Ever since we moved into our home about 10 years ago, I’ve wanted to plant a a sunny perennial flower garden on the south side of my home. That side gets plenty of sun, offers some privacy and sits just under our living room window. If I planted a flower garden there, I figured, my family and I could just look out the window and look at the beautiful flowers.
Several years went past, and my sunny perennial flower garden didn’t materialize. After all, starting a new garden is a lot of work! There is sod to be removed, soil to amend/improve, flowers to plant and mulch to be applied.
I’ve always loved how gardens and flowers can turn an average house and yard into a beautiful home. For instance, take a look at house Carlene of Organized Clutter’s perennial garden really added some beauty to her front yard! If she posted a garden plan, I would definitely plant that garden! I also really love her front flower border, which was featured in Flea Market Gardens magazine. I’d like to add a garden like that to my front yard!
Planting a Sunny Perennial Garden
This spring, I finally got started on my gsunny perennial flower arden. My husband took care of getting rid of the grass for me, and I planted some lilies, garden phlox, “Raspberry Surprise” dianthus and Cheddar Pinks [Dianthus gratianopolitanus ‘Firewitch’ (‘Feuerhexe’)].
My garden didn’t look like much at first, because it was surrounded by dry, dead grass. But then, I got to work removing that grass, added some topsoil and spread 15 bags of mulch across the top of my garden. It was a lot of work!
Thank goodness a helpful salesperson loaded all 15 bags for me onto my cart, and into my car. Otherwise, I don’t know if I would have been able to get all the mulch home! LOL.
Spring and Summer Garden
Of course the “real feel” temperature the day I bought, unloaded and spread the mulch had a “real feel” temperature of over 100 degrees fahrenheit. But I was determined to get the job done that day, so I wasn’t going to let anything get in my way! I can be ridiculously super focused that way! At least I made sure that I stayed hydrated, and drank LOTS of water while I worked.
But I have to say that I love, love, LOVE! the way my garden looks now, and am so glad that I put the sweat equity into it! What do you think?
Golden Sunflowers
Even though they haven’t bloomed yet, I am especially in love with the sunflowers I planted. I planted several seed packets worth of sunflowers, but only two are growing. They are very tall, however, and once they bloom, my daughters and I will be able to see them from our living room window — a big plus! Another benefit is that I’ve already seen a beautiful yellow butterfly fluttering around the garden. Lovely! This is a closeup of the sunflowers. I hope they bloom soon!
I have at least two different varieties of lilies in the garden. I have these orange and yellow lilies …
But my favorite lilies are the Stella D’Oro lilies. They have been providing consistent color throughout the spring and summer!
Until this summer, I wasn’t really acquainted with phlox, but now that I have some, I love them! I only put them in a few weeks ago, but they have been providing consistent color. I have some phlox in purple and white.
I’ve read that phlox attract butterflies, so I hope that is true!
More Coming Soon!
I recently made a really easy and inexpensive bird bath for the garden, so I will take pics of the bird bath and share it with you here on the blog soon! I also have a new great red cardinal flower from a friend (thanks, Sue!), so I will have to get some photos of that, too!
I might also work on creating a perennial border under the trees and shrubs at the rear of my home’s backyard — maybe something like Christy at Confessions of a Serial DIYer did. I will keep you posted!
Happy gardening!
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