Keep on keepin on!

So...this darned flower bed!

With the torrential rains we had this spring, almost all of the soil we installed 2 years ago washed away.  My plantings of blanket flower from last year did not survive, so these plants are new.  However, the black eyed susans came back, but they look very spindly.

But I AM DETERMINED to make this work!

Back in early spring, I found and re-located some peony bushes from a horrible spot to the back of this bed, and they're struggling to get established.  Having all of the dirt washed away killed one of them.

The ornamental grasses are doing fine in the spot where that icky little atlas cedar tree was, but everything else, including the spring bulbs, is really having a hard time.  I got no daffodil blooms this year, and the tulips came up, but then got devastated by a wind storm that blew them flat to the ground.

It's been looking like crap, so yesterday, we purchased another 400 pounds of soil and RE-filled the bed with fresh soil.

I carefully spread the soil around the plants that are  in the bed, including the ones I planted this year (new canna plants included, since the bulbs I bought and planted last year were clearly "duds.)

Added a really great looking yellow cone flower plant, and some coleus that we picked up for CHEAP at an "end of season" sale.  Yeah, it's the end of the season here already because the intense heat is coming.

Now there are pretty, house-color-scheme matching coleus in the window box, scattered in the bed, and in the box at the end of the porch (along with some marigolds and a creeping phlox I put in this spring that I am not sure is going to survive).

It looks a LOT better today than it did yesterday morning, and I am amazed that I was out there working in 95 degree heat yesterday for 2 solid hours, and never got a head ache!

Maybe my days of heat related migraines, that started in my 30's, are over?  One can hope.

Anyway, there are some pics of the plants that are doing okay, and a shot Dave took of the whole bed after I watered everything in.

Fingers crossed!

Next step is to create some kind of barrier so that the rains won't wash this load of soil away.  We have a plan, all we need is the money to carry it out.  Some day.