Already I am so glad we raised the beds in the vegetable garden. It has been gently raining for about 36 hours straight now. We have clay soil with poor drainage, and in the past I would have looked out to my garden and seen it under giant puddles of water. with a few trickles of water carrying away all my seeds and soil amendments.
But not this year! All I see are my raised beds, with my sticks and strings and strings and soil all exactly where I left it.
Now I am on a mission: I want raised beds everywhere. I had some leftover castle block last fall from our retaining wall project, and I used it to build a flower bed on the side of our shed. Now I look out the window and I see the green grass, the white shed, the red brick, and the yellow daffodils nodding away. It's so cute.
One of my many dreams for the Prussian Green Money Pit is to save enough money to replace the rusty old chain-link fence with a simple wood fence, with raised beds along the perimeter of the lawn. I could put in hostas, azaleas, daylilies (like the big pink and white "Stargazer" lilies; some people think they're tacky but I really like them....) I'd love to raise a bed along the outside wall of our carport and plant lilacs.
Once I get all these beds built and filled, I will be able to consult Erik's Gardening in Hell post for hints on what not to plant in them.
Stay away from roses. They hate not draining properly. A friend of mine is trying roses on a clay-ish bed planted with hydrangeas. He figures the hydrangeas will drink up all the excess moisture. I remain unconvinced. We're prone to draught here anyway and I still can't control the blackspot. >sigh
Daylilies are EZ and foolproof! At least "Stella D'Oro" yellow ones are.
We'll see about "Olivia" white ones--no sign of them yet in my garden--also no sign yet of my Crown Imperials!
I wonder if you and I have really different taste in plants. I might have had those lilies or something like them in my wedding bouquet. I thought they were huge and dominated everything, but I just kind of took the path of least resistance with a lot of wedding planning. And we got rid of the plants out front because not only did the flowers seem to live for a sadly short time, but they were these big purple flowers on a big-leaved bush and I don't like big :)
My mother has rosebushes in the backyard that bloom in about a thousand little dark red flowers in the spring, and don't live all that long, but I think they're the loveliest... in the front she has a rosebush that produces for much longer, but has a few big pink roses at a time, and it's just "ehh" to me. They're pretty as buds, big and blowzy in full bloom :) But I think some people think they're beautiful, and I'm not saying they have bad taste, I'm just very particular about plants.
Oh and I like cute little cacti too.
I am a glutton - a flower pig. There are very few I can say no to (although not a real fan of tropicals) and as a result, my gardens look a lot like a Lexington Ave. express during rush hour. Overpacked.
But do try for lilacs. They make great cuttings for indoors and there's somthing heavenly about their scent. One variety that I grow, I believe it's "Miss Kim", is a smaller lilac that blooms much later than most, extending your blossom time. Bliss.
Peony,
Dont know if you've seen this site or not, but it's pretty nifty for gardeners of the Catholic Persuasion. http://www.mgardens.org/index.html