Greenthumb: A Sunny Garden Bed

There are many places that need attention in our yard - our perimeter is nearly a blank canvas, aside from the shade garden that we planted this past weekend.  I'd love to plant large flowering shrubs and evergreen perennials all around it, but I'd also really not like to spend a million dollars in the process.  I'm pretty much a newbie when it comes to landscape design and I tend to fly by the seat of my pants rather than plan anything out so spending more than I'd like is always a problem.  Sticking to an actual garden plan like these would be helpful, but I'm just not organized enough to remember to bring the plan to the nursery with me.  So, I buy what I like and what I think will work which is exactly what I did for this sunny garden bed on the west side of our yard.

Once again, Josh helped by clearing out the flower bed from grass, weeds and bamboo while I lounged around soaking in some much needed vitamin D.  After he was finished, I laid out the plants where I thought they'd look best and started planting.  There were already two clematis plants growing, which I planted last year so I worked around those.  I thought I had killed the clematis when I forgot to water them for two weeks last summer, but I was happily surprised when I saw them full of life.


At each end of the flower bed, I planted the california lilac shrubs and planted the blue fescue grass and salvia, which I pilfered from another bed, in between.  I also planted sunflowers, seeds from my grandma & grandpas garden, along the fence and finished the bed off with a dark brown mulch. The bed still needs to be edged but I need to go on a hunt for river rocks, first.  I'm hoping things will grow soon so I will know what I need to add to get that full and slightly crowded look I love, but I'm sure I just need to be patient....something that I'm not.

With this sunny bed complete...for now...I added a couple more plants, hellebores and coral bells to our sunny flower bed by our arbor which already includes salvia, lavender, viburnum tinus shrub, climbing hydrangea and some kind of white flowered ground cover.  Things seem to be doing pretty well in this area, but I still need to add some soil and mulch to finish it off, plus edge it with river rocks, of course.

Just like the shady garden, have any tips or go-to plants for a sunny flower bed?