FINALLY getting around to planting behind the house

[Nyboy]

Sure mary happy to send some surethey will do well for you PM me your address

 

[canesisters]

I could use some of yall's creative input.
One of my 'trashy buddies' came through the other day and 5 sections of old split rail fence 'fell' off his truck before he crossed the scale - which I, naturally, had to clean up...

The bottoms of the posts are pretty rotted so I won't be using this anywere that it would NEED to stand for a long time. I was thinking that it would be nice incorporated into the large planting behind the house. Any ideas???? I'd like to figure out how to put it somewhere IN the bed instead of around the outside.....

 

[Smart Red]

Pictures? The first thought I had was coming out from the house along the downspout. It seems my dog (cats, children, or chickens) knock the bottoms off the downspout. A short rail fence would keep the parts together and be a nice place for a low climbing clematis.

 

[digitS']

A mounded planting bed with a section of the rail fence . . .

I lived in an apartment for a year and had a double planter, on both sides of the rail, on my balcony. A bird feeder was hung above the balcony rail but I think a cute birdhouse would look better. I have a little log cabin birdhouse on my backyard fence.

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

If you can think of ways to use the rails that is not "fence"....
One time when my sis was visiting we built a trellis over the dining room window (south facing, hot spot in summer) out of pine saplings. Dh has since replaced it with one to match the picket fence, but I used one leg of the old pine one, leaned against a tree for a clematis to climb.

Maybe you could use the rails for a rustic arbor?

 

[canesisters]

Ahhhh... now that's an interesting idea.
I was googling around and saw where someone used the posts as a border - planting little creeping things in the rail holes....

 

[canesisters]

Update.
Handy Man Mike was out to look at the porch and he's sure that by using a lot of the bits & pieces of lumber I have laying around we should be able to rebuild the porch pretty much the way I wanted it and only have to buy the decking boards. Whoot!
We got drownt in this last storm so the last of the grass will be easier to dig up this weekend. Then … READY TO START PLANTING!!!

I’ve got the ‘bones’ ready to plant:
2 hydrangeas (used egg money to buy… so that means that the chickens bought me flowers for Mother’s Day – right? LOL)
1 mock orange
1 goats beard
8 azaleas
1 butterfly bush
3+ rose of sharrons

Got some things ready to start filling in around:
Various sizes/colors hostas
Lily of the valley
Various day lilies
Voodoo & creeping Jenny ground cover
Whatever else grabs my attention at the farmer’s market this afternoon… plus a couple of veggies to be tucked in

‘Hardscape’ planning/planned
8 giant stepping stones (to be decorated by friends/family over the summer)
Small fountain from a watering can


SO – who can help me out with the fountain? It’s pondless, and I have the basics – container in the ground with pump inside, grate over the top, decorative item for water to pour out, stones for water to ‘land’ on/drain through. It’s the details that get me.
The instructions say bury the container level with the surface of the soil. Won’t that let dirt wash in????
Nothing said about placement of the pump. Some pictures show it on a brick, some don’t. ???
Instructions say ‘big box or bucket’ for container….. Is there a specific way to tell HOW big a bucket?
Instructions say 65 gal/hour pump, but a later comment says that they had to upgrade the pump and doesn’t say what they upgraded it to.
Anything else that I don’t know enough to know that I don’t know????

 

[NwMtGardener]

I've discovered from building various ponds and decorative fountains that it's trial and error to get the water flow "right" - and "right" is just your own judgement of how you like it! I started out with a small pump, and it was too slow for my large pond - bought a bigger one, then we moved and I just make decorative fountains on our patio now in the summer so either the big or small pump, depending on how much water I want flowing. I usually hide my pump UNDER a rock or brick, but I've been using an old wash basin type tub for my "pond" so I don't have a screen over top with decorative stones, like is shown in your "idea picture." I think burying your container right level with the ground, or maybe just a tiny bit above the ground level is just fine - I wouldn't expect dirt to wash in, I guess.

Play around with the angle of your watering can fountain - tipping the end up or down a bit can change the way the water falls, making it more or less "musical" to your ear.

As far as bucket size, I'd say start with something small and see how much water your pump can push. The smaller pumps are pretty affordable, start with one of those and see how you like it, then spring for a bigger, spendier one if you want more flow. Actually, I'm not even sure you'd need a bigger bucket if you went to a bigger pump, all the pump is doing is circulating what water is there faster and more forcefully. Good luck!

 

[Jared77]

You can also hide the slightly raised edge with rocks. Anything will do. Maybe do some sort of wandering pathway with the pavers and let some sort of creeper fill in around them. Easy to keep up on. You can even use some kind of edging to help define where the creeper of choice ends and taller plants begin.

For example you could do the pavers and then plant say ajuga and let it fill in to the edging then line the edging on the other side with some hostas and you can plant taller plants behind that. Once it grows in the hostas would grow over the edging softening the look, and keeping both the ajuga & the hostas from fighting one another.

This also leaves the pavers open and in view for you as part of the design to enjoy rather than them just being places to "avoid stepping on a plant".

As NMG said it's trial and error. These things are a work in progress you'll get it where you want it.

 

[journey11]

It all sounds great, Cane! Can't wait to see it come together and the fountain sounds really cool too. I love, love, love hydrangeas. So many great cultivars on the market now, neat colors and bloom shapes. I bought a Pinkie Winkie last summer and now I NEED a Vanilla Strawberry to go with it. They bloom big even when they are tiny plants. What color of azaleas did you get?