The Best Laid Plans

Sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself. I rediscovered my original plan for the sun bed (left) and had to giggle at my ignorance and optimism. I was going to plant a butterfly bush in the center, and suround it with winter-sown columbine, delphinium, butterfly weed, chinese lantern plant, lupine, and oriental poppy. The gladiolas were already in the bed and I planned on buying the elfin thyme. Then reality set in.

First of all, I didn't have the germination success I expected. The poppies, delphinium, and chinese lantern didn't germinate at all. (I think they were all Burpee seeds.) I had a handful of butterfly weed and oodles of columbine seedlings. My lupine seeds were also a success, but I managed to later kill the seedlings.

I am glad now that the chinese lantern did not germinate. Unbeknowst to me at the time, chinese lantern (physalis) quickly becomes a noxious weed in the flowerbed and is notoriously difficult to get rid of. I am trying the seeds again this year (different brand), but the plant will go in a pot.

Secondly, even if all my seeds had given me sprightly seedlings, I had no idea that perennials didn't bloom their first year. I had the ephiphany in mid-spring and despaired of a flowerless garden. Thankfully, Patrick came to my rescue with a car-load of divided perennials, so I didn't have to live with a sparse foliage garden last year.

My initial drawing had no scale, so I really didn't know just how many plants I would need for the enormous drifts I had planned. As you can see from the "actual" layout, there is room for many plants and varieties. (The bed is 20' long and 8' deep.) I would have abolutely needed every single winter-sown seed to germinate to carry on with my original plan. (And imagine how terrible that drift of poppies would have looked in July!)

Finally, I had no idea that I would become such a plant collector. I was so put off by the cost of the plants required for my original cottage garden border, that I viewed live plants as prohibitively expensive. Little did I know that my generous friends would push free plants on me and that I would find such glorious sales all summer long!

My sun bed ended up being more plopped than planned. It's overcrowded. I had to move plants out a few times last summer and will continue to do so again this year. (I don't have a photo of the end of the season, but the plants had filled out so much that there wasn't a bit of mulch visible by September.)

Last fall, I created a new bed along the fenceline and to the right of the front walk. I will map it on paper soon and creating a planting plan. I only hope that I have better success with winter sowing this year because most of my plan will be dependent on the seedlings I raise myself. I keep telling myself that I will buy fewer plants and more hardscape materials this year. Will I never learn? Here's laughing at me, kid.