Garden Islands

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A short path creates the thought of a destination, in my case, a birdbath.

Lessons From Carol Bale
Written by Carol

One of the gardening items I mentioned I was most proud of in the March, Plants Add Happiness article about me, was the brick garden island I built in my front yard. Lisa and I thought you might like to know a few of the lessons I gained from this experience.

A very scraggy and nearly dead pine tree once occupied this area. At some point, maybe ten years ago it had been a valued evergreen to the landscape. However it's time had passed and I want to create more of an impression in my front lawn that would welcome friends and neighbors.

Lessons learned in building a garden island:
1.Have the tree stump removed when you have the tree taken down. It worked for me to do both at the same time.

2.Shop for the bricks, pavers or whatever you want to use to build the island. By looking around a bit I found the type I wanted which were wide, deep and somewhat heavy pavers so I could sit on them when working in this garden and not worry about them tipping over.

3.Measure once, measure twice and then still buy a few extra bricks or pavers.

4.The thing I try to skip on that proved to be a bad idea was thinking the pavers didn't need to be fully level………….so wrong.

5.SPEND the time making the pavers level. Once it become uneven, you cannot make it up later.

6.Do use packing/leveling sand under the pavers to stabilize them.

7.Once the island is made, have it filled with good garden soil not top soil. That was the second biggest mistake I made. Top soil is just too heavy to work with. Once I removed half of it and blended the remaining top soil with garden soil, planting went much easier and the plants did better.

8.Day dream a bit whether or not you like a short path in your island garden to showcase sculpture or statuary.

9.Depending on the light the island receives plan a combination of annuals and perennials that will do best in those light conditions.

10.Last two items. Raised island gardens warm up sooner in the spring so even though your plants will get off to great start in the spring, you'll still need to cover them if a heavy frost warning is issued.

11.Mulch your plants, not only is it a good idea for retaining moisture, but raised garden beds can be more susceptible to drying winds.