After saying I wasn’t going to buy many more plants for the gardens this year…I bought so many that I had to expand one of the gardens.

I really didn’t want to do this, because ripping up sod is such a chore. But I still had a pile of plants, and literally no where for them to go!

So, I sucked it up and decided to expand the strip garden at the side of the front yard. This garden was only about 8 inches wide, but 10 or so feet long. It was home to several shrubs (Tinkerbell Lilac, Marina Rose of Sharon, and Queen of Heart Butterfly Bush) and a couple roses (Prairie Princess and Caroline de Monaco), with a handful of perennials in between.

I needed to expand it enough to hold two more roses, some daylilies, a columbine, a coneflower, Tickseed, Cat Mint, Pincushion plant and a few annuals. In the end, I created a large curved expansion, about tripling the size of the bed.

It took all morning and most of the afternoon, but I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out. Here’s a closer look at some of the new additions.

Top Right- Orange Conflower. Top Left – Purple and White Columbine. Bottom Left: White Pincushion plant. Bottom Right: Bolero rose.

I was not at all planning on getting another whiteish rose. I already have three – Iceberg (which I’d bought earlier this year), Caroline de Monaco (though the jury is still out on how well she survived her deep cutting) and Eden – the climber which is white with a pink centre and just starting to open on the arbour.

But Bolero is a more creamy white, a big globe-shaped flower, and the most amazing scent. It was the scent that made me buy it! I think it may be a new favourite!

At any rate, it’s going to fun to watch this new garden fill in.

After all that work, I got cleaned up and Dave and I headed out for a little celebration dinner.

Saturday marked the third anniversary of officially becoming home-owners! So we treated ourselves at our favourite Chinese food place in the next town over! I had certainly worked up an appetite!