I've had the most amazing day! I discovered a nearby plant/tree nursery called Blue River Nursery outside of Columbia City, Indiana. They don't ship plants and the owner, Sean, convinced me to visit. Today, we spent about 4 or 5 hours there.
It's an amazing place with acres of display gardens and
greenhouses. They grow everything on-site, and all perenials they sell are hardy for
zone 5 or colder. The owner is a master gardener and a great designer. He had me draw my two garden bed shapes on graph paper, list colors we liked, and pick out a list of full sun plants that we liked. Then we sat together in his office and he designed our
flower beds for us.. no charge. We are planting in 2 phases, because we have a lot of rock to move. So far we've bought the following plants.
Small bed with nasty hot dryer vent:
2 fountain grass ( pennisetum alopecuroides)
3 voodoo stonecrop sedum (sedum spurium)
the bed will have a big rock in the middle and an old water pump (painted yellow) (we already have these)
The large bed will have (for phase 1):
2 Rigoletto Maiden Grass (mmiscanthis sinensis)
1 Hibiscus Grenache- hot pink (hibiscus moscheutos)
3 Stokes Asters - Peachies Pick - blue (stikesia laevis)
3 Balloon
flowers - Sentimental Blue (platycodon)
3 Firewitch Garden Pinks (dianthus gratianopolitanus)
plus an old green water pump and a large cast iron kettle with annuals
Phase 2 will have blue sedum, columbine, liatris, and tall garden phlox or more asters.
We'll spend the weekend moving rocks and plant Monday. (It's going to be 99 degrees Tuesday, ugh)
I'm hoping to post before and after pics. Ugh, I'm too excited to sleep!
THAT is awesome!! I BET you are excited! I would be too! Please do post lots of pictures! I am going to watch this thread so I can see all your updates!! What fun!
Take care not to get sunburned and to stay adequately hydrated.. that heat can be serious.. especially when you are busy with your mind on other things.. :wink: