The Death Bed. Look, there's a new Tetrapanax pup!

My Pirate will begin planting The Death Bed tomorrow with his new plants. So, I thought that I'd introduce you to the place where plants used to suffer and DIE a slow agonizing death in our garden.

The Death Bed in April 2007.

The Death Bed is the flower bed in front of the neighbors fence on the East side of our lot. It's on the left side of the picture. There was row of sickly looking shrubs that I ripped out.

If you look past My Victory Garden you'll see that there are a few whisps of Heavenly Bamboo trying to grow in the bed. When Heavenly Bambo fails to thrive, you know that there is a problem.

The Death Bed, April 2011

In April 2011, a spare euphorbia and wild rose were barely holding onto life in front of the failing Heavenly Bamboo. After taking these pictures, I simply had it with the bed. So, I went into research mode and found strong hardy plants that could tolerate shade and sun and many different types of soil conditions. And I was smart enough to buy them at Tsugawas Nursery with a one year warranty, because I was skeptical that they would survive the winter.

As I started digging my first deep hole for a new plant my shovel hit black plastic. And much to my surprise there was a whole sheet of black plastic, two feet down in the bed. I was thrilled to find the problem, but furious with the moron that put it there. We ripped out as much of the black plastic as we could and used a pitch fork to punch holes in other areas. Then we over-planted the bed. And the next spring everything returned!

The Death Bed, June 2011

Then, one rainy spring morning, Comcast workers came to dig in a new cable line for us. Guess where they dug? Yup, right underneath the new plantings in The Death Bed. I wanted to cry as they dug a deep trench with clam shovels and lifted plants out. But they did put everything back. And all of the plants survived the ordeal.

So, now The Death Bed is crowded and needs to be reworked. I'm looking forward to seeing what My Pirate plants. Let the adventure begin. Do you have any suggestions and/or advice for him? He's on the prowl for cool plants!

Note: I hope that you like the new blog format and the comment feature is working now! I'd love to hear from you. Please let me know if the comment feature glitches. Thanks!

The Humming Gardener