Garden Edit - Tree Swing Tree - Hakonechloa Macra Grasses and Summer Beauty Alliums - April 2024

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Yesterday, I posted about how as I've matured as a gardener, I'm focusing on garden edits vs additions.  In that post, I called our four spots that I'd like to edit - Tree Swing tree, Kitchen Curved, Hosta Replacement and IB2DWs.   The first one that I've started with is the Tree Swing tree bed.  I was out with my shovel cutting in an edge and took on the edit - starting with finding new homes for some things.
My edit criteria are:

1.  Work in our yard.
2.  Are appealing (to me).
3.  Have some four-season appeal.

My plan is to feature Hakonechloa Macra grasses (the green ones) and Alliums to start - both of which check all three criteria. 

Here (below) is the 'before' - the garden edit - where the plants sit currently.  Just in the wrong (to my eye) spot:


First, I dug up the Seslaria Autumnalis (three of them) and pulled them out.  They're moving back in the garden, but that's for a separate post.  Below is a photo showing the holes from the Autumn Moor Grass removal:


Then, I dug up the hostas.  Christmas tree hostas (three) and a number of Frances Williams hostas (bareroot ones).  I put some behind the Oak tree and a few further back in the garden.  Below is a look at the bed with both the Seslaria and Hostas removed:


Below is a look at some of the spots where I tucked the hostas in amongst the tulips.  This will NOT be their final destination.


Next, I moved a couple of the Allium Christophii bulbs back closer to the tree trunk:


Then, the four Summer Beauty Alliums went back against the trunk - leaving the front of the border open:


And, lastly, I transplanted the four Hakonechloa Macra Japanese Forest Grasses from behind the tree to the front of the border - joining the existing three.  Now seven grasses in a row:

Hakonechloa Macra Grasses and Summer Beauty Allium

Hakonechloa Macra Grasses and Summer Beauty Allium

Next up is cleaning up this border going backwards - where I'd need six more grasses and eight or nine more Alliums - extending all the way back to the Epimedium patch.  That would make 13 grasses and alliums - a large mass of each.

I'll have to find a home for the ferns that are planted in the way.

Next edit up?   The Fanal Astilbes and Ajugas.   Then, moving the All Golds over, too.  

My (garden) life in our yard is too short to have plants I don't love.  

Location: Downers Grove, IL, USA

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