Avant Garden s14
by Derek Fell
When people ask me about planting a flower garden I generally advise on starting with a perennial garden because perennial plants can be chosen to give a big bang for the buck in late spring, following the extravagant displays of daffodils and tulips. Also, by choosing long-stemmed varieties like peonies and garden lilies, a mixed border can also provide armloads of fresh flowers for indoor arrangements at a fraction of the cost of buying florist flowers.
At Cedaridge Farm we have several kidney-shaped island beds where we concentrate spring-flowering perennials so they can be admired from the kitchen window. Since our soil is heavy clay, like most soils in Bucks County, we started by outlining our island beds with a garden hose. We then dug up the indigenous soil and placed it on a tarp, mixing in generous amounts of garden compost, bales of peat moss and well-decomposed leaves as well as some sand. For us, a good formula is a third indigenous clay soil, a third compost, peat and leaf mold and a third sand, provided the right mix so we ended up with a raised bed with good drainage.