Rethinking a Flower Bed

Few things thrill me more than when my husband gets excited about one of my projects!

_{I love how the plants stand out against the mulch.}

While Justin has been busy with his work I have been busily at work in my garden. For the last few years I've had a feeble flower bed on the outside of the garden fence. It has mostly been overgrown Lambs Ear, Shasta Daisies and Bee Balm. The deer efficiently munched down everything else I'd planted. The deer didn't kill the plants, just ate them back till I could no longer remember what was what.

This spring when plants first started coming up I acted preemptively. I encased my flowerbed in chicken wire, field fence and a couple other random pieces of fencing. So far so good, nothing has dared touch the plants inside my fencing and the plants are growing big and beautiful. While the plants may be beautiful, the flowerbed was not.

I enlarged the flowerbed by tilling two tiller widths into the yard, allowing the plants more space and making the flowerbed look somewhat more intentional, rather than a random sprinkling of plants just outside the garden fence. That was my great flowerbed improvement plant for the year.

Building the New Bed

This morning I fell victim to some beautiful annuals at our local hardware store and brought a nice sampling of them home. After I planted them, inspiration struck @justinmullet. He went over to our woodpile and found a nice Lodgepole pine log to create a barrier between the yard and flowerbed. He lined the whole border of the flowerbed with Lodgepole, even making an angle cut with his chainsaw to make tightly fitted corner.

_{Finding some of our straightest logs and cutting to the exact lengths.}

_{My hen, Cafe Latte being nosy and making sure we're doing it right.}

_{Leveling and setting the logs.}

_{Packing dirt underneath the logs to keep them stable.}

_{Attending to the details and angle cutting the corner.}

Mulching

The flowerbed's crowning glory was a layer of fresh Cedar mulch. Hopefully the mulch will keep the ground moist and keep the weeds from taking over.

_{A local pole mill mounds up their waste cedar shavings and gives them away to anyone who loads them up, making this project free!}

I can't believe how much better it looks! I’m excited to see the plants grow and fill the space with blooms! Thanks Justin! 😘

_{Also, thanks to all of you readers who have commented and voted my posts. It is much appreciated!}