Garden Pic Wednesday: Spring Beds!

I was working on a "first" mow today to pick up leaves and pine needles before applying weed & feed, so it can penetrate the dirt.

Actually, the lawn mower can't do it alone--I had to get the flat rake out and mound the needles--then the mower can pick them up.

Only got 1/3 of the back done today. It was chilly, too. High today was 56 and tonight upper 30's.

Today's Garden Pic's views of the new Hydrangea bed and other front beds I've gotten mulched so far.

In the deep South, where it gets so hot and dry during summer, mulching helps keep the moisture in and tenacious weeds out.

Periodically, the beds need a good layer of wood mulch, which makes grass and leaf clippings I add more effective.

The New Hydrangea bed

The bits of green in the middle are Easter lilies. This area is directly opposite the Holly Tree in the next picture.

Front Corner Bed

The sidewalk and driveway form a right-angle and that right angle is filled with blocks, then this bed. You can see my young Oakland Holly there in front and the container garden in the middle. It sits on a wide pine-tree stump.

Front Side Bed:

This bed is actually on the opposite of our car in the picture above.

The shrubs belong to the neighbor, but the mulched beds are mine.

The trick to having an extensive number of flower beds is to make them as self-maintaining as possible with perennial plants and bulbs that will come back year have year and even spread themselves accented with annuals & herbs that are good at self-seeding.