full sun gardening Uncategorized

Reshaping the kidney sun island bed

reshape Sun Garden

I have been busy at work with the 2022 mid-term election (I work in politics) and got double whammied this week with my Marketing Master’s Analytics final. It was the final final of my M.S. at the University of South Florida. Because of this, I couldn’t spend as much time as I wanted to devote on all the projects I had in mind.

Today, I get to finish up an area of the kidney-shaped sun garden bed near the antique well pump. It felt good to finally complete that area. I will continue to work my way around the back of the bed a little at a time.

digging up the sun garden bed to extend it.

Meanwhile, I also decided to clean up in front of the firebush. You see, the original plan had three gorgeous drift roses that bloom continuously and smell like heaven. So, I purchased three more when I expanded the right side of the bed for the antique well pump decor.

apricot drift roses

Well, one of the rules of design states that repetition in odd numbers is more appealing than even numbers. Since I have three bushes in the center, and three on the right, I feel compelled to plant three more on the left side. It simply looks off with two sets of three.

Since I was in a bed reshaping mindset, I tackled the left side too. I dug out all of the weeds in front of the blue agaves and the firebush and filled it with topsoil. (I actually love blue and orange plants together since the colors are complementary). In the process, I transplanted an agave pup that popped up too far outside of the bed.

blue agave and orange firebush… opposite colors on the color wheel

I also discovered that my firebush went to seed so I collected more than a handful and scattered them in various beds. Apparently, I read after the fact that in zone 9b, it’s too cold to plant them prior to winter and I should have done it in pots instead. Firebush seeds may be direct sown in zones 10 – 11. Of course, they also tell you to remove the flesh and dry the seeds out, but I’m a lazy gardener and also believe that nature knows how to handle itself.

firebush berries
firebush berries forming. the black ones are ripe.

Oh well. Ya live and ya learn.

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