Refreshing Home: Plantscape Ideas and Planning

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Plantscape Ideas and Planning

Is it time for you to start arranging your plants for the season? Do you want to start a perennial garden? It is always a good idea to start with the research first, so that you will be happy with your finished layout.

There is a reason that most plants come with information tags in them. This gives you a general guide on what that plant will do, what kind of soil it will need, and how much sun or shade it has to have. Some plants are very picky, and others seem to be happy wherever you put them.

So, get your garden mapped out, check your desired plants for the above information, and amend the soil with whatever is needed for your plant choices.

These photos show a perennial garden I put in at my sister's vacation house in Lincoln City, Or. Part of this was already there. The cottage stone marks the front edge, and the rest was buried bender board type edging. I don't like weeds, and sure hate pulling them up, so I covered the whole area with heavy weed control fabric.

I set out our selection of plant material where we wanted them to go, then, using scissors I cut a big + where I wanted to put a plant. I just worked my way around from the inside of this circle garden out. Keep in mind that I wanted this to be a very full area of plantings almost like an English garden look. I used driftwood pieces that we found on the beach and put several plants around them.

Now, fast forward from 2011 to 2012. These plants all seem to be pretty happy where I put them. Some did some amazing growth that I really didn't expect, but was sure happy to see. I had transplanted a small fern from under that huge azalea tree, and as you can see, it really TOOK OFF!!!! I had to move it. It had a fuchsia and the orange bulb flowers imbedded in it that didn't show when I moved it. So, it got moved over to the back on the right side of the tree. Now we can see all of the other plants just fine.

This is a view from the back. I really love how well it filled in, and how well everything went together for a lush perennial garden.

We got some more cottage stone and added that to the rest of the border. Cleans it up nicely and frames it in. Here you can kind of see where I moved that huge fern to on the right side of the azalea tree in back. It was in the front where that pop bottle is sitting.

I will be taking more photos of this garden this summer so that you can see how much it has done. For a very small garden, it has turned out quite lovely.