A couple years ago we had plans of building a deck in this space on the back side of our house. Then we made over the back patio last summer and decided that we’re content with our backyard set up. Plus, we don’t intend on staying in this house for more than 3 more years. The plan has always been to live here for 5-10 years, and we’ve been here for 6 years. So we figure the next owners can put in a deck if they want. We’ll save our backs and money, but in the meantime, we decided to spruce things up a bit.
As you can see, a lot of the grass is dead in this area. So we decided to create a flowerbed.
We started by measuring out 3 feet from the house on both ends of the where the flowerbed was going to go. We used a brick and a piece of firewood to anchor some jute (it’s what I had handy from making these wreaths) so we would be creating a straight line. Then, Brad borrowed our neighbor’s edger to start defining the edge of the flowerbed.
The longest and hardest part of this project was digging up all the grass with a shovel.
Next, it was time to place the plants where I wanted to plant them. I always do this before we start digging– I set the plants where I think I’ll like them.
I also decided to branch out and get plants that were different. I’ll list all of them below.
We used fresh topsoil to fill in around the plants, and then we topped it off with some black mulch.
Here’s what it looked like when we were done. Much better, in my opinion.
I can’t wait for everything to grow and fill in.
This astilbe isn’t something I would usually go for, but I loved how it looks different.
I’m so glad I was ‘that neighbor’ and picked up a car load of six sedums someone in our neighborhood had put out on the curb. They’ve really come in handy.
I love the clematis in our front yard, so I decided to go with another one in the backyard.
Here are the flowers we planted from left to right:
old fashioned purple lilac
flame pink garden phlox
sedum
look at me astilbe
nelly moser clematis
nico red azalea
sedum
Have you ever created a flowerbed in your yard? How’d it go?
As a Lowe’s partner, I was provided a gift card to cover the cost of materials for this project. As always, all opinions are 100% my own.
Megan says
June 8, 2015 at 7:08 AMLooks great!!! I’ve created a bunch of flower gardens (or one giant if you think of it that way) and you can see them on my blog. I’ve used Asiatic Lilies, daylilies, coneflower (one of my absolute favs!), hydrangeas, hostas, daisies, clematis, moon flower, sedums of all varieties, herbs, annuals, and so many more. Good luck with your garden and enjoy watching it grow!!!
Chelsea @ two twenty one says
June 16, 2015 at 12:16 AMNice! I love all the containers you repurposed! Hostas are my favorite greenery. It’s been fun to watch the three hostas in front of our house grow into massive plants over the past 6 years that we’ve lived here. It’s going to be hard to say goodbye to them whenever we sell this house.
Evelina says
June 8, 2015 at 4:11 PMThis post is perfect timing! I am in the process of creating a flower bed but have kind of reached a roadblock with the crappy soil I have. I need to dig out a bunch of my existing soil (more like clay) and replace it with good planting soil. I am still deciding which flowers to plant. I would love to stumble upon some free ones like you did!!
Chelsea @ two twenty one says
June 16, 2015 at 12:18 AMYeah, it stinks when you have bad soil. While we were digging the bed we found a bunch of crap the builders just threw in the dirt while building the house (pieces of siding, pop cans, etc.).
Check out Craigslist. I’ve seen people post free plants on there before. Or you could always post that you’re looking to start a garden and would take free plants for people thinning out their plants.
Sarah says
June 9, 2015 at 7:42 AMCute! I would love to see an update at the end of the summer to see how they’ve matured!
Chelsea @ two twenty one says
June 16, 2015 at 12:20 AMDefinitely! Unfortunately, the clematis passed away. So I think I’m going to dig up part of the mature clematis we have that climbs up our mailbox and see if it will survive before I go out and spend more money on another clematis.
Vanessa D. says
June 11, 2015 at 10:44 AMI’ve always loved the look of black mulch – it gives the appearance of really rich good soil.
Chelsea @ two twenty one says
June 16, 2015 at 12:21 AMI agree! Apparently our neighbors think so too because they told me they were going to put down red mulch, but after seeing our black mulch, they decided to get black too. 🙂
Erica says
June 11, 2015 at 1:19 PMI am constantly making new beds all around our farm as a form of weed control. Free plants are the best! I barter weeding for the opportunity to split my friends’ plants-provides a ton of variety!!
Chelsea @ two twenty one says
June 16, 2015 at 12:23 AMNice! I’ve also heard of plant swapping parties. You get together with friends and each person thins out some of their plants and brings starters. I think it’s a great way to exchange plants and build gardens!