Questioning our Sanity

Our friend Matt suggested that we should plant more flowers in our front yard.

I quickly poo-poo'd the idea.
I mean Really???
More to weed?

Our front yard is large.  Like 200' × 250'.
And it all about proportions.

That means a little 6 foot by 8 foot garden would look like a pin dot on a piece of paper.

In the meantime, Honey decides that he wants less to mow.

Cue the rototiller.

So this is happening.

This bed will run along the road. It is a difficult area to mow. There is one area that you don't mow .... you use the string trimmer.  At another place, you are sitting on the edge of the mower seat, leaning to counterbalance the slope.  It doesn't look that steep ....but Honey hates mowing it.

We are working on a "wild flower" bed. This will be a mix of native annuals and a pollinator mix.  We sowed the pre-package mixes along with self-seeders like bachelor's buttons, calendula, sunflowers, celosia and zinnias. 

Honey started by mowing as short as possible and raked the grass. He then used the lawn rake to de-thatch the area. A light tilling ... helped to break up the soil without turning up too many weed seeds. Then Honey raked again to remove clods and grass.

Being next to the road ... this stretch of grass is dry, compacted and full of gravel.  To help its fertility, Honey broadcasted a simple 10-10-10 fertilizer. 

We mixed all the seeds together and heavily seeded it. 

HEAVILY.

Like twice-as-many-as-needed heavily. OK ...the filler made it hard to tell how much we were spreading.

But with its location and the conditions ... that may be a good thing!! 

Well, Martha would say that!!

I felt that the garden needed some "anchor" plants. So I selected these raspberry echinacea to plant in this area. I have started with 64 plants. 

                                                                Photo from Monrovia. 

We also planted some "Mexican hats" ... a native rudbeckia.  A great pollinator it should self-seed. 

I will be adding some daylilies and other perennials as I change some gardens. With the addition of a few herbs .... dill and borage .... I hope this will be a native wildflower bed that will be a perfect draw for bees and butterflies. 

Wish us luck. This is NOT a once-and-done project. But with careful maintenance, we should have a fun and welcoming border. 

And now Honey doesn't have to mow.

That just might be worth it!