Carol's Garden
An Expansion of a Long, Narrow Border

   When our sons were young, a lawn was a must. From the kitchen window I watched their many hours of running, playing and wrestling. They are grown and gone now and so is the need for a St. Augustine lawn.

    Why not make room for more flowers? In August 2008 we began a project to expand the perennial bed along the fence. The idea was to eliminate as much of the high-maintenance, water-thirsty St. Augustine as possible                                               
   At left is the existing (and not very original) bed in summer before the project was begun. Below is the same area as it looked in the winter time.           

                                                                                                      
   To begin the project, eight to ten thicknesses of newspaper (left photo) were weighed down with cedar mulch in the area of the expanded bed. The grass area to the left would become the walkway. Papers and mulch were left in place until the St. Augustine grass was dead and the newspaper had decayed. When the turning process began, we discovered Bermuda grass roots and rocks in such number as can be found only in the Hill Country.  
   We devised a sifter to remove rocks – from marble size to boulder size. At two and a half feet deep, we decided there would be no stopping point until we said, "Enough!"
   Compost, green sand and turkey manure were added.  Then it was turned a final time.
   Christmas was coming and it was time to quit.







   In early February work began on the pathway along the new bed.  First, we dug up the grass and took the soil down about six inches. We were undecided about the pathway surface, so it was filled with shredded leaves and topped with cedar mulch.

    Then a narrow rock edging (seen in the center of the photo above right) was placed along the front edge of the new bed. The flat rock edging along the "old" bed (at left in the photo) was left in place to facilitate working among the plants in the expanded bed.
     In mid-March a few volunteer centranthus and Phlox paniculata ‘Davidii’ were transplanted from another bed.

      Seeds of annual Larkspur and Cosmos had been dormant over the winter in the turned and amended soil of the new bed. It wasn't long before they filled large areas of the new bed, and I continued to transplant native and adapted plants from other beds.
   I have since added a variety of lavenders, guara, both purple and white duranta, bluebeard, bottle brush, ox-eye daisy, black-eyed Susan, coneflower, bat-faced cuphea, Mexican mint marigold, daylilies, and spider lily (Hymenocallis speciosa). Many of these were transplanted from my other beds; some given to me by my mother; and some were purchased from the HCMG greenhouse project. The front edging is softened by planting low-growing, spreading perennial dianthus, purple heart, and purple skullcap.
  

  
Early May                                                        Late August

   Soaker hoses zig-zag through the new bed, and even with the "exceptional" drought and Stage 3 water restrictions within the city during the summer of 2009, the transplants settled in and seem to be thriving. The pathway surface is the final phase of the project — it's been only a year since we started.  What's the hurry?

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