This post, “Circle Garden” was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana
A few years back, when we had more trees and less sun, I decided to make a new garden in one of the few sunny spots around. So, in the early fall, I made a circle bed about ten feet across and filled it with all the plants that were doing poorly because of all the shade. I put in daylilies, Louisiana Irises, Madonna lilies, a camellia, and a rose bush. I was hoping that they would do better in new soil and sun, and I was not disappointed. They all immediately began to grow and thrive. I finally had some flowers besides impatients.
To make this bed, I dug up the grass, put in some amendments, layered garden soil on top of that and then worked it all in. This was hard work because of the clay soil we naturally have.
Then in the early winter, I added some daffodil bulbs, which did well. The following spring I put in some dahlias. Most of the plants were yellow, so I decided to make this garden mostly yellow. Since then I have added a yellow native azalea, and more yellow daylilies like Custard Candy, Stella d’Oro and a yellow La. Iris.
I also have some other colors beside yellow to prevent monotony. I plant some summer annuals that are white or a light pink, and there is also Plum Tree Daylily and Coral Nymph salvia. In the winter, I always put in some sort of yellow annual – pansies or snapdragons.
After about two years, I decided to add to outer half circles to the area. I placed them about two and a half feet from the circle. They are about two feet wide. In the front half circle, I planted Stella d’oro and Happy Returns daylilies, some small amaryllis, sea holly, and Mexican Bush Sage. The back circle was just finished when a friend dropped off about 18 large amaryllis bulbs. They were red, but I had no other place to put them so into this bed they went. Because very little is blooming when the amaryllis do, there is no clash of colors, and so this is where they have stayed. About a week after the amaryllis were dropped off, my husband came home from a fishing trip, and his buddy had given him some La. Irises. These too needed to be planted right away, so into the bed they went. They are a soft violet and even though other flowers bloom when they do, there is no clash of colors here either. Everything seems to blend nicely.
Here is a picture of half the circle garden I took recently. The pansies are giving some color, and the daffodils seem ready to open. I’m thinking about adding another set of half rings this fall. If I do, I know I will have to redo the entire garden to place the shorter plants to the outside. We’ll see how ambitious I am when September rolls around.
I know what I’ll be doing tomorrow – Planting daylilies.
