Mid-Atlantic Gardening: PLANT ADDICTS CHAT #8, 4 by ssgardener

ssgardener wrote:
Coleup, you're absolutely right about how raising the bed improves plant performance.

This part of the yard had to be raised because it was already very low and the soil literally could not be dug. I would have needed a jackhammer. So I sheet mulched using leaves, leaf gro, coffee grounds, compost, etc, and the plants here do great. It's raised about a foot.

However, I still lost a rhodie and a mountain laurel in this bed!!

Oak leaf hydrangea.
Gigantic native honeysuckle. This needs to be cut back.
Climbing hydrangea in the background, various Heuchera, variegated Solomon's seal turning yellow
Pinky Winky hydrangea, red leafed Chinese woody plant whose name escapes me.
Various low growers that love this area.

Some of the other areas couldn't be raised as high due to rain drainage reasons or because I didn't know better when I got set up the beds.