Something bigger - Part 2

After installing the path, I started slowly trying to fill the space. This task quickly began feeling a bit overwhelming. I'm not a person who can plan the whole area and buy all of the plants at once, so I did it gradually.

What we found under the concrete pad was mostly clay. That's generally how it is around here. There is a lot of clay underground, and fill dirt invariably ends up being mostly clay. While I probably should've put in the effort to add large amounts of organic matter to the area, I decided instead to do that gradually and concentrate on finding plants that could tolerate the clay.

I threw down a few bags of compost, planted some of the area with annual rye grass just to get something growing, and began working on perennials.

Seeing that the slope had eroded in the time since I installed the path, I also decided to use some of The Rocks along the path to hopefully mitigate that problem.

One of the first things I did was move some hostas from other areas of the yard. Since the area is on the east side of the house, with several trees providing partial shade, I thought they would do well here.

I couldn't have been more wrong. They all shriveled up and disappeared before summer was over. Maybe too much sun, maybe bad soil, maybe not enough water. As far as I'm concerned, they were free so I'm not out anything, and at least their decomposing parts may help improve the soil.

I also set up the rain barrel at the end of the garage. Lots of issues with it this year, but I did have a supply of water for the new plants and the deck plants for a portion of the summer.

Unfortunately, the spigot leaked, and dummy me put the downspout together backwards (bottom into top instead of top into bottom) so a lot of water poured onto the ground instead of running into the barrel. Both of those issues are fixable, so next year should be a better rain barrel year.

During the course of the summer, I planted 20+ perennials in the area and many more annuals. The annuals included zinnias, snapdragons, moss roses, cosmos, and calendula.

They all helped fill the space, but the zinnias were outstanding. They're the orange bunch in the middle above.

The perennials were monarda, gallardia, helenium, coreopsis, and some type of sedum.

I added an Annabelle hydrangea in the back. It's the lone plant on the other side of the bricks in the above photo. The bricks were helping keep the mulch from running down the hill.

Late in the summer, I transplanted some purple salvia from another area of the yard. I think that's them to the left of the hydrangea, but those could also be weeds. I also added a golden rod I found at the garden center, which I never took a picture of.

I did a couple other things with this area, but I didn't take pictures of them at the time, so I'll have to try to get some pictures and post them later.