Full Sun

Just two little words found on the label of beautiful plants and flowers, indicating that they need 8 hours of sun per day to thrive.  Two little words that always leave me feeling disappointed.  Because here at the Horvath House, we don’t have much full sun.  We have full sun in fall and winter, sure, but these plants are sun loving summer flowers.  And I want them!  But our only full sun flower bed is this:

Yep, that’s it for sun-drenched flower living space.  Just that sad little disfigured pear-shaped flower bed which I’ve stuffed full of spring bulbs and summer perennials.  We’ve been planning to expand this particular bed for a while now.  This past weekend, we decided the time had come!  We had a truck full of mulch to back up our plans and some brand new full sun plants just aching for a place to live!  So, we got straight to work on Saturday morning.

First, I used spray paint to mark the lines of our new bed.  It took a bit of tweaking to get the shape right, so it didn’t feel too large or too small.  I figured we’d just expand over to the corner at the driveway to make the bed feel grounded and thought out instead of being a shape created to link the mailbox and the butterfly bush.  Exhibit A from 2009:

Once we’d decided on our new boundary, Mama and I started cutting out the layer of sod.  We rearranged the rock border and added a few more rocks to edge the space.  Then we filled it in with fresh mulch.  Next, I rearranged all the plants that were in the original bed and expanded them into the new space.  And lastly, we added our new full sun specimens.  It took us less than three hours from start to finish and then we were on our way to the next project of the day.  Being the impatient gardener that I am, I forgot to take pictures of the process.  So you can just imagine all those parts and we’ll skip to the afters!

That big empty space is the future home of my tomato plants!  Because we all know that tomatoes are full sun lovers!

We added lantana and impatiens from last year’s potted plants.  They are still making their comeback from overwintering in my parent’s sunny garage.  I’ll be sure to update you on the progress.  The new pink flower in the center is a knock-out rose.  I have been wanting one of these for a while now, and I’m so excited to watch it grow!  Hopefully it likes it here in this sunny corner of our yard. 

Here’s your side by side comparison:

There’s more in store for this full sun flower bed.  We ran out of steam for digging up sod this past weekend, but we plan to expand the bed on the left side of the mailbox later this summer.  Then we will have even more room for sun loving plants.  Don’t worry, I’ll keep you posted. :)  For now, I am loving my new flower bed and I can’t wait to fill it in with more of those beautiful flowers I have been longing for!