I have 15 perennial beds with various color themes. I figured out that if they were one bed I would have a border about 500 feet long (I'm afraid to figure how wide). I love my perennials though, keeps me busy and interested. I figure I'm not done until I look into a catalogue and I have them all. (LOL). Think spring and all those free divisions.
How long is your Perennial Border??
I have one herbaceous perennial border about 100 feet long and another about 70 feet long. I too love these two beds which are separated by a crazy paving pathway of about 2 feet, in a serpentine manner so both herbaceous perennial beds are different widths depending on how the path meanders through the beds. The whole area is only about 20 feet wide on the eastern side between the property line fence and the the house.
This is a new bed - there was nothing there this time last year, we just bought the house in Feb 2000. I have great hopes for a lovely show this year.
The longer bed has 2 japanese maple trees, 4 peonies, 1 rose bush, 2 small evergreens, 2 azaleas and lots of perennials.
Half of the shorter bed next to the house was last year my 'Flanders Field of Poppies' as I had a lot of poppy seeds and did not know which ones were perennials. The perennial poppies have come back now so now I can plant other perennials in amongst the poppies. The other half of the bed was planted in a wildflower mix. The perennials out of that have come back.
I am more interested in perennials than in annuals, but annuals are a quick fix for colour.
NOT LONG ENOUGH!
No kidding, I've been lifting weights all winter in preparation for spring sod bustin' for MORE ROOM to put MORE PLANTS!
Same here, I have been enlarging my beds this spring. The veggie garden is out. DH said he will put his plants (all veggies) in my flowerbed. Last year I thought his onions were a weed and pulled them up!! I need more room. Anyone got a chainsaw I can borrow to cut some trees? On second thought, there's poison ivy down there, lol.
I've got the chainsaw Calalily, and I have definitly used it to make more perennial beds. Our house is surrounded by woods, but I managed to make 10 of them and am working on a couple more. I finished a nice oval one on the one side of my house but I am waiting for my husband to add on to the sprinkler system so I can put more plants in it. ( He puts in sprinklers for a living so I am always last on the list) I have only been gardening for a couple of years so I have made the usual mistakes of putting perennials in the wrong spot, but I am learning. I have tons of them and I am forever moving them from spot to spot, I guess I will always do that. The one bed out front is about 70 foot, then there is a small path thru a little section of woods, then another bed along the front of the woods that is about 25 foot. I have 2 more on either side of the driveway that are really tough, because of the dry soil! Last year we put a pond out back and I have stared 3 more back there I'm not sure but I would say they are about 15 foot each! Oh yea, along the back of the house I have 3 more beds, 2 are about 10 foot and the one along the back porch is about 15 ft. I just counted them up and I guess I have 11 right now, WOW, more than I thought, guess I better start moving things around again!!!!... Micky, make sure you send some of those divisions my way, I doubt that I will have anything on my trade list that you don"t already have!!!!!! sue
This message was edited Thursday, Mar 29th 11:16 PM
This message was edited Thursday, Mar 29th 11:16 PM
Does anyone else besides me put too many plants in their garden? I think that I have to have some of everything and now I'm having to prune and move to make room for all of my plants. Some seem to be buried under other faster growing plants!! Is this greed or what???
Some days tooooo long - some days toooooo short!
I can't begin to add mine up. It would be fun tho. I'm starting to create curved beds. I've drawn my house and yard to scale every year since 1985, so all my beds were squares and rectangles. They were by no means formal. Curved looks better, but many more measurements. Did I mention I'm terrible with numbers and I can't draw a straight line without a ruler or string? It's fun to see how the yard changes every year.
I just read somewhere that curved beds add $10,000 to the value of your house. Who knew? Mine are curved mostly by accident, because I just had to get a few more plants into the ground and could only do it by subtracting part of the pathways.
That's interesting Zuzu. My neighbor makes almost all her beds curved because she likes the harmonic feel. I'm begining to see what she means.
Patty - I tend to overplant, too. I figure I could thin out one bed and make a whole new one with almost no purchases. I'll have more plants to move this spring.
I like curved beds, too. Our house is a very 70's style "spanish" ranch, and the curves help break up the angular lines of the house.
This will only be my third year in this house, so I have a lot of new beds on my wish list. I inherited a very long bed in back from the previous owner, and a few smaller ones scattered around. I have the back bed mostly re-done now, and I'm eyeballing the others. First on my list this spring is the bed along the front walkway - plants are already on order.
Stacy
We tore out straight line holly shrubs to put in a curved bed, and haven't regretted it. Much more updated look. As for the length, if you put all the 15 ir 16 beds together end to end, maybe 325 foot. I don't think I have any annuals, that is unless they are hardy here.