Remaking a Bed

When your plant tastes change, dig in, dig up, and pray for rain

Early on , when I get learning about gardening , I go to a garden clubhouse lecture contribute by local gardening caption Sydney Eddison . I sat at a table surrounded by matronly club members who asked me what I particularise in . I told them quite naively that I loved all flowers , that I had n’t yet found one I did n’t care . With brow raised and coy smiles covered courteously by their napkins , the dame say , “ That ’s gracious , heartfelt . ” But it was truthful , and as the years move by my garden grew with one of this and one of that , or with impetuous desires to have certain plants whole unsuited to our solid ground ( like heavenly odorous blush wine , for instance ) . In the ending , my whimsical attack became my garden ’s unfastening . Every year by mid - summertime , it was a floppy spate , a hodgepodge that was neither pleasing nor bright of just thing to follow . I wish the garden club ladies had clued me in elbow room back when , but then I likely would n’t have listen .

Right about this same clock time , I fall under the influence of a new gardening aesthetic , that of a more realistic approach to plan . Thanks to the words and work of a act of insightful individuals like Rick Darke , Piet Oudolf , and James van Sweden and Wolfgang Oehme , I became more interested in plant like grasses that gleam in the belated - Clarence Shepard Day Jr. Inner Light and native perennials that are as ruffianly as nail . And I found myself be given toward a design sentiency that relied on sheer group of plant and on foliage and texture as much as flowers . So , early in spring , I decided to take on a major overhaul of two large garden beds . I resolved to off the plant that were floundering ( the pink wine that did n’t get enough sun and the day lily the deer love ) , divide and rejuvenate the 1 that were thriving , like Nepeta cataria ( Nepetaspp . ) , bee balms ( Monardacvs . ) , and irises ( Iris sibericaandI. virginica ) , and get out my check book for a big industrial plant monastic order .

I plan to start with a sporting slate , by first dig up and temporarily holding most of the plants that were in the beds , then replanting with a young conception that incorporated the erstwhile with the newfangled . I purchased some of the new plants through a landscaper acquaintance who flummox me a good Mary Leontyne Price on pot plant in measure , some came as gifts from horticulture supporter , and others were order from Ambergate Gardens , a mere - beginning perennial glasshouse in Minnesota with a all-embracing selection of grasses and native — just the industrial plant I was looking for .

Try to do the overhaul just before it rains

Early bound is the better metre to dig up and temporarily throw plant because they do n’t have a lot of leaf , and the nerveless temperatures and unfaltering rains of spring help to have them . By early April , I had send in my mail ordering , and I began acquire potted plants from my landscape gardening connection .

Toward the last of the month , the greenhouse sent me a card say my order would arrive in a few days , and at that point I start up to empty out the bed . I transplanted some plants to different parts of the garden and set up a hold country for the rest . I fan out out a expectant tarpaulin in the nicety and began lifting the remaining perennials . I set them all on the tarp and give their ascendant a gentle souse . Most perennials can tolerate being out of the ground for a few days , as long as you keep their roots moist and dress them out of coarse sunlight .

Once the beds were empty , I amended the soil with cow manure and peat moss , which I wreak in with a metallic element garden rake . The weather forecast was calling for an extended time period of light rain — perfect for plant . With the groundwork done , my stage was go under , and it seemed that even Mother Nature would cooperate . I waitress for the plants to get in .

Planting know-how

Prepare bare root flora for planting by soaking the root in urine for several minute to remoisten them after their long journeying . reduce away any damage roots or foliage .

Get plants in the ground promptly

The UPS man leave two full - sizing box on my doorsill that Friday . I take out them and inspected the despatch . Just prior to planting the next day , I soak the roots for several hours . If you ca n’t plant them aright aside , it ’s OK to store the plants in a nerveless , dry spot for a few days , but no more .

I ’d worked out a harsh design based on all the plants gather so I could keep track of what I need to go where . So , as it pop out to drizzle on Saturday morning , I begin to embed , starting at the back of the bed and working my way forrader . I ’d planned for large clumps of individual species , group three or five or more together . No more one of this and one of that , except for a few declamatory perennial likeLigulariaspecies that could hold their own alone .

As I terminate an arena , I water the plant thoroughly . I modify the design somewhat as I planted . A drawing on paper ca n’t depict the real , three - dimensional conditions of a garden , so in any planting scheme , be disposed to be pliable and make change as you go . At the end of two day , both heavy beds were engraft .

The following weekend , I mulched the beds with some cedarwood bark mulch . And as the season progressed , I made trusted the planting were well water during dry spells . It ’s lively to provide spare water system if need for raw plant their first season in the primer , while they ’re putting down roots and becoming established . And it ’s also impertinent not to expect too much too soon , as works take time to mature . I know it would be a couple of years before these beds would await their best .

It has been three years now since the overhaul , and I ’m proud of with the results . I hate to admit how many failure occurred , but hey , that gave me an opportunity to try more raw plant . I ’ve added more native perennials , and I fulfil in opening each bounce with annuals . The grasses have develop big and magniloquent and lovely , and now the garden looks effective from early spring to autumn , and even into winter . Some plant do n’t seem all felicitous , though , so they may come in out this yr . A garden is always evolving — that ’s the fun of it for me .

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Create a staging area. Carefully remove and divide the plants you wish to reuse, setting them aside on a tarp in the shade and taking special care to keep their roots moist.Photo/Illustration: Amy Rapaport

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Now is the time to amend the soil. A garden renovation offers the perfect opportunity to add soil amendments like peat moss and aged manure to the beds before replanting.Photo/Illustration: James Wesley

Group plants in drifts for more appeal. The author’s border had evolved in a way she no longer found appealing (above), so she pulled out the hodgepodge of plants that was there and replaced them with more naturalistic drifts of plants suited to the site (below).