Love June and Halcyon together


Regal Splendor


I really need to unpack.

I love your pictures.......my style of shade beds....shoulder to shoulder.

Very nice garden. I like that shoulder to shoulder. My theory is more plants less place for weeks to grow.

For sure! Mine is filling in nicely but not that nice, not yet! Cinta, what are those purple Heuchera's ?

Wonderful pictures! No dirt showing in your beds!

Susan I lost the tag for the Herc. I moved them to the new house and do not remember the name of anything I move. Sorry. It is one of my favorite because it is hardy and stays purple for all seasons. It does not change colors much. It is a little more red in the Fall but mostly a deep purple.

Yes Rose I put leaves in the beds in the Fall and everything grows like they are on steroids. I do not have to weed any garden beds. My motto is plant tight no room for weeds.

I love the "packing" -- less weeds that way!!

Okay...I have a stupid question. If you pack them together how do you clean up the bed in the spring without stepping on the hostas? I don't have mine touching and I still manage to step on several during the clean up!

I have one bed where they were really close together and I waited for them all to peep before I went in. I did most of it with a reacher and a small rake, I try not to step into the bed unless I absolutely have too. The main reason I went in was to check a tag of all things.

I have no need to clean up. There is nothing to clean up.

In the Fall after every thing is dead the leaves come down from the tree and cover the bed. In the Spring my beds are covered with leaves. I have spring bulbs that come up then all the plants come up. When the hostas and everything fills in there is no ground showing.

Here is a pic of Spring. You can see a little of the ground. Behind the hosta and the Herc is a daffodil. You can see on the ground is the leaf mold.


This is what it looks like in the winter.


This is Spring. Everything covering the ground no need for cleanup. No weeds all summer. Just needs water.

Cinta, that is great. You just leave the leaves there? I had more weeds than leaves but maybe if there was no raking in the fall there would not be as many weeds. I feel a light coming on in my brain.

Yep now you are getting my style of gardening. I plant tight so there is no room for weeds. Leaf mold is the best thing I can do for my clay soil and it smothers any weeds that would grow. It holds the water and the Hostas grow like they are on steroids.

I have acres of land and I have so many garden areas at my age I would never be able to up keep that much weeding. There is only one that I plant in a formal manner that is the foundation planting in the front of the house.

It is a garden style that many do not like. They like order in their garden. I prefer a cottage garden style.

I have what I call filler plants. In the Hosta garden and many of my flower gardens I have filler plants I like to use Ventricosa, and Lancifolia Hosta as fillers. When my main plants get to mature size I just dig out my fillers.

This is my Sunny Summer Flowering Bulbs and Roses. I use Lancifolia Hosta as my ground cover.

I like that and I will try it next year. I really do think I will end up with less weeds.

I wouldn't rake the oak leaves but my oak tree drops a bazillion acorns which have a near 100% germination rate if not cleaned up......unless you get them when they are young they are nearly impossible to pull.

Paul if you are raking your leaves that is why you are getting germination. My oak trees do the same thing. Before I clean my gutters every year those things are growing in the gutter in every crack between the bricks but not in the hosta garden. They do not grow on the floor of a forest. They need ground and light to grow.

My gardens are to tight and with the thick mulch of leaves they cannot grow. That is why I plant close. I do not have the time or energy to weed the gardens.

We have oak, wild cherry and hickory trees so I'm not sure if I could leave all of that on my beds in the spring. That's a lot of weight for the hostas to push through, but I may give it a try next spring in one bed. Sure wouldn't miss all of that back breaking work!

Rose

Thanks for the suggestion Cinta.......If I did not rake I would have a solid layer of acorns, two or three deep, in a couple of years..

Chinta -- that is my style too!! The less work the better -- I do have a daylily garden I get into in the spring to rake out the dead stuff if I dont get it in the fall... but leaves as you said make a great cover for the little guys in the winter!!

They are a great ground cover but I do not mulch here. I have to worry about things rotting over the winter. My DH has a leaf vacuum and it also chops up the leaves. I got him to vacuum my beds in the fall and then put the leaves back. I was anxious to rake in the spring so they will get air and some sun. I will see how it goes!