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Having fun with my new perennial bed

Hello, all.

I am putting in a new garden bed and oh boy am I having fun.  

At the front of our house we share a strip of grass with a neighbour and it's
always been a pain to mow - I mean, do we mow their grass? Do we just mow ours
and then ignore the inevitable "layered" look?  Better idea: dispense with the
grass altogether! A few weeks ago, my husband and I had the family cottage to
ourselves for the weekend.  Bliss!  Instead of burying myself in a few novels,
as I usually do, I buried myself in gardening books and catalogues.  At the
end of the weekend, I had planned my new perennial bed, as well as the "new
look" for all the existing ones. 

Saturday, I spent three hours digging up turf from the 20x6 foot strip.  Many
wheelbarrow loads later, my compost heap was "maxed out".  This is the
bottleneck that will prevent in any further garden bed expansion this year. 
My mother later said to me "Why didn't you just turn the turf over in place?" 
Hmmm.  Maybe there are a few other borders I can expand.

Sunday, I bid farewell to the cosmos, cleome and portulaca that had graced the
little fringe of garden already in existance and then dug in 3 yards of
topsoil and sheep manure.  In the process, I found about 15 bulbs of various
descriptions from last Autumn's hap-hazard planting.  I'll replant those that
look viable with a stake labelled "Surprise!"  I placed a line of red bricks
as a mowing edge between the neighbour's grass and my lovely new garden. The
front walkway borders the other side.  I think it looked quite smart even
without plants!

Surveying the lovely "blank page" of my new garden, I checked my watch and
decided I could squeeze in a few plantings before I had to run inside to have
a shower, make a salad and get ready for a family dinner.  Ian (my husband)
hadn't even come out to nervously remind me of these necessities yet.

In went the irises and 2 frivolous frittilaria imperialis (don't let Ian know
how much those 2 bulbs cost!). I dug up the indestructable ajuga reptans from 
 what is soon to be my heather garden and planted it along the edge of the
sidewalk.  I figured it's the plant most likely to survive a winter of being
bashed and bruised by salt and sidewalk plows and a summer of ruined soil and
sidewalk heat as well as a few careless feet.  I've never been able to kill it
yet.

Monday, last night, in the last hour of light I was out again adding dianthus,
candytuft and artemisia "silver mound".  I still can't believe how hard it was
to dig out that overgrown clump of candytuft and divide it into three pieces -
that was more of a chore than raking and digging in all the topsoil.  At eight
o'clock, I'd watered my new plantings and decided it was too dark to see. 
Besides, my husband was kindly waiting to eat dinner until I returned! 

Tonight, I'll consult my "master plan" again and bring a few more plants to
their new abode.  I'll leave the "fall bloomers" until the last possible
minute - I don't want to upset my lovely sedums, asters and heliopsis.  

Oh joy is a garden!  Already I dream of sitting on the covered front porch on
a hot summer's day, seeing daisies and coreopsis or gladiolas and delphiniums
waving gently in the breeze.  Of course it'll never happen.  I'll sit still
for five minutes and then I'll be in the garden pruning, weeding...

Happy gardening, all!

-Sheila
Ottawa, Canada (Zone 4/5)
------------------------------------
Someday I will burst my bud of calm
   And blossom into hysteria
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