Rocks Turned Into Flowers

Today I'm excited to tell you about my new project that is almost complete! The previous owner of our home had put rocks and gravel in front of the house instead of landscaping. My husband dug all the rocks out of the bed area and removed the black plastic. We made a trip to the nursery Mother's Day weekend and bought a yard of topsoil, plus I bought a bleeding heart and a flat of annuals. He and our boys filled the bed and my daughter and I planted and transplanted. The area is sunny the first part of the day, and shaded the second half by our maple tree.


This is the before picture, after they removed the rocks and gravel.
We planted transplanted from other areas: hostas, two columbines, and a mystery violet I purchased last year from a local nursery (I'm adventurous). We bought a short variety of bleeding heart that is only suppose to get about 6-8 inches tall. The blooms are also slightly darker, but still heart shaped. I also bought a pineapple sage and placed that in the bed. In the back we planted 2 types of snapdragons. My daughter insisted we alternate the types to form a "pattern". In front of the hostas we planted purple alyssum and a short aster in mixed colors of white, purple and pink. I alternated those in a semi-circle around each hosta. We saved space on the right of the bed for a traditional bleeding heart. We'll buy that later this week at our local nursery. To the left in the corner is a rock I asked the boys and Chuck to move for me, and I placed a hosta in front of it. They thought I was crazy til they saw how neat it looked. Below is the almost finished bed without mulch which we'll add. I'm also going to plant pansies, which do really well for me, to fill in, especially in front of the window.



What I tried to do with this bed was put in plants that do well in some shade and need a little more moisture than most. I'm going to place in a soaker hose to keep it watered. I also tried to keep the color scheme in shades of purple and pink or cream/white. I'll share another picture once everything is done and blooming.

~Brenda