Mary gardens in Zone 6a on what she calls her “Imperfect Acre.” She likes to celebrate gardening with all the flaws and to remind everyone that a garden doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful and to bring you a lot of joy.
Annuals are a great way to bring a lot of easy-to-care-for beauty to the garden. This trio is made up of Petunia ‘Supertunia Bordeaux’ (Zones 9–11 or as an annual), ‘Vino’ coleus (Coleus scutellarioides ‘Vino’, Zones 9–11 or as an annual), and a yellow-leaved sweet potato vine (Ipomoea batatas, Zones 9–11 or as an annual or tender bulb).
Mary is adding a new flower bed to the garden. She began by planting her largest plant, a hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens, Zones 3–9), and then covering the area with cardboard. The cardboard will smother out the grass and weeds so she doesn’t have to dig them out.
Mary placed about 2 inches of compost on top of the cardboard, planted small plants directly into the compost, and covered the area with a layer of mulch. A lot of people recommend waiting a while before planting so that the cardboard has time to break down, but Mary just planted right away.
And here is that bed all filled in! It looks pretty fantastic.
A gorgeous delphinium (Delphinium elatum, Zones 4–8). It’s hard to beat delphiniums for those dramatic spires of true-blue flowers.
Foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea, Zones 3–8) are biennials, meaning they grow leaves their first year and then shoot up, flower, and die their second year. But if you don’t mulch too thickly they’ll often self-sow, so you’ll have them around every year.
This fountain is a beautiful centerpiece to the garden and fills it with the sound of running water.
‘Nitty Gritty Peach’ rose glows in the morning sun.
Hibiscus ‘Summerific Cherry Choco Latte’ (Zones 5–9) show off with massive flowers in July.
If you want to see more from Mary’s garden, check out her Instagram: @the_imperfect_acre
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