Breathing Life Into an Old Garden

Do you have a garden bed that's in dire need of some resuscitation but not sure it's worth your time and effort?

Ok. So once a plant's dead - it's dead! There's nothing more you can do for it. But a garden bed - that's another story. We've...(I'm using the royal 'WE' here)....ok, my wife...just renovated a garden bed which runs along the dead side of the house. It's an awkward garden because it gets extreme shade and extreme sun; one part suffers from not getting enough water while the other gets water-logged every winter.

I know what you're thinking - pave it! That would be the easy solution but I'm not about to give up while there's still a chance. So we're....ok, you got me again...my wife...is trying a few different plants.

Deb fertilised the two beds with blood and bone and some rich cow manure and added watersaving crystals (mainly in the bed that gets the least amount of water). We previously had Mother-in-law tongues (you'd like these Marcus), Dusty Miller, Poached-Egg plants and some Jacobinia's. While this might have looked good in another bed it wasn't working in this one.

So we're keeping the Mother-in-laws (wise move!) and have planted some Celebration Border Alternanthus and moved the Creeping Jenny in front of it all. They're all very hardy plants and can sustain most of these extreme conditions. We'll post some photos if it works. If it doesn't - stay tuned for Breathing Life Into an Old Garden II.

Gardening Renovating Plants