MILK GARDEN

Remember this garden bed I was working on?

The plants have finally grown in in my “milk garden”, so I can show what the finished flower bed looks like.
The idea is that the milk can has tipped over and spilled out the “milk”; in this case, plants. In keeping with the theme, I also have my “Ice Cream Sundae” totem in front of the Planter Bench made from an old metal bed frame.
For the milk, I planted some Nettle, which is a perennial, but because they won’t fill in for a couple of years, so I filled in with Dusty Miller, which is an annual in my area. The Dusty Miller is much whiter than the Nettle.

From Pinterest

This was the inspiration for my garden bed, but I wanted to use white foliage plants instead of flowers, so that the effect would be long lasting. I suppose if I wanted to spend tons every year on annuals, I could have gone with flowers, but I just can't justify that cost.

I had a milk can that I was no longer using as a plant holder, so it came to this garden bed. In the inspiration photo, they used a much smaller can, so I can see where they could get away with less cost on the flowers. I left the can as well as the bench rusty and peeling paint.

There is flat stone around the garden bed, so I can mow right up to it. In the non-milk area, I have planted Ajuga, but it will be a while before that fills in, so I covered the bare areas with wood chips. Underneath this all is heavy plastic from a silage bag, with the white side up. I guess, once the plants filled in, it didn’t really make much difference if it was black or white, but before the white blended a little better. Behind the planter bench, I planted Dahlia bulbs. They won’t flower for another month or so, but they should get at least as tall as the back of the bench and will have dark red flowers. It is a very beautiful Dahlia that I’ve grown for years.

I am pleased with how it turned out.