PROCTOR: Expand your borders, upsize your beds

By Rob Proctor, Special to the Rocky

Published April 10, 2008 at 7 p.m.

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whatever you want to call them - are too small. Whether they're beds, which implies they're for annual "bedding" plants, or borders, which generally hold perennials, they usually need enlarging. Now's the time.

Most beds and borders seem to be shallow strips of vegetation encircling the house, like parsley around a turkey.

Or they're thin strips running down the side of the driveway or up the front-door walkway. In the backyard, there are more thin strips running along the fence, often guarded by plastic fencing presumably meant to stop soccer balls or frolicking pets.

There's not much you, I or anyone else can do with a thin strip. You can line up some rose bushes or irises - which is usually the case - and, despite your efforts, come up with little effect. An effective bed or border requires space.

To achieve drama, complexity and seasonlong interest, a 4-foot depth is the minimum as far as I'm concerned. And I'm concerned that even that isn't enough. My borders are 7 feet deep at a minimum; some much deeper.

Within them, I can build from ground- hugging perennials such as creeping phlox and thyme up to towering perennials such as giant sea kale and hollyhocks. And this is the place for shrubs as well, such as butterfly bush, spirea, quince and shrub roses.

If the border has a backing, such as a fence, it's just a matter of placing the plants by height. The fence itself provides a canvas for climbers. You can start with 6-inch-high plants at the front, scaling up to 6 feet or more. In a narrow strip, you don't have an opportunity to stair-step like that.

If I've convinced you that your borders aren't deep enough, what do you do next? Some people have told me that they have gradually expanded their beds over the years by encroaching on the lawn their spouse maintains. They claim only 6 inches or so a year. This seems like an eternity to achieve a border 4 feet in depth. And should gardens be built by deception? Don't risk the toll this could take on your relationship. If you can't be honest about the flower bed, what else are you hiding?

Just convince the lord or lady of the lawn that the Broncos are never coming over for a scrimmage. Who needs all that lawn, anyway? And by reducing the size of the turf, you'll save on gas for the mower and reduce emissions, thereby saving money at the pump as well as saving the entire planet. No one could possibly argue with this.

So build a bigger border. Kill that lawn.

Spray Roundup or a similar, safe weed killer on the site for the new border. Do this on a warm, still afternoon. The grass will be dead in a week; touch up spots you missed. Just make sure it's good and dead. Within as little as a week, you can plant directly in the old, dead turf. Roundup doesn't linger in the soil, so it's safe to plant there.

The decaying foliage and roots will break down and nourish the new plants, as well as holding the soil together. And you won't unearth a plague of dormant weed seeds that have been waiting for an opportunity like this.

If money isn't an object, you can hit the nurseries and clean them out. For the rest of us, it's like making a patchwork quilt. You probably have irises and daylilies that need division. Tiny yearling perennials, costing only a few dollars a pot, will grow into their full glory in just a year or two. Perennial seed is even cheaper if you have the patience.

If your border turns out much bigger than your budget, you can fill the biggest border for about $20. Sow seed of easy annuals such as California poppies, bachelor buttons, larkspur, Shirley poppies, marigolds and cosmos. Your border will be full and colorful this season. You can continue to add shrubs and perennials as your pocketbook and providence provide.

You might hint around to neighbors and co-workers that you've just embarked on a grand new project. Draw the line, however, at accepting donations of mint, vinca and snow-on- the-mountain.

And if they're all too eager to give you a whopping clump of "bluebell," accept it if you must but send it straight to the Dumpster. That's cancer-of-the-garden, officially known as Campanula rapunculoides, a pernicious weed with its sights set on world domination.

Your new border is only a stepping stone. The rest of the lawn is next, then the entire city of Greeley. Create the border of your dreams, not nightmares.

Rob Proctor's book, Gardening on a Shoestring, is available in bookstores.

Rob's to-do list

* Plant lilies, potatoes, asparagus, onions and rhubarb.

* Indoors, pot up tubers of dahlias, rhizomes of cannas, and other bulbous plants such as pineapple lilies and elephant ears.

* Plant hardened-off shrubs, vines and trees.

* Go ahead and prune roses. You know you want to.

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