The driveway bed

We started reworking this bed in 2003. It originally was full of bearded iris that needed dividing and didn't produce well. The bed looked good during the two weeks a year the iris bloom (see pic), but otherwise was pretty dull.   The bed was also covered in bark mulch which isn't the best choice for Colorado yards, as the bark leaches nutrients from our already-poor soil as it breaks down. So, we dug up and divided the irises, replanting them here and there around the yard and giving many away, and removed the bark mulch (which formed the backbone of our new compost pile).   We also tilled in a lot of cow manure.  On the south edge of the bed we planted a hardy rose and clematis 'Ramona'.  The rest of the bed was planted with a mix of perennials, annual violas and night-blooming phlox, and a host of tulips for spring bloom.  Happy plants:  the violas, the rose, the clematis, veronica, dianthus, verbascum, nepeta (a holdover), obediant plant, sidalcea 'Party Girl', gaura.  Unhappy plants:  perennial phlox (fried in the sun), clematis integrefolia (ditto), artemesia (flopped in the amended soil and was moved to the xeric bed), diascia.  Experiments continue.  Finally, we've mulched the bed in 1/4" gravel to keep a little of the sun off the plant bases and to encourage reseeding.