Flowers For Mama

We went up to my parents' earlier this month, and I was able to do something I've wanted to do for a very long time. I put in a flower bed for my mom! (With lots of help.)

She originally had peonies planted down along the driveway, but they were all overtaken by grass. There wasn't any kind of dedicated bed at all.

So, first things first: Dig up the peonies and get all the grass roots out of the peony roots. 

We did this and set them aside to replant later.

Next: Create the flowerbed itself.

This is where the spontaneity of the project may come back to haunt us. I dug out as much grass as I could all along the border, then my dad got out the big tiller and tilled the rest under. We raked out as much as we could, but even so, there were a lot of clumps and roots left.

We may be weeding grass out of that bed forever and ever! Putting on some Roundup and waiting a few days or weeks would have been better. Except that I wouldn't be there to do the rest.

So anyway, it is what it is.

I volunteered myself for weeding duty every time we come.

3rd step: Bring in dirt and compost.

Dad and I went over to a neighbor's field who had several tall piles of compost.

We filled up about half of his pickup bed and brought it back.

Shoveled it into the bed and then dad tilled it all in again.

More raking and picking out grass roots.

4th: Buying stuff!

Now we're getting to the fun part! 

Dad and I (with my oldest boy) took a trip down to Logan and bought the edging pavers, along with the 2 dogwoods, one for each end. Okay okay, and some sedums that were on sale.

(Mom and I had already discussed ideas for color schemes and what to put in.)

Later that day, Mom and I took a trip down to a plant nursery and bought the roses, and the rest of the perennials. She decided on a pink/purple color scheme.

5th: Set edging and plant the shrubs.

My dad set all the edging pavers and helped dig the holes for the shrubs.

We decided to put a red-twig dogwood on each end, and 3 pink Knockout roses in the middle to anchor the bed. The 3 roses should grow together over time and look like one big shrub.

6th: Arrange the rest of the plants (including the peonies) and put them in! 

Left to right: scabiosa (pincushion flower), purple daylily, salvia.

We essentially had 2 large planting spaces between the shrubs to work with.

We put the peonies on the edges of the spaces, closest to the shrubs on each side.

Then we filled in with all the rest of these lovely flowers.

Echinacea (purple coneflower) and more daylilies.

We also had the 3 sedums I had purchased from before, which are not in the picture.

It looked so pretty when we were finished! 

I may add in a few spring bulbs here and there the next time I go up. :)

Here's hoping it will bring you joy for years to come, Mama!