Garden Detective

Gaillardia Fanfare (Photo courtesy of Bluestone Perennials)

I had a lot of fun enhancing digital photos of the property with images of my favorite plants. In the interest of compromise, I sacrificed some of the bed shapes I'd envisioned to accommodate my husband's "mowing needs." John likes a clear run, no weaving in and out, and would prefer it if everything were rectangular. Now, that's not going to happen, but I'm not an unreasonable woman. So I simplified a bit, lest he get the idea that I should be the one doing the mowing.

Using garden hoses and an old can of blue spray paint we found in the garage to mark the beds, we set to work. After a few U.N.-level negotiations, John and I agreed on the shape of things. We also agreed neither of us had the time nor the inclination to do the back-breaking labor required to dig up the grass and tree roots, so we called in a landscaping crew to shape the canvas.

Now I've seen many of you out in your gardens, spade in hand, digging new beds and even shoveling gravel from 2-ton wheelbarrows. And I applaud and admire you. But I just can't do it. I plan and plant and even dig up and transplant small-to-medium shrubs. But I do rely on John for the really heavy lifting. And when he can't do it, I call in the big guns. I'm not proud.

Once the beds were made, so to speak, I went shopping.

I was very pleased to have found some dwarf shrubs at Hick’s Nurseries in Westbury for the street side of the fence. Three of them are Rhododendrons (“Purple Gem”) that only get 2 feet tall and wide. The other three are Crimson Pygmy Barberries, which also will grow 2 feet tall, with a 3-foot spread. They'll provide some much-needed winter interest.

I added some double-decker purple coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea) and black-eyed susans (Rudbeckia hirta) around them, and stuck a few Helenium Mardi Gras and Gaillardia Fanfare in the bed for good measure. The latter two, which I ordered from Bluestone Perennials, a family-owned-and-operated nursery in Madison, OH, are among my ten favorite perennials.

I also moved a misplaced euonymus from the side of the house to the far end of the new bed. (Yes, I dug it up myself.) On the other end, I planted a beautiful black fountain grass (Pennisetum A. “Moudry”)

Inside the fence, I moved the Guacamole hostas from the backyard to around the one remaining pine tree, and surrounded them with some cool Hemerocallis Red Magic daylilies. Red Magic's flowers will look beautiful alongside Guacamole's 5-foot-tall lavender-topped spikes.

Moving along the fence toward the side of the house, I put in some purple liatris (Spicata Kobold) and interspersed them with ONE orange Asiatic lily (I had more but they didn't survive the move) and more Helenium Mardi Gras, which are so cool because they look tie-dyed, and they're a nice alternative to the more common Black-eyed Susans.

Spring bulbs will go in next.

My intention -- naive as it is -- is to set up the gardens, and then have them take care of themselves. Aside from the occasional deadheading and weeding sessions, and spring and fall cleanups, I’m all for low-maintenance. Maybe I’ll feel differently when the kids are grown and I’m retired, but for now, I’m all about the shortcut.

Do you have any work-saving tips or favorite low-maintenance plants? Do tell.