Extolling the Virtues of Sedumn Autumn Joy

I worked outside Sunday for 7 straight hours. In addition to the potting bench project I showed you, I painted the shutters for the house while DH did the annual washing of the siding. Painting the shutters was my easy job for the day.

The task that took the most time and energy was replanting a garden in the front yard that I have been working on since last July.
This area had that awful creeping coral sedum in it. I started removing it over a year ago. It took repeated applications of weed killer and digging to get rid of that plant. At first I tried to save the creeping phlox, but the only way I could get the coral carpet out was to kill everything.All of the dead debris is gone and it's finally ready to redo.

I wanted to fill it in with Sedum Autumn Joy to match the area on the opposite side of the driveway that I replanted a few weeks ago. So I went to the rockwall garden and started digging up Sedum AJ. I think I moved about twenty plants to the front yard.

Now both sides of the driveway have the same planting. Nothing but shrubs and Sedum AJ which is so easy to care for. It rarely needs watering. (Acutally there are tulips in both areas for the spring. I think the SAJ will work nicely to cover the dying tulip foliage--I tell you it's just a wonderful plant!)The only thing that I have to do is cut it all down in the spring--which is a huge task for me because I have so much of it.

I love this plant in all stages of its growth--from the light green fleshy foliage, to the flowers which turn from light pink to dark burgundy in the fall.
I have more spots of it all along the front border.
There is also a bunch of it in the bench apple tree border directly across from this area, which you can see a bit of in the third picture from the top of this post.

I also have a TON of it in the roadside gardens. Here is a picture from early September last year.

In just a few weeks it will be pink from this area to about 200 feet down -- all across the front of my house. I think it's going to look nice. I hope so after all that work!