pole bed update

I spent a couple of hours outside this morning after the fog lifted working on my pole bed.  I had kitten help as usual.   I finally had all of the front part dug out and picked through.  As I worked I pinned the sweet autumn clematis back to work on the area under it.  Then I let it fall back over the bare soil to keep the kittens and chickens from digging in the loose soil. 

 I planted my yellow tree rose in the front center.  I usually bring it inside on the unheated porch every winter but it always leafs out too early, gets leggy and soft and then really has to adjust when put outside.  So this winter I will try to winter it over outside.  I also dug up a piece of a shrub rose that always gets buried in daylilies and ferns in the summer and never blooms well and transplanted it so that it is in front of the tree rose.  It is a pink rose if I remember correctly. 

I had some plants in pots that I added in various spots. I added an anchusa in the back center area, a pink hibiscus on one side, some pretty ground cover sedum and some hens and chicks on the south edge.  I planted some dwarf iris in one front corner and I dug up a pink iris from my wildflower bed and added that.   I planted a lungswort and some wild geraniums under the catalpa tree.  I cut off the lower limbs of the catalpa but there will still be some shade there.

After the larger plants were in I concentrated on replanting the daffodil bulbs I dug out and that was a real task.  I literally have hundreds of bulbs of all sizes.  In the spring the daffodils would almost cover that bed.  I grouped them in clumps of 3 or 5 bulbs to make a nice display but I want to leave planting spots for additional plants in the spring.  I still have a 10 inch hanging basket and a 2 gallon bucket of bulbs to find homes for. 

 I watered everything good because it is so dry.  I then put black plastic pots upside down in areas I couldn’t cover with the sweet autumn clematis in hopes that the areas won’t get turned into a dust bath or potty holes.  Tonight if it doesn’t rain I will concentrate on planting those daffodils in other places in the yard.  I wish tulips multiplied like that.