls on either side of the front stair to keep the mulch from spilling into the pointless brick square in front of the step, and 2) stone wall on side of bed by brick walkway to prevent mulch from spilling onto crappy brick walkway.

Then Fall and Winter came, and I totally forgot all about it.

Until this May, when we finally--FINALLY!--got some Spring weather suitable for the gahden. Up until this last weekend, the focus has been almost exclusively on the backyard. My plan had been to continue that this past Saturday, with a short diversion into the front yard to mow and weed. Then one thing led to another, and first thing you know, I've spent 8 hours digging up rocks and moving rocks and building walls. Behold!

The front stair. This little brick square is about 4 inches lower than the rest of the
lawn. I thought perhaps it was the beginning of a buried path to the street but no,
that's all there is. Anyway, mulch used to spill into it and collect all the time but
no more thanks to ROCK WALLS.

The flower bed used to slope down to the brick. But now ROCK WALL is
built up to the bed's soil level, preventing the mess.

And, uh, same thing on the other side. Little cool thing: the top stone on the extreme
left has a natural hollow on the top. It's a natural birdbath!

The long view. It's super-charming, I swear.

Buoyed by the success of my little creations, I decided to turn to the larger task of building a similar wall between the bed that borders the brick walkway and the walkway itself. If the other location had spillage issues, this one had them just as worse, and had the disadvantage of being by the front door we actually use (and so being more visible). I give you: the other wall!

It's at least three times bigger than the other two.

And the rocks are bigger.

It may not look like much to you, but I promise you it is quite awesome.

Long view. Again, it's so charming, I swear.

And thus ended Saturday. All. Eight. Hours. As a reward, Mulch Boy grilled me delicious food, and we watched "Lonesome Dove," one of my favorite movies of all time. Then, my belly full of Ibuprofen, it was off to bed.

Sunday was very hurty. I should have just rested all day. I was going to when the weather forecast said rain all day. But then the weather changed its mind, and so I found myself spending three more hours out in the front yard, digging in new borders for the two beds where once there were rocks, and actually finishing the first one!