I had been unhappy with the way our island bed was looking this summer. It was surrounded by a single course of landscape stone and I was forever having to pull up the St. Augustine that was poking up between the stones that the edger couldn't get to. In addition, because we had originally laid the stones directly on the grass when creating the bed using a sort of modified "lasagna" method, as the grass underneath had died off, so the stones had sunk.
Evenutally, the stones almost seemed buried in the grass, and didn't present the nice edging that I envisioned for the bed.
So a couple of weeks ago, as I cast a disapproving eye over the mess the back garden had become, somewhere in the gloomy recesses of my mind, a lightbulb went on and I had an idea.
Why not recycle those stones and use them to start adding a second course of stone on to the island bed?
So that's what I did. I'm thrilled with the result. Even though it's not finished (need to make a trip or two to Lowe's to pick up more stones) it just makes the bed look complete. I'm still dealing with bermuda grass coming up all over, but at least the St. Augustine isn't sticking up between all the stones like it was before. Also, even when the lawn needs mowing, you can still see the stone border, instead of it being buried in the grass.
I keep finding myself walking around it, looking at it from all angles and admiring my work, lol.
Why I didn't think of making it two rows high in the first place, I have no idea. Now I just need to get more landscape stones to finish it off.
I love it when my "bright ideas" work out right :-)
Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.
7 comments:
Hi Jayne, I didn't see anything wrong with the bed before, but when I saw the change, it did look better. If it makes upkeep easier, then that's an added bonus. Good thinking!
You asked about how I keep the butterfly bush blooming. I deadhead it. I've done it twice this year. I didn't get the ones I have across the street deadheaded, and they have a bunch of dark, dried flowers on them. I may try to cut them off, but am afraid it will be very spindly and much shorter.
Thank Sue. I'll have to get out and do some deadheading/pruning on the butterfly bush. It's getting tall and scraggly anyway and could use a trim :-)
I love finding new uses for things in the garden or finding ways to rearrange things in a more pleasing manner - to me. It is very satisfying, isn't it?
Great idea and great blog !
Thanks Randy - I'll all for saving some money!
The new layer of re-purposed stone really creates a presence out of your island...nice.
Everyone of us must act now before it is too late...many ways to reduce our waste. Today, each residents can now recycle glass and a wider range of plastic materials in their blue bins, including plastic bags, plastic trays such as those in which supermarkets sell food and fruit, yoghurt pots and hard plastics, such as small toys.”
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