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A planting bed that got too large and overgrown
Did you ever have a planting bed that got too large and overgrown and you just wanted to rip everything out and start over? Well, that’s exactly what happened here, and today we’re going to talk about what we did. Hi, it’s Steph. Welcome back.
She needed a fresh start
And today, we’re not in our garden. We’re actually in Joanne’s garden, and she is a member of our local garden club who recently asked me for some help with redesigning a couple of her planting beds. Joanne moved here about 4 years ago, and there were some pretty mature plantings that were here from when the old homeowners lived here, and she wasn’t happy with them anymore, and decided that she needed a fresh start.
It’s a blank slate
So, she had someone come rip everything out and we started over. So, let’s go back about a month when we started the whole process. When you arrive at Joanne’s house and you come down her driveway, you land on the side of her house, and this is where there is a really large planting bed that has already been cleared of all of the old plantings and is ready to go. It’s a blank slate.
The light conditions in both of these areas are different
And then when you come off of the driveway and up the stone walkway, it leads you to the front of the house and the front door and front porch. Now you can see that this bed continues around the corner and there is a section or a bed for planting on both sides of the porch. Now the light conditions in both of these areas are different.
Morning sun and afternoon shade
In the front of the house it is morning sun and afternoon shade. And when you come around the corner the side of the house is pretty much full day sun. So, we took some of her old plant containers that she had stored in the garage and we spaced them out to kind of get a feel for how far apart Joanne wanted her plants.
She had decided on hydrangeas
Now, she had decided on hydrangeas, but we needed to figure out which hydrangeas to use in both of those sections that could take the light conditions that we were dealing with. So, a few days later, we made plans to go to the nursery. And here I am setting up my van to haul some plants.
It can fit a lot of plants
Now, I have had this van for over 12 years, and I refused to get rid of it, one because it drives really well and I love it and two it can fit a lot of plants. So once we got to the nursery we first stopped at the Russian sage. It was in full bloom looking beautiful and smelled amazing.
Two more of the Blue Jean Baby
Joanne had lost a couple of her Russian sage over the winter, so she wanted to pick up two more of the Blue Jean Baby. And I also picked up two more of the Prime Time to add to my garden. I had, um, one already and I needed two more. So, we picked those up and then we were off to choose some hydrangeas.
The Endless Summer BloomStruck hydrangea
So, here we’re looking at some hydrangeas for the front of the house. And we decided on the Endless Summer BloomStruck hydrangea. The BloomStruck has beautiful red stems and those large blooms and it’s a continually blooming hydrangea.
They were a great choice
So it will continue to push out blooms throughout the season versus some of the older varieties of macrophylla which will have a big flush in June here in our zone 6B/7A and then pretty much be done for the season. So red stems, reblooming, pretty compact size at 4 to 5 ft in width and about 3 to 4 feet in height. Um, they were a great choice.
The Little Lime hydrangea
Plus they bloom on old wood and new wood and we’ll talk about why that’s important a little bit more in a little while. The next thing we had to choose was a hydrangea that could handle some sun for the side that you pull up to in the driveway. And we decided to go with the Little Lime hydrangea.
They don’t get overly tall and block her windows
I grow these in my own garden. They’re a great variety of panicle hydrangea. And unlike the traditional Limelight that can get 6 to 8 ft tall and wide, this Little Lime only gets to be 3 to 5 ft tall and wide, making them perfect for that area so that they don’t get overly tall and block her windows.
I fit 12 hydrangeas in the back of my van
She wanted to just be able to see them, uh, from the inside of her house to see the tops of them. So, I think that these are going to work really well in that space. So, as you can see, I managed to fit 12 hydrangeas in the back of my van along with four Russian sages, without any trouble.
Who needs a pickup truck when a minivan is available
And I could probably have packed in a couple more if I had arranged them a little tighter.
So, this is just a really great car. So, this was at Sylvan Nursery in Westport, Massachusetts, and Julie was amazing.
Such a large selection of plants
She helped me pick up all of the hydrangeas, get them packed into the car, and they’re always so helpful when I visit there. Plus, they have such a large selection of plants. Um, so I’m always bound to find what I’m looking for.
Spray them with some deer repellent
So, here we are back at Joanne’s house unpacking the hydrangeas. And these weren’t going to get planted until maybe the next day or the day after. So, I did, um, tell Joanne that it would be a good idea to maybe spray them with some deer repellent because we deal with a lot of deer and I didn’t want her to lose these beautiful blooms.
Dependent on the soil in Joanne’s garden
So, here are the Little Lime hydrangeas looking gorgeous with that creamy color. And here are the BloomStrucks. Now, the color of these are going to be dependent on the soil in Joanne’s garden. Now, in our area, we generally have acidic soil, so they probably will lean more blue, but if you have more alkaline soil, they will probably be more purple or pink.
Maybe 3 or 4 in of compost
So, a couple of days later, Joanne let me know that her guys were there helping with the planting. And, uh, she, you know, had asked me if I thought that she needed to add some more soil because the bed was a little bit flat. And I agreed. I thought that it could use maybe 3 or 4 in of compost.
The guys got to spreading it and planting them
So, she had Noah, who, uh, has a local tree company and does some landscaping, come over and apply, uh, some compost. And then the guys got to spreading it and planting them. So I did provide a little bit of guidance for the planting and we decided for the Little Lime hydrangeas to go 5 ft apart on center.
A little bit of gravel for drainage
Now this bed is a total of 30 ft in length and about 6 ft in depth. And that 6 ft in depth is from where the soil starts because you can see that along the back there there is a little bit of gravel for drainage. Um, so we’re counting six feet forward from where the soil starts.
Planted into the native soil
And then they made the holes for the hydrangeas and planted them in. So they’re really just being planted into the native soil with that top layer of new compost as an amendment. So the compost was going into the hole as well. In the front of the house, we went ahead and did the same thing.
On both sides of the stairs
We spaced the BloomStruck hydrangeas 5 foot apart on center as well. Now, these beds here are 15 ft in width or in length, I would say, from the steps to the corner, and they’re also about 6 ft deep from where the gravel starts to the walkway. So, we went ahead and spaced those, like I said, 5 ft apart on center on both sides of the stairs.
Starting with foundational plants first
Well, it’s about a month later and here we are back at Joanne’s. And you might be looking at this and thinking, well, it doesn’t look like much. And you’re right, because we took an approach of starting with foundational plants first.
Plants can be really expensive
And that is a great way to approach a project like this for two reasons. One, plants can be really expensive, especially when you’re buying mature sizes like Joanne did. And the second reason is that you need some time to truly consider what you would like to layer and plant into these beds, so that you don’t end up planting things you’ll regret.
Three BloomStruck hydrangeas set on both sides of the front door
And so Joanne knew that she wanted to use some hydrangeas as her foundational plants. And here we have three BloomStruck hydrangeas planted on either side of the front door and front steps, and it creates a lot of symmetry. As these shrubs get bigger, they may just barely touch each other, so they’ll look really lovely.
A perfect choice for this New England style home
And hydrangeas were a perfect choice for this New England style home. And these BloomStruck hydrangeas have these beautiful red stems and these large macrophylla blooms that are going to be blue if your soil is more acidic or purple/pink if your soil is more alkaline.
A beautiful hedge here in the front of the house
And because they bloom on old and new wood, there’s less of a chance of her not getting blooms if we have an exceptionally cold winter. Those new shoots that come up next spring will have buds on them, so she will still get flowers. And because these are going to get about 4 ft in height and 4 ft in width, they’re eventually going to create a beautiful hedge here in the front of the house on either side of the stairs.
An east-facing location
Now, this is an east-facing location, the front of the house. So, they get full morning sun. It is currently morning and it is really bright.And then they’ll receive afternoon shade, which is what macrophylla hydrangeas favor, since the morning sun is gentler. So they’ll get just enough light to bloom nicely.
Joanne left this area blank
And coming around the corner, you can see that Joanne left this area blank. And that was done on purpose so that she could think about an evergreen that she can plant here to add some structure and to anchor this corner. And I gave her some suggestions of a Weeping White Spruce, which is a beautiful tall spruce that stays nice and narrow and compact.
The Bronze Weeping Serbian Spruce
There’s also the Bronze Weeping Serbian Spruce, which I planted one of in my garden this season, which also stays pretty narrow and compact, or for some beautiful blue color, a Weeping Blue Spruce. So, when she decides on something that will look really beautiful here in this corner, and then coming around this side of the house, which is when you pull up to the driveway, this is what you see first.
A southwest-facing bed
And this is a southwest-facing bed. It is very hot and very sunny all day long. So for that reason, we chose a hydrangea that can handle more sun. These are paniculata-type hydrangeas, and they are the Little Lime hydrangea.
Stunning shades of pink and green
I actually grow these in my own garden. They are going to be able to handle the sun so long as they get adequate moisture. And you can see that the color has already started to change. And here in the Northeast, we get those cool evenings in the latter part of summer and into fall, which allows them to get these gorgeous shades of pink and green, and they’ll continue to get more pink as the season goes on.
More compact than the traditional Limelights
Now, these hydrangeas, the Little Lime, are more compact than the traditional Limelights. Now, the traditional Limelight can get 6 to 8 ft tall and wide, which would be much too large for this space and would cover quite a bit of Joanne’s windows. So, we went with the Little Lime, which only gets 3 to 5 ft tall and wide and will fill out this space beautifully.
I think they turned out really nicely
And you can see that there are six planted along the front, and we spaced them each about 5 ft apart on center, and I think they turned out really nicely. Now, here in this front border, there is still some room for some plants in the front. Joanne will have some time to let these hydrangeas grow and fill in, but she also has some options.
Some nepeta or catmint
And I made some suggestions of perhaps some nepeta or catmint. I think it would look beautiful on the edge of this border kind of spilling over the gravel in the driveway. You could also add some sedums, which Joanne already has in her back garden and she could just propagate or divide so that she could fill in this space for little to no money.
Some ornamental grasses
And another thing that would look great here are some ornamental grasses, some low-growing varieties like the Piglet or the Little Bunny, which would add really beautiful late-season interest. So you could have the nepeta that would give you some spring color, then the hydrangeas will start to bloom and then later in the season you would have the sedum as well as the ornamental grasses.
Redesigning a bed this fall
So there’s really a lot you can do, and the benefit of starting with one plant at a time is that you can make those decisions without having to jump to anything too quickly that you might regret later. So, if you are in the process of maybe redesigning a bed this fall or considering starting over, I hope that this video was helpful to you and that you can take some of the tips that we talked about today and implement them in your own project.
Thank you so much for spending your time with us
Thank you so much for spending your time with us and I’ll catch you in the next one.
