the early garden
april & may 2002 garage bed

these are the poor suffering plants that were the first to go in much too early (april) and after having their roots almost completely dried out by well-intentioned me after receiving them mail order. from there, I proceeded to water them to a ridulous level for weeks as they experienced intense transplant shock after planting. as they slowly began to recover, the temperature in chicago went back down to a healthy forty degrees farenheit at which point we were sure they would die.

we are shocked that they are still alive but let that be a testament to the hardiness of these plants (Rudbeckia fulgida and Echinacea purpurea).

this area drains marginally well although it is more moist than the rear bed. for that reason we planted the swamp milkweed and gave it a bit more shade - we'll see how they do. we didn't realize that they were a swamp plant until after we had already purchased them and then scrambled to find somewhere to put them. had we waited we could have planted them near our pond (not built yet).

we didn't prepare this bed as well as others because we knew less (it was the first one we planted). we tilled it a bit and amended it a bit but probably could have done twice as much of both. the bed gets exactly five hours of direct morning sun (east facing), from 730am - 130pm and some dappled shade from about 130pm - 230pm.

2002 april before planting	2002 april before planting
2002 may 3 garage	2002 may 3 rear
2002 may 27 garage added Andropogon scoparius, Ceanothus Americanus & Asclepias incarnata	2002 may 27 garage

{ back to the garden's first season - april & may }