I haven't showed this little garden yet in its entirety. The garden is still incomplete and you really can't see the effect I'm looking for yet but here's a glimpse at our sedum garden in March. Between our driveway/garage area and the front sidewalk there was a small wedge of dirt. There used to be an evergreen in this location but bagworms decided lunch was more important than the aesthetics of the garden. It's funny how they can be so selfish to put their own well being above that of my plants. It was also a little bit of a problem spot since the gutter aims right into the bed which would make it hard for plants to dry out during the winter when you don't want them too wet and hard for them to get water in the summer when there wasn't any falling from the clouds.
To solve this problem I did a couple things.
- Connected a perforated drain pipe to the gutter and aimed it toward the driveway and the rain garden across the pavement. This now removes the extra water for the bed while still watering the area.
- Removed all the weeds and dead plant material, tree included.
- Covered with newspapers and mulched.
- Added as many sedums as I could.
The sedums were the perfect choice for the area. They are extremely drought tolerant, easy to grow and maintain, propagate easily, and look really cool! As the sedums grow I pinch off whole branches and just stick them where I want them. This "pinch and stick" technique has multiplied the sedums significantly. It works especially well with the 'Blue Spruce' sedum and the 'Dragon's Blood' sedum. It's hard to see from the picture but there are several sprigs of sedums in the bare spots that have just recently been planted. For the 'Autumn Joy' sedums I used the cutting in a water jar method and for my mystery sedum I used both of the methods above. I have sedum acre but haven't planted it as I am fearing a complete take over.
Labels: garden design, perennial, sedum
