Bloom In The New Bed

First bloom in the newly extended bed. A lovely daffodil from Costco. The package did not list the specific name but it is a cute little lady and she adds a spot of sunshine sitting beneath the grass.

The bed now follows the wall of the house all the way to the side entrance. Since this is the entrance everyone uses we wanted to make it more attractive but also make it less visible. Doesn't that seem a contradiction? Well, it actually works.

Extending the bed also allowed me to plant one of my favorite native shrubs...Grey Owl (Juniperus virginiana). This is one lovely juniper. It is a low growing, horizontally spreading evergreen shrub with finely textured slivery gray foliage. It is thriving in the hot sunny spot.

We are experimenting to see if the Hearts a bustin/strawberry bush (Euonymus americanus) with its deep green strong vertical form that we planted there will survive the sun. It's drought tolerant but it may be a bit too sunny in that spot.

Right behind it we planted Carolina Jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens) an evergreen vine to hide some of the brick. All of this is underplanted with Tennessee Coneflower (Echinacea tennesseensis) and Salvia Azurea. Both plants are happy in cedar glade conditions. When I planted the beds last fall both were in bloom. The Salvia bloomed until the first killing frost. I am waiting to see if they survived the winter.

Now if I could get my photos posted I could show you! But for some reason I can't seem to get them to publish once I upload them. I am climbing a steep learning curve here. Which makes this a fine time to share with you all my decision to attend the Garden Bloggers' Spring Fling.

It was too enticing with its banner at almost every blog I visited. So many favorite garden bloggers will be there, with garden tours, good food and for those of us who need technical help...there are a few technical presentations. Did I mention that Austin is one of my favorite cities? Well, it is. I love its laid back casual approach to life.

I am going to try to post my photos later, in the mean time I am going to encourage you all to visualize my new garden bed. Isn't that what gardeners do when we purchase a plant (usually more than one!). We're seeing it in place, in our gardens, blooming away. Visualize.