From Empty Space to Stunning Flower Bed

Come along as we transform an empty spot in our landscape into a stunning new flower bed filled with beautiful shrubs, perennial graces, and the unique Umbrella Pine tree. In this video, we’ll show you how to design a fresh garden space, select the right plants for year-round beauty, and create a bed that adds structure and color to your landscape. Whether you’re looking for inspiration for your own backyard or want to see how we combine shrubs and perennials for lasting impact, this project will give you plenty of ideas to bring new life to your garden.

Hello friends and welcome to Gardening with 
Creekside. Today we are going to be planting uh the new newly created bed here on the very 
front of our house. This is part of course of that front yard landscape redesign that we are 
in the thick of. It is construction zone around here. Absolutely. So we are going to be adding in 
a beautiful fun specimen tree to the center. We have got uh blooming evergreens that we’re going 
to add in there. We’ve got perennial grasses. We have got hydrangeas. Just about you name it. 
Butterfly bushes. They are going to go in here. It is going to be a fun fun project. Uh we’re getting 
started a little later in the afternoon than what we anticipated. You know, life life happens. Life 
gets in the way. You do what you can when you can, and that is what we are doing today. So, Jackson 
and Jerry are on um one of those little life’s unexpected moments kind of situations that they 
are taking care of. They’ll be joining us here in a little bit. So, while we wait on them, we’re 
going to talk about the space and the plants that are going into this area. So, of course, what 
we’re talking about is our whole entire front yard landscape is getting a major redo. You saw 
the other day uh that they got the edging put in on the side of this side of the driveway and Jesus 
and Arberto are working on this side today. So, they are working hard and we are going to be 
focusing our attention here on this um this newly created bed. Now, part of the bed has always been 
here. You can see we’ve got our crepe myrtles. We have got the dlies coming through here. And so 
the dlillies in the past, for the past 20 years, have always come straight up to the driveway. We 
had to rip out some of those dlies and tear up the bed that had been here because of when we put 
in the new drainage for the driveway, it had to come straight through this flower bed. And so we 
had to um dig those up. So while you’re digging, might as well make things bigger, right? So that’s 
kind of a I don’t even I can’t even tell you what kind of shape this is. It’s it’s basically kind 
of square on two sides and then this front part is nice and big and rounded. Where you see the 
hose and the white spray line, that is where the flower bed edge is going to be. So when the boys 
get back, that’ll be one of the first things they do is come through here with the bed edger. Makes 
a nice sharp edge. it will cut through the grass and we will have a nice hard edge here um all the 
way down. So basically everything to the left of the hose is going to be the new flower bed. You 
can see that we had to bring in some soil to build this bed up. So this is just our native uh 
red clay soil that we had off on another piece of the property when during a project we had extra 
soil. Piled it up, brought it over here. So, you got all that red clay and we are going to go ahead 
and top dress before we do any planting with the Black Gold ultra outdoor um planting mix. Great 
rich compost. So, we will lay all these bags out, open them up, spread them out, and then as we’re 
drilling the holes, that gets mixed in. Um yes, somebody was asking, I think it was actually 
on today’s video that I had posted, and they were like, “You’re using land and sea, but I 
thought you had switched to black gold.” Y’all, we can use more than one product. Like there 
can be more than one good product out there, right? Land and sea is a great product. The ultra 
outdoor planting mix is a great product. You can use them interchangeably. You don’t have to go 
to one camp or the other. It’s okay to use both products and that is what we are doing. So that 
is what will happen. And then when we finish, of course, we will top dress it with that daddy 
Pete um the pine bark mulch that we use. Because of the time period today, we may get that done 
today. We may not get that done today. I just want to get the plants in the ground. get them in the 
ground and then we can move from there. All right, so speaking of plants, what are we going to 
use? So, the the star of the show, um the one that I am so stinking excited about is my sweet 
little uh umbrella pine. So, we’ve talked about this multiple times. I just got it a week, two 
weeks ago from our friends at Stone Nursery. So, this is a Japanese pine. It is called an umbrella 
pine, and it is in kind of in that standard form. So you can see that it has got a nice big thick 
trunk on it. Uh just that classic pine trunk, right? And it is in that standard form. So it has 
been limbmed up. I will keep it in this shape. So as it grows, I will keep it in a standard 
form. But it is a very lovely sweet soft pine. Um it has no prickability, right? It is just 
really a great one. You can come through here. The birds are going to have a field day this 
winter. They are going to be building their nest in here. It is going to be great. You can 
see that it is candling. This is what you call pines. When they start to put on that new growth, 
this is a candle. And so all of this is great. Beautiful new growth. The needles will actually 
come up and grow here. And the umbrella pine, it says that it will whirl. So it’s going to have 
some fun funky shape to it, right? So, of course, at the at the nursery and the transition, they 
kind of keep it a little bit shaped. We’re going to let this top have lots of fun and just have 
have a field day with it. So, this will go out is going to be, like I said, the specimen, the star 
of the show. Don’t know the exact location yet, but basically in the top in the center, kind 
of towards somewhere in that area, right? So, this is going to be the star of the show, and we 
will work from her. Uh, let’s see my specs on it. It does love the full sun. It will do great in the 
full sun. I had a tag somewhere. I don’t even know now. Um, but it is, you know, it’s a pine, so it’s 
a moderate grower. And of course, your first year whenever you’re planting trees, that first year is 
the absolute most critical. You want to make sure that it gets water. This bed is not on irrigation, 
but the well, remember the well, we’ve been at the well many times. Uh, the well is just right there. 
I have a hose, so all I have to do is hook another hose up to it and I can water everything in until 
basically uh my fall winter rains come and then I can not worry about it. Next summer if we hit that 
really hot hot spell, which we will the hot hot spell with no rain, then again I will make sure 
and come in here and give it a good deep watering at least once a week. Basically, if you can get 
your trees and your shrubs through the first year, typically you’re okay. You’re good. But that first 
year is very very critical. So that is going to be the star of the show. Next, what we’re going to 
do is um I think this will be the best way kind of here on the border all the way around towards the 
front because that’s what we had had originally in this bed and we have them right just AC across 
the street right here is the uh perfecto Mundo double white Aelia. We are in North Carolina 
Azone 8A and um we do love our aelas here in the south. So we have got um some gorgeous I mean 
they are stunning. Look at those beautiful foliage um on these guys. And so your perfecto mundos are 
that relooming aelia with that pure double white flower on it. Hardy in zones 6B to 9. Basically 
for us it’ll be three feet tall, four feet wide. Definitely needs that full sun and um yeah, you 
get that gorgeous relooming. You get a heavy flush in the spring, you get um a smattering, I say in 
the summer, and then in the fall you get another gorgeous display. So having that nice big pop of 
white right here. So we’re going to actually have them here across the street and then when we do 
the burm um later on this fall, we’ll have them in there. So it brings kind of consistency to 
this space. Not that there’s going to be a ton at everywhere, but it’ll give us some consistency 
there. So that’s going to be on the front edge is that nice evergreen white blooming aelia. So love 
that. Um next I think we’re you know in my brain I think this is how it’s going to go but just 
it’s a game time decision. Next we’re going to go for another evergreen. I’ve never grown this, 
but it is so stinking cute. It had grabbed my attention as soon as we heard about it at Spring 
Meadow, I guess last year, the year before. Um, this is called Berry Box. And Berry Box is that 
great evergreen. It is a pi I’m probably going to butcher this. A pyro comies comless. I don’t 
know. It’s a cross between two different ones. That’s why you’ve never heard of it. But it is a 
cross between a pyroanthus and a something else. I forget right off the top of my head. But this 
great evergreen Hardy in zones um seven or 6B 2 9 is going to be a 3 and 1/2 ft tall, 3 feet wide. 
So you can see she’s going to have a little funky shape to her, right? So she’s got some interest. 
So the fun thing is is you can see that it’s got berries. Well, in the spring those berries are 
little white flowers. So, the berries have now formed kind of like a viburnum. If you’re familiar 
with viburnums, like the brandy wine, um the all the glitters and glows, how they have the flowers 
and then those flowers turn into the berries. So, we’ve got the green berries right now. And as the 
season progresses, these berries are going to turn flaming red. So, you’re going to have all sorts 
of great interest. If you can see that picture, right? Kind of reminds you of a holly, but it is 
not pokey like a holly. So, these guys with their funky shape are going to go um behind the Aelas, I 
think. Again, we’ll see. So, that’s kind of where that’s going to happen. So, we’ve got that going 
on. Then, we’re going to At first, we were going to use We are going to do some butterfly bushes. 
We’re going to use the butterfly candy. At first, I was going to use the um little lavender, but 
little lavender. I have four of raspberry. I have six of. So, I think we’re going to switch and 
put a little raspberry in here, which is just a brighter raspberry pink 3×3. Um, of course, 
butterfly bushes love the sun. The butterflies love them. They smell fragrant. They are 
fantastic. So, because um we can use six of them and we can kind of spread them out and fill in 
and kind of go down in front of the dillies, we’re going to use that. And then we’re going to save 
these little lavenders that I have right here. The little lavenders are actually going to go at 
the base of the electro blue cedar um closer to the house. So, we’re going to save these and we’re 
have to go grab the little raspberries. So, we’ve got that. Then there’s like the plants. They just 
keep they keep multiplying. I’m not sure who keeps like going and getting the plants and bringing 
them to the house and like planting all these things. I don’t know who that is, but my word. So, 
what we’re going to do is we’re going to use the chameleon uh grass. This is a skyakurium, a little 
blue stem. And it’s so chameleon. We have got uh two, four, six, and then there’s one more at the 
house I’m going to use. We’re going to use these. This is a beautiful grass. It will be basically 
2 feet tall. Um it is called chameleon because it changes colors. It is taking on its fall hues 
right now, getting some pinks and reds. Throughout the summer, it’s mostly green and white. It’ll 
put on the plumes. So, it’s starting to get its little plumes right here. So, this will bring um a 
different texture, a different um some movement to the garden. And it will tie in because we’re going 
to be using these also in front of the house. So, we’ll have them in this flower bed and then we 
will have them also at the house. So, that’s why we’re going to be using these chameleons. And 
then last but not least, so before I show you um these hydrangeas, just we’re just going 
to go ahead and say bless their heart. Okay, so bless their heart on these tiny quickfires. 
Tiny quickfire is a fantastic, it’s probably one of the most petite, if not the most petite panacle 
hydrangea out there. I love quickfires. They are fantastic. We were growing these because we were 
going to put them in the burm and I was like, let’s put some in here. We still may put some in 
the burm because we have more. But um evidently this summer they hit a period of stress. I don’t 
know if the water didn’t work or what happened. But we’re going to bless their heart cuz they’re a 
little rough looking. Now they are not dead. They are recovering. In fact, they’re flowering. But 
you’ll see what I mean. They’re not they’re not super full and lush. So the tiny quickfire like I 
know that it’s okay because like look at this one, right? We have got beautiful really tight 
tight compact blooms on it. It’s forming more buds right here. And this, you may say, well, 
that’s dead. But it actually bends like it’s got some some flexibility to it. So, we know that 
they’re okay. So, we’ve got actually two, four, six of these guys here. And so, yes, they look 
a little rough. Basically, what I’m saying is, see like this one pushing out new growth. It’s 
fine. And they may push out tons of new growth once they get in the ground. Um, so yes, we are 
blessing their hearts and just say, “You know what? Y’all just really just need to go to sleep 
for the winter. When you wake up in the spring, you’ll feel much better and be much happier and 
perkier.” It’s kind of like a toddler. Just put them to bed, give them some food, put them to 
bed, and they’ll wake up and be perfect. So, that’s what we’re saying about these tiny quick 
fires. So, the tiny quickfires. I think what we’re going to do is because of course um when 
we removed the dlillies um so that we could see this bed, we want to be able to see this from 
our front porch because as if you know us, we sit on our front porch all the time. So, we’re 
really going to kind of focus on putting the um hydrangeas more on this side. So, maybe on 
this side you’ve got the umbrella right here. maybe a butterfly bush back in through there. 
Uh some grasses smattering through there. So, it kind of works from low up to high. The high 
point being the tree and then we can kind of work our way down from there as well. So, that is what 
the plan is. So, um first things first is we’re going to get the soil opened up, spread out, and 
then um Jerry and Jackson, they have come back. So, give them a couple minutes. One of them will 
come down here probably J I don’t know somebody’s going to come down here and then we’ll get the 
bed edged and then I’m pretty sure we’re going to use machinery because this is a wide open space 
through here that we can uh drill all the holes because it would make life a whole lot easier 
to do that. So just come join us for the ride my friends. We enlisted some recruits 
to help us with this project. My goodness, it is this is a fun bed. Now, this 
is other than the umbrella pine and the perfecto mundo. I really had no really kind of idea 
how things were going to get placed out. Um, but I love how it’s coming together. So, let me 
give you a little rundown on where everything is placed and then how we are planting them. Yes, we 
did pull out the big guns for this project. So, um, basically the umbrella pine is in the 
center. It’s kind of behind Jerry at the moment, but with the Perfecto Mundo, we they 
can spread up to be 4 feet wide. So, we space them 4 feet apart. That way, at 
maturity, they would just kiss one another. Then this first one I came in four feet. So that 
um we’ll start over, Megan. So for this first one, we came in 4T because the we think as long as we 
have enough edging, we’re going to have edging on the side of the driveway and I want to have 
plenty of room. So this one came in four feet. They’re spaced four feet apart on center. And then 
from the edge of where the bed is going to be, um, we came back, uh, it was two 36 in, I want to say, 
something like that. And Cece was the one doing the measuring. So that way it can come out. It’s 
2 feet this way and still have like 18 in. So we don’t have to worry about it going over into the 
grass. So, we just looped those all the way around and came around with those because those are going 
to frame the bed. And then with this last one, we started kind of swoosh it back up. So, this 
is still has the same spacing as everybody else. This one we tucked back further and we brought it 
in in case at some point we want to do something different here, we can have it where it kind of 
all ties in together. Then with the berry box, we’ve got three of them. We’re going to have 
three of them together. We’ve got a group of the three grasses together. The butterfly bushes, 
we just kind of um space those here all the way around. Not there’s not a huge rhyme or reason to 
them, but they we do have those sections of them here and then one right here. And then we have a 
solo one back there behind Cece. I was watching um a video with Jim Putnham and he had the 
little raspberry and his was every bit of a three feet tall. So that’s why we wanted to kind 
of bring them here down a little bit so they can get tall. And because we’re on a slope, it’ll all 
work together. So I I wanted to make sure that the pine has plenty of room to show off and I don’t 
want to crowd the pine whatsoever. I want you to be able to see that pine all the way around. And 
so I didn’t want to put those butterfly bushes or the grasses too close to it to hide its beauty. 
So that’s what we did there. And then this grass is kind of um here or there. I did not want to 
other than the aelas, I didn’t want anything in like straight lines and that I wanted them to 
have kind of groupings together. So we’ve got um another grouping of the berry boxes here. 
So we have a group of three here and a group of three here down on the end. We got grass in the 
middle. We got butterfly bushes in the middle. We’ve got another grass here on the end. Now, 
kind of on the driveway side, the side of the umbrella pine, we do have a hole. So, this is 
the last butterfly bush, and then there’s not anything until where Jerry is where there’s going 
to be there is a grass kind of right here. So, we’ve got a nice little hole right here. And 
that doesn’t bother me at all because that just leaves me room to put something else there. So 
whether I choose later to do maybe I want to put some echgonatia there or some sort of low growing 
perennial. Maybe it’s nepida. I don’t know what it could be. Something blue would be fun cuz I don’t 
have anything blue in here. So maybe nepida would be a neat one to do. Um but that leaves me open 
to possibilities to put things in right there. Or maybe this summer, haha, I put the evulus, the 
blew my mind aulus. Super low annual, beautiful, true blue flowers. Um, and it loves the sun and 
it loves neglect. So that would be a great thing to put right there. So see, I just have to kind 
of talk it through and then I kind of figure it out. Sometimes I just have to sit on something for 
a little bit and then it works out. So then coming alongside on the from the house side portion of 
it, then we’ve got the tiny tough stuff in here. So we did six and we kept it simple. Those I 
guess you could say were kind of in a line, but they’re window paneed back and forth with that 
one grass right here. So it all kind of flows in together where it flows in together, but it’s 
not formal whatsoever. I don’t have my tendency is not to be a formal garden planter. My tendency 
is to be a cottage garden planter. Like I like to mix all the colors and textures. Um and so this is 
really fun for me and I think this will work out quite nicely. So what as you can see um Greg Power 
Planner, sorry we’re not using the Jenny’s augur on this because um one it’s late in the day and 
we’re getting tired. to this soil that Chandler and Jackson brought this in and then compacted it. 
Compacted clay and also we had the machinery. We we got the big augur, right? And so this really 
fluffs up the soil. It gets it all mixed in there together. And so yeah, could we do this with the 
power planter? Absolutely we could. Um but at 3:00 in the afternoon, yeah, I’m I’m going the easy 
way and we’re going to use the machinery. So, we’re drilling the holes. So, basically, they’re 
taking turns, the girls, CeCe and Britney, moving the plants so that when Jerry sees where they go, 
then they move the plant. He drills the hole and then they stick them back in the hole. So, then 
what we’re going to do is come back together as soon as I hop off with you, I’m going to go 
through and start throwing biotone in the hole, pulling the plant out, putting it in, and bringing 
the native soil back. So, that’s that’s the plan. um very seriously doubt that we’re going to get 
this mulch today. We can wait and do this in like the cool of the morning tomorrow. Um but yeah, 
I I don’t see us getting this mulch today. So, this is going to be one of those uh kind 
of a a long-term project in the fact of it’s not going to happen all in just a matter 
of a couple of few short hours cuz why kill yourself? There’s no point. So, what we’re going 
to do, get going and start getting them planted. Tada. She’s done for today. She’s done. So, 
everybody is in. They got the biotone. They got a nice little hole, a new home form. And I got 
them watered. So, there you go, my friends. Um, yeah, it’s in. Now, it’s not all all glamorous 
yet. Uh we already have butterflies on little raspberry uh over there. So, everybody, like I 
said, got nice and watered in. Uh the red clay is fun when you get it wet. But there you go. 
So, yeah, it is in. We will go ahead and um in the next day or so get this mulched and then keep 
it well watered. watching the news last night, they said we’re not supposed to get any rain till 
next week. So, that’s going to be at least five or six days probably before we get any rain. So, just 
need to keep them watered because that is the big thing when you’re installing a landscape, whether 
it’s the fall or spring or summer or whenever it is, is those um those first couple of weeks, you 
need to make sure that they have adequate water so those roots can start to go out because even 
though anyway, just the first couple of weeks, keep an eye on them. So with the temperatures are 
going to be kind of moderate. So I probably won’t have to water tomorrow, but I’ll water the next 
day. So kind of every other day and then you go every 3 days or maybe every 4 days and kind 
of space it out like that. The good thing is like the butterfly bushes, they will let you know 
when they are dry. And it’s not that they are dry, it’s just that they had a really extensive 
root system. So then when we broke up that root system just a little bit, they started to 
get a little wilty. And it is like 4:00 in the afternoon with this um warm sun pouring down 
on it. But very very happy with how everything turned out. Um we’ve obviously got to come back 
through here and just do some finetuning on the soil. Um because this was that field dirt. So 
you’ve got some sticks in here. There was some rocks. We need to shore up umbrella right here on 
the corner. Uh but you know, this is the process, right? You don’t have to do a whole big project 
because this was this was a goodiz project. There were a ton of plants in here. And so, a huge 
shout out to uh Britney and Cece for coming over and helping us and that makes all the difference. 
So, just pace yourself, my friends. Right. There is grace in gardening. And you don’t have to 
have it from start to perfect completion at the end. P. First of all, there is no such thing 
as perfect completion, but you know what I mean. Um, so we just take our time with it and keep 
everybody watered and all will be well. So yes, it continues and then uh Jesus and Ariberto got 
this portion on the left side of the driveway, got that in. So they were working kind of solo 
today. So they got all of this portion in and then they first thing this morning started up at the 
wall and got part of that down. there is still um a gap that they have to do, but this was a great 
thing to get this done. So, little bit by little bit. And then this morning, I’m not going to show 
you because that will be a teaser. This morning, I started placing some more plants in the 
shade garden on the side of the driveway. So, I’m letting them sit there to see how they can 
acclimate because some of the hydrangeas are going to get a little bit more sun than maybe they’ve 
been used to. So, we’re kind of letting them see. Uh, but we’ll we’ll we’ll we’ll we’ll fill you 
in on that whole video project whenever it comes around. All right, we’re tired. We’re not making 
any sense. It is time for a snack and a shower and supper in bed. So, that way we can have fun doing 
all of this again tomorrow. If you have found this one informative, we would love it if you 
would like and subscribe. Um, a huge shout out, thank you to the folks again at Butterfly Candy 
for supplying us all these beautiful butterfly bushes. Uh we’ve got just a couple more to go to 
get in the ground and uh man, we’re gonna have an amazing season uh for the rest of this year and 
then next year the butterflies are going to go nuts as they already are. Y’all have a great day. 
We’ll see you in the next video. Bye, friends.