The area on the backside of my lower garden is an area I have referred to as the Edgewood Garden for a couple years now because it borders the wooded area behind the lower garden.
In August 2020, I planted the first plant in the area – Jury’s Yellow Camellia that I had brought with me in a pot from the previous house. It has been relocated to the Camellia garden since, and I have yet to see it bloom. Not once in the 6-7 years I’ve had it.
In 2021, I added several plants to the area. This is the only place that gets decent shade in all the garden areas I have. I planted a George Tabor Azalea because I just love the light pink of this variety. We had several at the previous house, and I wanted at least one here. I tried propagating the ones we had before we moved with no luck, so I had to purchase this one from a garden center. It was moved to the Camellia garden at some point but died.
Also in 2021, I planted some common milkweed that I had started from seed years ago (and had in a pot), and it finally bloomed out in 2021 having been planted in the ground.
Sadly, I believe it’s all died out. The area doesn’t get enough sun for it to thrive.
I also planted an Empress Wu hosta, Dream Queen hosta, and Wide Brim hosta.
In 2022, I added a couple containers, but mostly the area was just weeds.
There are 2 tree stumps that keep trying to grow back, plus there is goldenrod and honeysuckle I am fighting. Below is what the area looked like in September 2023.
I would have loved to put a raised bed in the area where the boards are laid out in the above picture, but I knew it would just get filled with tree feeder roots. I contemplated building a nice garden shed in the area but was afraid it would end up shifting and not being level at some point. I have trouble with my greenhouse door opening and closing as it is, so I didn’t want something else that would be an issue later. I decided a floating deck would be perfect! So I just laid out the general area I wanted to do the deck in the picture above.
In September of last year, I also added some steps going down to the Edgewood Garden. These steps are by no means up to code, but honestly they are safer than just stepping down and sliding and almost busting my butt. 😂 And they do not look level but they are. I am eventually going to add some more landscape timbers to this area so it doesn’t look like it’s sticking up so far. I didn’t want to have to dig out a LOT of area for the step stringer on the left.
The boyfriend got me the wood for the deck frame as a Christmas gift last year, and I left it lying around for a few months before trying to put it together earlier this spring. WHAT. A. PAIN. Do not make this mistake. The wood dried some and warped. I had so much trouble with this when I first started, I thought the floating deck was not going to happen. I had help from my dad getting it together and leveled. It was definitely NOT perfect thanks to the boards being twisted and warped some – but in late April, the frame was finished. This deck is roughly 8×8 feet.
The deck boards on top were an early birthday present (May 22nd is my birthday). So by mid-May, the deck was finally finished! I moved the bench that was in the middle of my lower garden to the deck. I built this bench at the previous house with the intentions of staining it . . . one day.
I thought I had put the deck blocks on the right far enough back that you wouldn’t be able to see them, but being this deck sits on a slope, they were still visible. The picture below is July of this year.
In August, I knew I wanted to clean up the rest of the area around the deck and finally landscape it out. My dahlias seedlings were in the 2 raised beds in front of the deck, and each time I took pictures of the seedlings, I saw all the messiness behind them.
So at the end of August, I decided it was time to do something about it. This area is going to be challenging for a while because I have to deal with some honeysuckle, briars, and poison ivy that want to grow in this area. I finally established a walkway area through this garden, but I am not 100% sure how I am going to finish it. I don’t want to do just gravel because of all the leaves that will fall and get stuck in the gravels. I might do gravel with concrete, but it will be a gradual project rather than all at once because of the expense.
I am going to purchase some soil from a local landscape company to cover the boxes. They are there to suppress weeds (hopefully) and act as a mulch for the plants I want to plant in the area. I just hope I can dig holes big enough for the plants. This summer has been the absolute worst regarding lack of rain and drought, so I am guessing the ground is hard as a rock. ðŸ˜
The next thing that needed to be done was landscaping around the deck. I wanted to cover up the right side with something, but I was so undecided. I probably spent a week Googling various things to see what I’d like to do.
Flower boxes made with wood were not ideal because of carpenter ants and possible termites, but really there was nothing else I could conjure up that I liked. So I built planter boxes with scrap pieces of wood I had, along with a little bridge/step that comes in handy from either direction you step onto it.
I am going to line the inside with landscape fabric to help preserve the pressure-treated wood over time, and then they will be ready to fill with dirt once I get some. I will do a separate post to show a few more pictures on how I did the planter and steps.
As of right now, there isn’t much planted in the ground, but I have quite a few plants placed out for planting once I get the dirt to cover the cardboard, hopefully next week. We are having quite a cold spell (low yesterday and this morning around 33 F), but after Tuesday, Oct 22nd, our lows go back to high 40’s and into the 50’s. That will be a perfect time to plant out these perennials.
And so my list of perennials in this area will include the plants that I am planning to plant in the picture above.
- Astilbe – Chocolate Kiss (deck planter – for now)
- Azalea – Autumn Starburst (deck planter)
- Balloon Flower – Sentimental Blue
- Columbine – Clementine Blue
- Coral Bells – Primo Wild Rose
- Coral Bells – Dolce Toffee Tart (deck planter)
- Elephant Ears – jumbo variety
- Fern – Japanese Painted (deck planter)
- Gardenia – Kleim’s Hardy
- Geranium – Boom Chocolatta
- Geranium – Vision Pink
- Hostas – Autumn Frost / Dream Queen / Dream Weaver / Empress Wu / Lady Guinevere / Lakeside Little Tuft / SunHosta
- Hydrangea – Climbing (planting behind the deck)
- Hydrangea – Big Leaf variety (blue/pink)
- Hydrangea – Invincible Wee White
- Japanese Forest Grass – All Gold
- Lungwort – Shrimps on the Barbie
- Oxalis – Charmed Wine
- Siberian Bugloss – Jack Frost