I think the iris will do really well in this bed. They will get plenty of drainage and the size sounds good. I know you like to buy several fans of each daylily, did your get one or more rhizomes of each iris? They grow pretty fast, so one is usually plenty.

You will be able to plant plenty of irises in this bed. Will you put the tallest in the center of the 3 foot square bed? Are you going to arrange by color or by bloom time or by height?

Renee

Your yard must be really pretty already, but just wait until your Siberians and new bearded are blooming. The hard part is waiting for them to bloom.

Shadow

Shadow- Iris are new to me. Years ago I had some bearded iris but I mulched them to death. That I why this time they are getting a separate stand alone bed for themselves. The Siberian Iris, however, were the perfect find for me. They love the same mulch them heavily method I use on the roses, daylilies and bulb lilies around here. Actually wanted to get more Siberian for this spring but I just can't as I am stretched too thin haveing much to much to do (as in to plant).

Renee- I only bought one of each bearded Iris that I ordered. My thinking was that if I do it right and they are happy then they should multiply quickly and if I manage to kill them all then I have not lost twice as much money.

The size of the planned new bed pretty much was the largest that would fit and looks good in that space I have in mind for them and still leave me plenty of room and not get in the way of my "I always walk here" areas. I actually put out some of those 7 foot green coated metal fench posts you can buy at Home Depot down on the grass to get the idea of how much room it takes up.

I am not going to arrange by color. I like the look of a mixed colors, all my daylilies are whatever color next to another color (as long as its not the same color). Also, with my daylilies I went into a major obseession last year trying to extend my bloom season. Mainly going for late bloomers for August as July is peak bloom here. But I also went for earlies. I am not about to rip up and throw out the early blooming daylilies I bought last year but this spring I had realised trying to get more bloom in my garden by going for early daylilies was the wrong way to go. Thats when I started looking at Iris. I went first with the Siberian Iris as they fit very well into my mulch the heck out of them gardening method. Those Sibserian should bloom way before my daylilis. Then the bearded because they should bloom before the Sibs.

As to how to arrange them, I am not sure yet. One plan would be in sections by bloom time, another plan would be by height. I am going to have to go back to my list of iris ordered and write heights and bloomtimes down for each and then look at my list to see what I could do. Still needs some planning.

this photo shows the new bed for my "grandmother's iris" - with the existing potager and a small yard this size is the best i could do - two sections 3 x 11 - at this time i am working on a formula for the soil to get ready for a summer transplanting - at the moment i have located 9 colors that belonged to my grandmother and have another 20 or so of her iris that have not bloomed -

mr toad - i know, the pot is not level - it will be "someday"

Is the pot going to be a decoration in between the two beds? I like the design, I think its really pretty and well made.

OK, here is a picture of where I intend to put the iris bed showing most of the sideyard. I put some sticks and green fence posting in a square around the pots with Rugosa roses. Pay no mind to the pots, they will easily move.

And, in case your thinking thats an odd angle it was taken from the upstairs part of my yard looking down. Heres another picture were I have moved back some. I hope you can see the laid out square because thats were I want it to be.

closeup of the square area

Looking from more in front to the backyard to show were the planned iris bed goes.

I also intend to put bearded iris in the small narrow skinny section down below the front yard planterbox that I am planting with daylilies this spring.

Okay, you two, now you got me thinking about plopping a new iris bed right in the middle of the lawn... the husband will kill me!

{{gwi:622887}}

This is to give you an idea how Cottage Garden it is here and how heavily mulched the woodsey area in the front yards is. This area has roses, daylilies, lily bulbs and now Siberian Iris. There are shrubs off to both sides and my Blackberries are along in back of those roses in the picture. Maybe now you can see why I need a stand alone bed if I want to grow iris. That carpet of leaves is very thick and thats after sitting all winter (put on in the fall). Of course, it needs remulching every year.

Another angle.

Who needs lots of lawn anyway, not me :-))

Something to keep in mind is that since the bearded can't get mulched, weeding can be a fairly large issue.

I will figgure out something. Thinking of using pea gravel for mulch.

Well, here it is a month later from when I first posted this and I have not yet started my iris bed. The rain has slowed things down and put me behind with my garden chores. Would you believe the last batch of daylilies I bought is still not planted yet. At least all the flats and flats of annuals are long done. But within the week for sure as I do have all those iris ordered for July.

Rita,
I am amazed! I didn't think you had that much lawn left!!
kay

The ONLY place I do have lawn left on the driveway side of my house. Lawn in all other areas has been reduced to grassy paths due to garden bed expansion.

This is my older post when I was planning to do the iris bed. Now that its done, I thought I would bump it up to go with my new post showing the construction of the actual bed.

everything looks nice. if it would be easier for you-remember you barely plant the rhizome on the iris-the bed can be very shallow. mine are over landscape material in a 1 timber bed and are doing allright.

I know I did not need a raised bed to dig down to plant iris. I just wanted a level area to plant. I knew that in that area I would not have liked anything that was not raised. Pluss I did that extra box just to give the bed some extra dimention. I happen to like raise beds, I have plenty of them.