Why I Oughta...

The way that I think about gardening is that you have to have a systemic approach to planning and planting that is paired with a secondary, supplemental approach to zhuzh'ing things during the growing season.  That systemic approach means trees and shrubs and even perennials.  (I need to do more evergreen shrubs....just a self-reminder.) But that supplemental zhuzh'ing is something that I've mostly done through division and some bulbs.   I suppose that's the difference between a landscaper and a gardener, right?  A landscape gets it all planted and is satisfied.  A gardener will work the garden all year long.  A plantsman?  That's for another post. One of the things that I've talked about over the years is how to use annuals in the landscape.  The only place that I've successfully planted them is out front in the porch beds.  In the back?  Nothing. Last year, I included the idea of using shade annuals and dark foliage .  But, I really didn't move on it. 

Over the years, we've tried different annuals in front of our boxwoods in our front yard bed.  Our first full year - in 2018 - we planted some Ranunculuses - about eight of them.  Last year - in 2019 - we planted 16 orange marigolds.  Neither set of those did very well.  The marigolds were better than the Ranunculuses, but they didn't spread and some did better than others.  When we started with this bed, it was about 2" of mulch and then backfilled clay.  Not a ton of organic material to deal with beyond the mulch.  Over the years, I dug up spots and added pelletized gypsum a few inches down in an attempt to loosen up the clay soils.  (speaking of which...I should probably add some gypsum to my lawn this Summer) and tried to amend the soil to improve the conditions. Last year, I used a bulb auger to dig out the holes for marigolds, planted them and covered with cocoa bean mulch.  I read somewhere that the BEST way to loosen up clay soils is to actually plant in them