A (Potential) Change of Perspective on Island Bed Extension: Curvilinear Bed Design - January 2025

Earlier in January, I posted an exploration of the expansion of my front yard "island bed" and talked about how I'd like to clean up the edges and expand the bed in a direction that will allow for even-more future bed expansion. 

In that post, I suggested attacking from the sidewalk back to the house.  And, by expanding by going across the front of the yard along the sidewalk - connecting to the edge of the property line.  

But, after staring at the bed every time I came/went on a walk, I have come to the realization:

"The Defense is wrong."

Well...at least *partially* wrong.  

Since I put the Island Bed in back in 2024, I said I wanted to create three things:

1. A path.

2. A bern.
3. ...and some miegakure.

My previous approach focused on the 'path'.  And, expanded a little bit of beds.  

Here's how the beds looked last Spring when they were freshly mulched below.  The lines, while clean, aren't what I want in terms of 'sweeping curves'.

What I've come back to are a few things that I need to remind myself about this potential project.  These are my ground rules and many of them come from my "Great Garden Rules".  

1.  Conifers should come first.

2.  Use Fewer, larger curves.

3.  Layering matters.

4.  I want lawn/turf.  But, I'm now thinking that goes IN THE MIDDLE of the garden.  With the beds *around it*.

When I look at that list, I came to a new conclusion:  Don't cut the yard from front-to-back.  

Instead...cut it in half:  SIDE-TO-SIDE.  

This may seem like a little thing, but it totally transforms my thinking on this whole thing.  

Here is the original inspiration.  And here.  One of the ideas that I'm still not good-at is the whole fewer/larger swooping curves.   I wrote about the concept of Curvilinear Garden Bed Design here.  And, then showed my own before/after of designing curvilinear beds in our backyard around the edges.  

When I scroll back up the page to see the 'freshly mulched island bed' from last Spring, the edges and lines scream amateur hour.  

I need to use this garden bed expansion to correct that mistake.  By splitting the yard in half sideways, I could do some big sweeping curves.  Add in the fact that two of my 'bed expansions' are in the same area (Saratoga Ginkgo bed + front porch bed) are adjacent to this area and when we add *those* to the island bed, we end up with something like this:

Below is an annotated version of this schematic.  The orange area is the Saratoga Ginkgo bed extension.  The yellow is the front porch bed extension.  If I was *already* doing those, what we're talking about is just the balance of the area in the green line below.  Oh...and this also allows for that BERM that I wanted.  

But, this begins to feel like a huge project.  Is there a smaller version of something where could I start?  What about the teal line + the orange area + the yellow area asincremental process?

Here's the reverse view below:

Hold on....I mentioned getting the berm in above.  But...what about one of my other goals?  Is this...is this.... miegakure?  Or, does it have that potential?  See the Skylands Spruce there?  It is still small.  But...imagine it growing up and getting taller.   Does that provide a little bit of 'hide-and-reveal' from the curb view?   Sure seems like it:

What do I plant first?  Conifers, of course.  Maybe a Weeping White Spruce?  The one in our backyard has been a disappointment.  But, I still want that form.  Maybe another Korean Maple like the North Wind Korean Maple that is part of the Jack Frost collection.  I posted about it last Fall.  And, failing that...what about a bunch of cut flowers/annuals to fill in the bed for year one?

I suppose I need to begin collecting cardboard to smother the turf out.  And, heading to get some municipal biosolids and compost to get these beds started.