Gardening Project 2018

I began to transform the front bed alongside the driveway back in May, when I finally tore out the shrub roses that had been afflicted by Rose Rosette Disease for the last few years.

Rose Rosette Disease has no cure.

I ripped out the plants during the last week of school in May, and then we had big strong guys replace all the diseased soil down to 8".

Empty bed

The blasting heat of the Southern summer is not the right time to install new plants, so I counted the weeks until September. With Chris having taken a spontaneous trip this weekend, on one hand, I could have said that I couldn't do my project. On the other hand, my plans were now changed and I had a blank slate of time, so I determined--interestingly in the first week of school!--that I would install the plants I'd been thinking about for so long.

I rather foolishly departed the house at 3:30 on a Friday and without knowing that President Trump was in town, causing rush hour traffic to be even more shocking than usual, so it took me an hour to drive to the nursery. By the time I got there, there was a deluge of a rainstorm and the nursery was almost closing, but I am stubborn to a fault, so I marched in with my four boys in tow and got my plants.

I chose Heuchera 'Forever Purple' (coral bells) for the center, with a muted green Heuchera outside of that, and finally a purple-ish Euphorbia hybrid. When they come available in two to three months, I plan to finish my design by planting some purple Helleborus (Lenten roses) to cap both ends of the bed. As a background to the look will be chartreuse Lysimachia nummularia (creeping Jenny), a fast-growing ground cover that will fill in all the blanks.

These plants are perennials (because I don't have time to deal with annuals), can tolerate or love part-shade, are deer-resistant (important in our yard!), and are tough.

The next morning, right after breakfast, we got to work. Joseph quickly felt the rigors of removing the pine straw and collapsed in a heap, as if dead, while three-year-old Thomas kept up his good raking work.

I laid out my plants, studied this way and that, consulted with my Master Gardener father 3,000 miles away, and then we all got out our shovels.

David (1) observed from his stroller while Thomas (3), Joseph (5), and John (11) helped me dig. It was hard, hot work, but we installed 34 plants in under two hours!

Two hours of video sped up to one minute!


Ta da! The plants should grow together to create masses of purples and greens, while the creeping Jenny will take over as ground cover beneath it all.