new beds Archives | Diana's Designs Austin

Vision and creating a new garden or landscape bed

Starting a new garden is scary. There. I said it. Whether you’re gardening in a completely different space, creating a new bed, or just revamping what you’ve got, it can be daunting.

All sorts of things clutter up my brain. What’s the soil like here? Will there really be enough sun in that spot? What if I change my mind later or come up with a better plan?

Realistically, these are all the questions any time we go into the garden, aren’t they?

I’ve given myself some time to sit in this new space, observe it, think long and hard about what I really want and what will bring me joy. (Thank you, Marie Kondo!) I wanted new beds immediately. But creating new beds is an investment and I didn’t want to be rash and then regret my choices later.

I made lists of plants I love – shade plants, sun plants – evergreens, perennials, annuals, bulbs. NO vines! Never again.

Go back through a few posts and you’ll see that our current yard, trees and house are being eaten by not just ivy, but Asian Jasmine, English ivy, Virginia creeper and trumpet vine. And what wasn’t covered in vines, was eroding and lifeless.

Grass originally lived in this area, but the overgrown trees reached across the street and made this full shade spot too dark for healthy grass.

Following my own consulting/design advice, I started by evaluating my goals. Then I looked at physical/site issues like sun and drainage. I measured and sat down with a piece of paper and a pencil.

I’ve posted pics of the whole new bed, stretching from under a massive oak along a new dry creek and down to the other end of our property.

Making my list of most-loved plants, I knew that I wanted a rose. One of the first things we did at the house was prune the lot full of overgrown trees. That gave us some sunshine along the street, and conditions that I hope will be enough for a Maggie rose.

I had two of them behind the pool at the other house. They loved the sun and I loved having them. But it wasn’t the right place for them – I couldn’t ever reach them to prune or care for them. So, I pulled them out. But I missed them.

Now I’ve made a special spot for a Maggie in my new garden.

We’ll have to see if she gets enough sun there.

There are some more branches I can prune in the trees directly above if she needs a few more golden rays. I’ll have to see what happens in the summer sun.

For now, she’s small and spindly. I ordered her from the Antique Rose Emporium in Brenham, so I know she’s a healthy plant. She has some buds and I’m babying her for now. With the backdrop of a Mediterranean fan palm, variegated dianella and some neighboring trailing white lantana, I think she’ll be very happy there.

And I’m happy to have her.

By Diana C. Kirby|2020-03-31T14:32:47-05:00March 31st, 2020|Dianella, dry creek, Escondido Cove, maggie rose, Mediterranean, Mediterranean fan palm, new bed, new beds, rose, roses, Sharing Nature's Garden, Uncategorized|2 Comments

Spring garden spruce up…

While the weather was cold and before it was planting season, I started a project at my house to add a chopped limestone edge and an Oklahoma flagstone cap to the beds along the front walk. It turned out great and I was very happy with the result.

But then the nice weather came, and with it, clients. Clients who wanted designs and hardscaping and landscaping and the items left unfinished on my project remained unfinished. Until this week.

An unexpected opening for the crew found them at my house with 4-1/2 yards of great soil – Thunder Garden Soil from Geo Growers. That was worked into the front beds, which are now, in essence, raised beds. Miscellaneous volunteer seeds – zinnias and salvias and other random plants were hoed out and given the boot.

I stood back and took stock of my bed and tried to view it as I would a client’s. I’d been unhappy with it for a while. So off I went, three days in a row, to the nursery to load up every inch of my car with plants.

We filled the holes and created structure and contrast and texture (all the things I preach about!) These are the plants I added:

Foxtail ferns
Variegated agapanthus – these are way cool!
Persian shield
Sparkler Sedge
Purple pixie loropetalum
Mexican bush sage
Amistad salvia
Bat-faced cuphea
Blackfoot daisy
Mexican honeysuckle
Purple skullcap
Yellow zinnias
Skeletonleaf goldeneye
Sun coleus
Copper plant
Helianthus maxmilliani
Whale’s tongue agave
Miss Molly buddleia
Yellow bulbine
Hibiscus
Mexican bird of paradise

These didn’t all go into the walkway bed, I filled holes in other beds, too. I finally replaced my critically-wounded franzosini agave with a whale’s tongue. It will never be the same, but it also won’t make 30 pups a month that have to be cut out and it won’t get 20 feet tall and it won’t freeze as easily.

I love the new plants and the new mulch that followed, but one of the things I’m most excited about is that they finally brought me moss rocks to put in the section of dry creek right by the front door. After lots of — no, tilt it this way, no, bury that end, no turn it around, not this way, that way — I am happy with the placement of the rocks. They add so much to the natural look of the entire area.

Though they are still small, the Persian shield and loropetalum will add a nice purple to the lime spikes of the sparkler sedge and the hot gold Cuban duranta that’s now just emerging from dormancy.

My new passalong bronze iris from Robin at Getting Grounded went into this bed along with some coleus to mirror the lime and purple on the other side.

These foxtail ferns (my first ever) will provide some structural contrast for the rock rose volunteer in the center that I babied over the winter. The yellow zinnias will coordinate with the yellow skeletonleaf golden eye and the bright edge yucca further down the bed.

I can’t wait to see the brilliant purple Amistad savlias bloom next to the bright edge and the agapanthus. (It’s still hard to envision it all since almost nothing is blooming quite yet.)

This vignette is at the end of the path – yellow columbine, golden grass, sun coleus, creeping jenny, a yellow lantana and hidden – a copper plant that will grow to become a nice tall bronze backdrop on the left.

This is just a little slice of the bed behind the pool. The ginormous Maggie roses used to live here. Now the center piece will be this Miss Molly buddleia, surrounded in front by a semi-circle of pure yellow bulbine. On either side of the bed are phlox paniculata and lavender trailing lantana and Mexican oregano.

I moved the Amistad salvias from behind these bright edge yuccas last fall. They just didn’t do well in this bed – I think it was too hot for them here. The stock tank I painted holds an evergreen wisteria planted in the fall – check out the amazing bloom color here. So now between the two I have three Mexican honeysuckles with their hot orange blooms to play off the purple, yellow and lime. Love those combos.

So, now I wait, and water a lot by hand. Bought a few new expandable hoses (yes, I love them and will do a post soon). And I’m using rainwater from the tank, so that feels great. I think there are probably 200-250 gallons in there and that’s going to go fast if it’s going to be 90 every day.

I’m happy with the result and enjoyed walking through the garden tonight with gin and tonic in hand, surveying all the new things and appreciating my garden.

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:07-06:00May 3rd, 2014|Blog, bright edge yucca, buddleia, coleus, dry creek, foxtail fern, Mexican honeysuckle, Miss Molly buddleia, new beds, Persian shield, river rock bed, Sharing Nature's Garden, sparkler sedge, spring planting|0 Comments

New bed well on its way…

On Friday, many of the plants for the new bed went into their new homes.

I wasn’t able to get several of the things on my list, but I did get most of them, so this is a good start.

And I was able to transplant all of the plants from the preious bed — either to more appropriate spaces to fit the design of the new bed, or into other beds where I had holes.

I’m also very excited that I was able to harvest from my own little volunteer ‘incubator’ of Lamb’s ears. They threw off seed from their blooms and new babies started growing in the playscape gravel next to the cutting garden. More than 20 of them were pulled from the gravel and put into the new bed. If you get out your magnifying glass, you can see them on the lowest level of the bed next to the Blackfoot daisies. The are the silver dots in this photo! What you can’t see just below the Lamb’s ears are several mounding Pink Texas Skullcaps, Skutellaria suffrutescens.

Visible only in this photo in the very back is my transplanted Butterfly Bush, Buddleja, which may or may not be ‘Black Knight.’ It is a deep royal purple and very vibrant. (In the process of researching the botanical name for my variety, I learned that is isn’t spelled Buddleia, which is how I’ve always spelled it, but Buddleja. Saw it first on Wikipedia and didn’t trust them as a horticultural resource, but then I confirmed it with Dave’s Garden, which I do trust! Thought that was interesting trivia.) Around the base of it, I transplanted several Lantana montevidensis, ‘Trailing Purple.’

The pinkish grass is Fireworks Purple Foutain Grass – Pennisetum rubrum ‘Fireworks.’ Next to it, Silver Ponyfoot, Dichondra argentea.

Up here is Artemesia powis castle which I hope will spill over the wall to mix with Blue Velvet Trailing Verbena, Verbena hybrida.
Obstructing your new here is a stick-like native persimmon. I was going to take it out, but I may prune it a bit and look at it for a while to see if it will fit in and can stay. Look closely behind it and you will see a Salvia Greggii ‘Hot pink.’ Next to it are three Daimianita daisies, Chrysactinia mexicana. You can see them better below. Then on the lower level, almost out of sight, are 5 gray Santolinas, Santolina chamaecyarissus.

On the upper level there are three Euryops chrysanthemoides with some Sweet Potato vines Ipomoea batatas to surround it and trail down the wall around the Salvia Mesa ‘purple‘ and the Mexican Feather grasses Nasella tenuissima. Blackfoot daisies and Lamb’s ears in foreground. To the left of the Euryops will be a large blue Agave, a small boulder and some ground cover of Purple Wine Cups.

So, that’s it so far. I’m quite happy with this very xeric bed. Still searching for Mexican Oregano, LARGE Blue Agave, Color guard yucca, and a Queen Victoria agave or something similar with the upright form and strings! And another ground cover.

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-09-14T17:14:32-05:00March 13th, 2011|blackfoot daisies, Blog, buddleia, Daimianita, euryops, Lamb's Ears, new bed, new beds, Potato vine, salvia, Santolina, Sharing Nature's Garden, silver ponyfoot, sweet potato vine, verbena|0 Comments

Almost after…

The beds are finished and begging for plants! Can you hear them?

Yesterday, after a trip to It’s About Thyme Nursery, I came home with a purple Salvia, Daimianita, Santolina, Jerusalem Sage and some Four Nerve Daisies.
The plants that remain from the previous bed will all move — some will be relocated in the bed and some will go elsewhere to fill in spots left empty by the hard winter.
Today it’s Barton Springs Nursery and maybe the Great Outdoors — looking for Agaves, Yuccas, Salvias, grasses, Blackfoot Daisies, Silver Ponyfoot, Mexican Oregano — and more!
Then I will dig up a few volunteers from other beds and add in Wine Cup and Lamb’s ears.
This bed on the other side just got an updated and coordinated look with a rock edge.

Is there anything else you think I need to plant that I haven’t thought about yet?!

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:40:09-05:00March 11th, 2011|Blog, landscape project, mailbox bed, new bed, new beds, rock wall, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

Transformation…

Well, the wonder guys came and did my big project work yesterday and boy did I (rather, we) clear out some stuff! It’s hard to tell, but now there is nothing behind the pool wall until you get to the line of cedars outside our fence. There used to be huge overgrown vines encroaching on the wall and covering up the Hibiscus pots. I dug around and found an old before picture to give you some perspective — two or three years ago I planted two primrose jasmines on either side of the back of the pool. And they grew into monsters!

Can you see the HUGE vines behind the 3 pots and how tall they were? And they went all the way across to the other side of the pool.

So this is all the space I’ve opened up. And I’m really excited about it because I’ve come to realize lately that many of my garden beds are becoming shadier. Which is hard for me because I haven’t historically been a shade gardener.

The is the new bed out behind the wrought iron fence that I meant to put in last Spring and instead I let the heat beat me down. So, on the left side is a variegated Agave that is a passalong plant from my neighbor that has a big agave collection. The lovely pot is flanked by two trailing Lantanas. There are three pink Skullcaps in the front, three little Blackfoot Daisies on the right in front of a Sago Palm, and there are also three Feather Grasses scattered about. In the pot, I have a toothless Texas Sotol. I also plan to put in some Aloe pups that were given to me by Pam at Digging

This is the back corner bed where I had them pull out the three Viburnums. They were just taking over the bed and I wanted some more room to plant other things, so I passed them along to Robin, at Getting Grounded, where she has given them a good and loving home.
This is what they hauled out of here!!! Plus a truck bed full of stuff and the 3 Viburnum that went to Robin’s.
And, besides the empty spaces and clean beds, they left me 350 pounds (yes, 350 pounds!) of crushed granite for me to refresh my pathway because every time I weed I throw about granite bits. And since I can’t carry all that, they put it in buckets for me all along the path so I can put it out as I weed. So, now I have another job to do!