Why I Oughta...

Earlier this season, I planted three small Inferno Coleus plants in the small bed that sits at the corner of our back patio .  I had grown Inferno in the front yard last year and wanted to grow it again.  Have a look at the photo below - showing the late-Summer view of what started as three small plants.  I wanted to grow more coleus as bedding annuals in the beds , so I'd call this a success.  (#6 on my 2025 to-do list this year .) I'll grow Inferno again next year.  Maybe in multiple spots - as a form of 'repetition' to help improve 'legibility' with some colorful annuals.   Last Fall, I expanded this bed a bit.  I'll look to grow it even more this Fall with my 'lazy bed' method using cardboard, compost and municipal biosolids.  

I'm a sucker for silver foliage.  And, the best bang-for-my-buck comes via a flat of Dusty Miller annuals from the big box nursery.  Eight plants for four bucks.  I put all eight in the corner bed of the back patio.  These are in the 'lazy bed extension' that I created last Fall.  (note to self:  expand this bed even more this Fall.) I can use these in cut flower arrangements later this Summer and early Fall.  They did really well out in the front porch bed a few years ago, so here's hoping they'll like this spot, too. 

Number 6 on my 2025 to-do list this year was to 'use more coleus as bedding plants'.  That idea was based on the success that I had with some Inferno coleus that I planted in our front yard island bed last season.    Earlier this year, I planted a dozen Crimson Gold Versa coleus (full sun coleus) in the front island bed.  And, a trio of Inferno Coleus that I bought at The Growing Place in the backyard corner patio bed.  I figured I'd try at least one more this year as a bedding plant.  So....when I've been on the look-out for a unique one to try.  I came across a placed called Patyk's Farm up near Richmond .  It is on the south side of Route 173, a few miles out of Richmond as you head towards Woodstock.  It is a medium-sized family farm operation with four-or-five greenhouses and TONS of plants.  I arrived right when they were closing, so I didn't spend too much time there.   I did, however, find this unique coleus and bough...

Last year, I planted three Inferno coleus in the island bed in our front yard after seeing them on a garden tour video and I wasn't disappointed.  By October of last year, I wrote a post praising sun-tolerant coleus as bedding plants and pledged to plant more this year.  I even included 'planting coleus as bedding plants' as one of my 2025 to-do items .   With the larger-scale planting of Crimson Gold Coleus in the (newly expanded) Island Bed in front, I decided to not walk-away-from Inferno coleus.  I bought three quart-sized pots of the red/brown annual and planned to put them into the expanded back patio corner bed.    Last Fall, I used the 'lazy bed extension' method to expand the corner bed adjacent to our back patio .  That created some new planting space that I can fill this season.   That spot gets decent sun - for our backyard at least.  It gets the MOST sun, I suppose, of anywhere in our backyard.  Thus, it seemed l...