Planter boxes and Wildflowers

When my neighbor removed a 30 plus year old Mulberry tree (Morus spp.), I suddenly had sun in a corner of my yard. This motivated me to remove two shrubs and clean up that corner. Because of the tree’s size, I had a lot of big roots that had invaded my yard and would be very costly to have them completely removed.  So instead, I decided to have planter boxes made and planted them with, Gaura, Gerber daisy (Gerbera jamesonii), bee balm (Mondarda spp.), dwarf lavender (Lavendula spp.) and Geum, cone flower plants that bees, butterflies and hummingbirds would be attracted to.  But I still had the spaces behind the boxes to deal with. The soil was scratched up and a packet of wildflowers seeds were scattered behind the boxes, then a light cover of potting soil was put on top of the seeds.  In the mix were nasturtiums, clarkia, and Bells of Ireland.

Spring came and so did the nasturtiums (Tropaealum majus) which really filled in the space with blossoms of orange, pale yellow with touches of red and bright yellow with red spots, and a few white ones here and there. There was also Clarkia, Onagraceae, one of the plants blossom is bright pink, and the other is rose with pink strips. Bells of Ireland, Moluccella laevis pushed their way thru the nasturtium’s to stand tall with their bright green whorls. A Rocket Larkspur (Delphinium ajacis). in a bright blue-purple color.

So now I have color in a part of my yard that once was shade and a forgotten corner. What a difference, it even makes the yard appear larger.

Nasturtium (photos by Betty Victor)

Blue of rocket larkspur, the green of the Bells of Ireland (see right) and the pink Clarkia.

Read more