Update on the Long Driveway Bed (with photos)

13 years ago

Last winter, I was struggling with a big problem and shared it with folks on the WS forum:

"My house is set back from the main road. The driveway goes straight about 700 feet, then curves to the left for about 100 feet, then curves again to the entrance. I'd love to have a mixed shrub and flower bed along the driveway but don't have time to do it, nor to care for it if it magically appeared.

"I'd like to create a bright, cheerful welcoming area. The house is about 100 feet from the Chesapeake Bay. Challenges are wind, poor soil, and occasional flooding during tropical storms and nor'easters. Given this info, do you all have thoughts or suggestions?"

Did you ever! You shared so many ideas and suggestions. Here are a few photos from the first year - and what a year it's been. I focused on the area nearest the house - 400' or so. I divided this chunk into 5 beds with paths in between for lawn tractor access.

All beds include rudbeckias (Lynda, thanks for that idea). I planted different varieties of rudbeckia and different companion plants in each bed so each has a different look and personality. I learned so much by doing this - it was an incredible learning experience.

This bed includes rudbeckia hirta varieties (Denver Daisy and Indian Summer), sunflowers, purple millet, white cleome, rose campion, and yellow forget-me-nots.

Sunflowers provide height and a color echo with the R. Goldsturm and zinnias below. Smaller plants are tucked in between ... somewhere ...

In this bed, red and purple zinnias contrast with the golden-yellow rudbeckias and sunflowers.

Cherokee Sunset rudbeckias and zinnias pop when planted with burgundy okra and purple amaranth. I need some cream or white here.

Cherokee Sunset rudbeckias, Lynda's zinnias, burgundy okra, and purple millet. I stuffed so many tiny seedlings into these beds because I had NO IDEA how BIG they would get. The cleomes have trunks! Next year, I plan to make all the beds at least twice as wide.

Cherokee Sunset rudbeckia, burgundy okra, purple amaranth, with rose campion getting crowded out by the big guys. As these flowers fade in the heat and drought, Lynda's zinnias are stealing the show!

I always love to see the photos you all post - they inspire and educate me. I hope you'll enjoy these.

Thank you!!

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Comments (24)

PVick
13 years ago
Whoa! You must have had a zillion WS containers!

I love the look of your gardens - great job!

PV
lgslgs
13 years ago
Not bad at all for gardening in drought conditions!

Looks like you've got that dramatic flower color you were looking for. :)

Lynda
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Don't limit your ideas just because the bed is small. The beds immediately adjacent to our driveway are quite narrow - in the 18" range on two of the three sides. They get covered in snow removed from the driveway in winter without any problems. Why are you concerned with having things upright? I deliberately plant things that softly mound over the concrete curb at the edge of the bed/driveway to make a nice transition and soften the look. The bed in this picture is very narrow and dry because it is under the overhang of the porch roof. The euonymus gives evergreen winter interest while the rodgersia adds summer flowers and the interesting large leaves. When the rodgersia dies back for the winter the empty space that is left is available storage space for snow removed from the top of the driveway. You can see the bed in the previous picture across the front porch in this picture taken from the road early last August - the main driveway bed is in a lull before late summer bloom starts... In the above picture, the bed on the right side of the driveway looks fairly wide - but it's only 18" wide, with a path behind it! In this picture taken from the roof in June you can see that the bed is narrow and I visually 'widen' it by adding large pots on the driveway. The driveway is the only sunny place in the garden (note the large trees in the backyard that you can see in the second picture...) so I use pots on the driveway to grow fruits and vegetables. The backbone of the border on the right side of the driveway is Pink Beauty potentilla shrubs. They are late to leaf out in spring but then bloom all summer. They make a nice mound that blends well with other plants. Here is one with a lily in early August: and with hardy hibiscuses in August as well: So I don't think you need to feel too constrained just because a bed is narrow.
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Where are you located, both city and state, and USDA growing zone? What does the wider area and the adjacent garden look like? Suggestions need to be made in context which we currently can’t see. I would strongly advise a sold walkway rather than stepping stones which tend to be fairly unwalkable. (Try walking the current walkway with something bulky in hand that is difficult to see around to understand why it might be a trip hazard.) Move them together and make it twice as wide if you want a narrow walkway. If this is a main entry, you want it much wider. This needs to be completed before any planting is done.
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dem_pa
13 years ago
Great job. I like your chose of plants.

Don
terrene
13 years ago
Looks like you are off to a great start! Love the tall Sunflowers, you will have all sorts of birds and critters going crazy over the seeds. This year mine were torn down and mangled by some critter, but my Tithonia (mexican sunflower) is doing okay.

Your Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm' looks great for a drought, they are not nearly as drought tolerant as the R. hirta in my garden. They have been wilted and measly this year.

LOVE the tall Zinnias, I grow the tall Zinnia elegans cultivars every year - Cut & come again, State Fair, or California Giants - and the butterflies and hummingbirds love them.
gardenweed_z6a
13 years ago
Wow! That's totally amazing...it's so inviting, people may be tempted to trespass but since they'd likely be WSers, you might not mind.

Love your color/form/foliage contrasts. Great job & thanks for sharing!
paulan70
13 years ago
You did a wonderful job. Isn't it rewarding to see how the flowers pop after starting from seed. Nice job.

Paula
Pamchesbay
Original Author
13 years ago
I posted this thread to thank you.

I would never have embarked on this project / journey without encouragement from the folks in this forum. You shared your experiences, favorite plants, and practical suggestions. I don't have enough thank you words to express my gratitude.

The WS experiences - sowing seeds, watching how they germinate, transplanting tiny seedlings that grow into huge plants, observing how different things grow where I live, sharing information with others - this is a gift.

Now I'm studying how to combine perennials, native plants, and grasses (thank you Terrene). I'm looking for and finding tough, beautiful plants that can survive what Mother Nature hurls at them (thank you Lynda). I could go on but I'll stop after one more "thank you" to all the generous folks who encourage and help one another in the WS forum. ;-) ~ Pam
tiffy_z5_6_can
13 years ago
Beautiful! Absolutely beautiful!
trudi_d
13 years ago
Bravo, it looks wonderful.

We have had drought but you've mostly worked with wildflowers or grasses from temperate regions, especially some well suited to plains. You're got a garden which will thrive under stress once its established. I think a good amount will reseed for you, to more or less degree, and with just some fill-ins next year you're going to have another great eye-candy border ;-)

I'm glad you shared your photos Pam, it's all very inspiring.

T
Pamchesbay
Original Author
13 years ago
Tiffy - I haven't forgotten your photos - that gorgeous pink foxglove and the stone wall with rudbeckias along the top.

Token, if you are around, I'd like to thank you. In January, I was looking for pineapple sage seed. I was new, had nothing of value to trade. You sent pineapple sage and many more packets of seed. One was labeled 'Blue Queen' sage, but was really rose campion (thanks for the ID guys). The post you wrote about creating a cottage garden is a masterpiece.

Trudi, the story begins with you. When I found the WS forum and the wintersown.org site, I was intrigued. A woman is devoting her life to educating people about wintersowing, liberating us from the old ways of growing from seed. I spent so much time on the wintersown site, and reading old posts here.

One evening last November, my husband and I were in New York on business. I needed stamps to send you a SASE for my newbie seeds but didn't have any stamps. A waitress in the hotel bar had stamps she was willing to sell. I dropped the envelopes in the hotel mailbox. A few days later, the first seeds arrived from you, a stranger. Wow!

Thanks to all. Because this forum has a positive culture, this is a neat place to spend time, even in July!
pitimpinai
13 years ago
Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.
I wish I had 400' of property. lol
If you scatter seeds of those plants such as Rudbeckia, you won't have to replant them every year.

Don't you consider perennials? Replanting every year is fun for younger people like you, but it gets exhausting after a while...especially for older folks like me. :-D
pitimpinai
13 years ago
Sorry, I missed what you wrote up there re perennials.
May I suggest tough perennials such as these? They are very easy going and need no care, especially natives:

- Liatris spicata - a native
- Sedum - there are many kinds and many heights - I leave 'Autumn Joy' flower heads all winter long
- Tiger lilies - especially orange tiger - it will blend in very well with your Rudbeckia
- Perennial Rudbeckia - another native
- Echinacea - Definitely a native
- Monarda
- Phlox

I would gradually widen the bed and slowly add shrubs to the back.
If you use natives such as:
- American cranberry bush (Viburnum)
- Callicarpa americana
- Symphoricarpus (Snowberry)
- Physocarpus (Ninebark)
- Illex verticillata (American Holly)
they will draw birds and butterflies.
Since they are natives, they will be heat and drought tolerance and except at the beginning won't require much care.
trudi_d
13 years ago
Trudi, the story begins with you. When I found the WS forum and the wintersown.org site, I was intrigued. A woman is devoting her life to educating people about wintersowing, liberating us from the old ways of growing from seed. I spent so much time on the wintersown site, and reading old posts here.

Ear-candy ;-)
token28001
13 years ago
Yeah. The seeds I purchased turned out to be something else entirely. Imagine that.

I love the bed though. My millet never grew that large. The dark foliage of the okra looks great too. And who doesn't love rudbeckia? Congrats! It looks wonderful.
terrene
13 years ago
Hey Pam, my assorted native prairie and beach grasses are coming through this droughty Spring and summer like CHAMPS without any watering! Of course, they are established and I would water babies or recent transplants. They are also sooooo easy to winter-sow and plant out in HOS.

Let me know if you want some seeds - I've got tons.
Pamchesbay
Original Author
13 years ago
Replanting every year is fun for younger people like you ...

pitimpinai - The only person who thinks I'm young is my 90 year old mother! I've heard that "60 is the new 40" and that's fine with me. I've seen photos of your stuffed gardens - they are fantastic.

Thanks for the lists of perennials and native shrubs. I like the idea of widening the beds and adding native shrubs. I've been studying gardens by Piet Oudolf, the Dutch designer. He designed the Lurie Garden, and the Battery and High Line gardens in NYC. I found plant lists for Lurie and the Battery, am studying them. Oudolf uses plants that are easy to grow and care for, tolerate a variety of conditions, and compete against weeds.

I live on 5 1/2 acres on the Chesapeake Bay. The views are fantastic but the land was devastated by a hurricane in 2003. We lived in an empty field. I didn't know what to do so I planted over 1,000 tree seedlings in 2008, add more each year. The trees are doing great - some are over 25' tall.

I still have a plenty of empty field to fill.

{{gwi:422268}}

terrene: In addition to the driveway beds, I'm studying native grasses and how to use perennials and grasses in beds and islands. After losing the perennials, I thought about what to do next. The best time to plant and divide stuff here is late Sept-October. I decided to supplement WS by sowing seeds of some perennials now, planting them out in the fall.

Perennials I'm sowing now and will sow again this winter:

Aquilegia
Centranthus ruber (Jupiter's Beard)
Dianthus
Echinacea
Gaillardia
Helenium
Hesperis matronalis (Dame's rocket) - not invasive here, looks like a perfect plant to grow on the edges of a young forest.
Monarda

Depending on how SS goes, I may plant these or will wait until winter:

Feverfew
Eupatorium purpureum
Hyssop
Lobelia siphilitica
Pyrethrum daisy
Solidago Ohioensis

Note: These lists are not exhaustive!

The lists do not include grasses yet. I'm studying grasses and which can be grown from seed. I think you will have good advice on this subject. ;-) I should probably start a different thread ...
lgslgs
13 years ago
Be sure to sow that pyrethrum daisy soon. It seems to prefer warm temps for germination. Now is perfect for it.

Lynda
Pamchesbay
Original Author
13 years ago
Got it. Tomorrow morning. I'm really looking forward to this.
ghoghunter
13 years ago
I LOVE LOVE LOVE your flowers beds! They are spectacular. Your flower choices are great. I tried winter sowing Centranthus ruber and it never popped up...(I thought) so I dumped the container in a small shaded flower bed..the next year I found White Centranthus alba growing and blooming there! There was a thread here somewhere and many folks also tried sowing it. I think it may take 2 years like many of the shubs to pop up.
Thanks for the lovely pictures!!! Have fun with your sowing!!!
drippy
13 years ago
Very nice, Pam - that definitely has that "beach peace" look about it. As a native New Englander living near the beach, I wonder if you wouldn't have a place for a beach plum or two, and a rosa rugosa (the alba would give you a nice contrasting white). To some folks, they're weeds though - I know there are gardeners who would think I should be burned at the stake for suggesting rosa rugosa, which can be invasive. But I like it :)
Pamchesbay
Original Author
13 years ago
ghoghunter - thank you - this year the beds are still young and need to be wider 9 - a good winter project. Thanks for the encouragement re: Centranthus. In photos, it looks like a fine plant for natural gardens. Since we are so close to the Bay, we have flooding in the lower half of the land. That limits my plant choices a bit, but many natives can tolerate an occasional salt water bath.

drippy - In 2007, I planted 10 beach plum seedlings that were ordered from the New Hampshire state nursery. I didn't water enough during the first year so only 3 survived. I planned to order more seedlings but the NH nursery hasn't offered them and I haven't found another source.

I love rugosa roses. I hadn't thought about using alba but you're right - they would be striking together. I have 3 white blooming hawthorne trees near the beach plums - another white.

I'll keep looking for beach plum seedlings.
kqcrna
13 years ago
Just beautiful, Pam. Next year you'll need 10 acres.

Karen
lgslgs
13 years ago
Pam - Oikos has Beach Plum. Link below.

They also have a beach strawberry too. :)

Lynda

Here is a link that might be useful: Beach plum
Pamchesbay
Original Author
13 years ago
Karen - 10 acres is a recurrent nightmare. ;-)

Lynda: A link to Oikos for beach plums - thank you! Oikos branched out since I last visited. Not long ago, they were a source of tree seedlings only. Now they offer "roots and tubers," flowering perennials and ... palms.

If anyone is interested in planting trees - hardwoods, conifers, dogwoods, beach plums, viburnums, bayberries, and many other cool natives, consider ordering from the NH Nursery in the spring. Since 2007, I've planted 1,500-2,000 tree seedlings ordered from state nurseries and private nurseries. The NH nursery seedlings were top of the line - huge deep roots, overall excellent condition, and the price is right (10/$10 or less).

Here is a link that might be useful: NH State Nursery Seedling List

Update on the Long Driveway Bed (with photos)

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