Hey friends today on Gardening with Creekside we are going to have some fun playing and cleaning
up the Shea Garden behind me it is an absolutely gorgeous day here in North Carolina we're going to
hit close to 70. the birds are singing basically we have a little bit of cloud cover so it won't
get too hot but I am excited to get into this flower bed and put it to bed for the winter and
get it ready for spring now that here we are you know in February we're just now getting around to
it but that's all right you know Grayson gardening we're going to get it done so what are we going
to do exactly in this flower bed well first we are going to Edge it I've got the edger behind
me I am going to run the edger for the first time today we've had to put this off and I joke about
saying it's February and we're finally putting it to bed for the winter but we really did have
to wait until it finally stopped raining for a couple of days and things dried up because
this does in the wintertime stay really wet and if we had tried to Edge this anytime before now
it would have made a hot honking mess and so now is the time to do it it's actually going to rain
tomorrow afternoon so we're going to strike while the iron is hot I am going to put a nice hard Edge
on the bed using the bed edger we are then going to come on my white by the gate Camellia that is
behind me I got a beautiful like wrought iron trellis so we are going to unpackage that put
it together and put it behind the Camellia and then we are finally going to come in through
here do a little bit of weeding because yes there are some weeds in here we need to take care of
that and then do a nice little top layer of our compost pine bark mulch blend that we use so when
we get done this bed is going to look so nice so neat and tidy so just hang on we're going to have
a lot of fun together working out here on this gorgeous very spring-like day in the shade garden
all right well how about them apples I tell you what that was my first edging job went
bad I will say because I've had people ask before because Jerry's always done the edging
and so we've had some viewers ladies ask like how hard it is to do I will say and this is really
kind of damp soil there is a lot of resistance but you're pulling like you don't really have to
do a ton of work other than you're just pulling it I could see though for like a long distance
it would kind of wear you out but it looks super nice so now what we're going to do is I get my
heart rate and I will pull this extra soil that's piled up and I'll bring it back in to the flower
bed and of course any of the weeds or the grass that got cut I will go ahead and pull that out
we did have a lot of because we have fescue grass people ask why our grass is so green Fescue is a
cool weather Grass in North Carolina we can either do Fescue or we can do hot weather Grass Bermuda
Georgia that kind of stuff we choose to do Fescue because we like having it green in the wintertime
so this fall when we plugged and aerated and seeded of course some of that little extra seed
went into the flower bed so that's why there was a lot of grass in the flower bed is because of
the seeding process in the fall perfect time to clean it up you can still see some of it's back
there so we'll scrape this out back into the flower bed get it nice and cleaned up get those
at that extra grass out the weeds out and then the fun thing is we're going to do the trellis
get the trellis out put it together and go ahead and put it on that white by the gate Camellia
all right so we're coming back in tamping I was trying to do it with the rake it wasn't so damp
that it's actually picking up the soil on the back and then my main man here went ahead and
got the shovel and it's doing a better job of tamping it down that one when we come back in
here because it's so fluffy and aerated from the edger that way it won't just like slide
back down so we're just tamping it down and getting it nice and firm in there so while he
finishes that out for like being a sweet boy that he is for his mama see even that it's really wet
right here because this is where the water would really just kind of hang out and see on the
back of this shovel it's just sticking so if you don't have red clay soil or clay soil like we do
maybe you're not familiar with the joys of wit clay soil fun times all right so he's going to
finish that and I'm going to grab the trellis it's a it's a Humdinger of a trellis and it is
heavy so I'm going to bring Johnny up here and we can get it unloaded and start putting it together
together really easy of course you just have to unpack it but this is
the exact same trellis that my Mom has on her white by the gate and you know if it's good
enough for Mama it's good enough for me and I loved hers she actually both got it off of
etsy and this is from H Potter so you can either go to Etsy I think they have hpotter.com and so
they have all sorts of fun like yard Garden different type of art decorations supports
those kinds of things really nice and heavy and Duty and sturdy so this is not a flimsy trellis
by any means pretty simple and straightforward as far as it going in the ground this guy is going to
go be pounded into the ground make sure it's nice and level then the trellis sits on top of here we
have bolts that we will bolt it into on that then we have some additional two more spikes
that Jackson walked off with then they will get pounded down into the side and then we will use
some black heavy duty zip ties to just give it some extra support down there at the bottom but
it sounds pretty straightforward I think they're like I said all the hardware is included so we're
just going to get this set up I will go ahead and obviously take off the wooden trellis that came
with the Camellia so that's going to come off and then we'll start getting all this assembled
so my fellas and I got the trellis installed and now I am going ahead and using my beloved hollow
rubber tubing to go ahead and attach the Camellia to the trellis now there we go I'm not going to
do it super tight but just enough that it's on there Camellias of course are not traditionally
climbers and so at all so this is a fun different take on a camellia I would probably never be able
to have a white by the gate Camellia here in this spot just because it would get way too big but
by having it in this fashion it allows me to give some great vertical height to this space because
this wall is massive it's a two-story wall and it it needs it needs some structure on here for sure
so by doing this beautiful Camellia it gives me some Evergreen structure and then of course having
the trellis is just a whole nother architectural element to it I do love having this trellis here
especially being the wrought iron because I have the two hay racks on the windows that are black
wrought iron so all of this ties in together quite nicely now white by the gate I don't have
the specs memorized but it is a Japonica because I can it has those big huge fat leaves on it so that
means that it is going to be a late winter early spring bloomer this sweet thing was absolutely
covered in buds I mean just covered and then with the Arctic blast even though I did a double layer
of burlap on it that wind just cut through and I have lost a lot of buds from that and I really
think it is because of that cold dry wind that came through here I do have a couple of buds
that look very promising so I really hope I get a couple of flowers this year because this white by
the gate oh my gosh it is about probably one of the prettiest Camellias I have ever seen massive
double white Pure White blooms on it just the most elegant classic beautiful camellia flower you have
ever seen so I really hope that I get a couple of them that I can't enjoy them for this season
Camellia is a course are traditionally quite slow Growers and so that's why when we were
doing this and we wanted to be very careful because you don't want to you don't want to
snap your Camellia they're not a fast grower so if you lose a limb it's going to take a hot minute to
get that lamb to grow back so we're just going to come in here and just gently um tie this up
there are some leaves in here like I said that were damaged from all that dry wind but I do see
new little growth popping out and so that is very promising so she's all nice and attached and next
we're going to come in here and just mulch this it's kind of like the the lipstick or the earrings
on the outfit it just cleans it up finishes it up and then this bed will be done for today
all right my sweet friends the project is complete and I feel like I have a new flower bed it is
a fantastic we got it Ash we got the trellis installed we got it weeded we got it mulched
ah it feels good when we pull up to the uh because our driveway of course is just right
here right and kitchen windows right so we see this spot all the time I love the interest that
this trellis gives because I already have that you know the three hay racks really like two
window boxes right and there's that one that's on the garage wall and to have this it really
fills in this space so I'm super excited about it and now we just sit back and wait I know it feels
like spring today but I also have lived in North Carolina for 45 years and I know that this is a
false spring we are definitely going to have some frigid temperatures heck we could even have snow
at this point that's just North Carolina for you but it definitely does give me a taste for spring
and wants you know all those wonderful things of spring to be happening Linton roses are doing
great my hydrangeas are budding out like I have got green growth on them my Holly Fern you may
have noticed is looking rough I have learned with that Holly Fern to not cut it back until that last
frost date because I get so excited like right now and I go ahead and cut it and
then that new growth is bare and we'll get a hard freeze and it kills that new growth
so even though it looks a little ready right now I am going to leave all that so that it protects
any new growth that is in there but yeah so basically I'll come back through in the end
of this month first of March and we'll do a nice little application of plant tone for all
the perennials my hydrangeas will get some Rose tone Miss Camellia here we'll get some Holly tone
nice great fertilizer for all the plants but right before we go into the growing season but
it feels great I feel very accomplished having this done makes me happy and uh now it's about
oh 3 30 in the afternoon so that means Jerry and I are gonna go have our afternoon cup of
coffee and because it is like 70 degrees out here we are going to be on the front porch this
will be our first front porch coffee session for the year of 2023. so we're very excited
about that Brenda will be happy to be outside as well so anyway get out there do something enjoy
it find some fun little architectural pieces to add to your garden it really does make a
difference and brings is functional because it holds the Camellia but it also brings a whole
different level of interest to your garden so go on Etsy have fun or garden supply companies
or wherever your local Potters that's where I got my little mushrooms from just get out there and
have fun folks as always thanks for gardening Creekside we'll see you next video bye friends