Summer Project - Input Very Welcome

[Annie Roonie]

There's been a community garden in my back yard and this is the last year for it. They've given up on one large circular bed and I hope to turn it into my magical mediation spot.

I have very little money to accomplish this and there is much work to do as you can see form the pic as it is now below. I like the challenge of it.

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This is looking east. (Click on it for larger.)

The work I will do on my own and it will serve as a kind of meditation for me. But when I am done weeding, tilling, and scraping the center for a more level pea gravel surface, I will want to begin planning and saving for the plants to encircle the space.

The north side will need to be a privacy hedge, but the rest is really at the brainstorming stage for me. So if you have any ideas, I sure would love to read them!

The area gets full sun after mid morning and is in a lower spot in the yard, so it gets plenty of moisture most years. Things grow big there. When they first made it, it was fertilized with alpaca dung and a truckload of great compost. I am a little nervous about digging out the prickly weed that has grown taller than I am in just this season. It's a weed tree!

Right now the circle is about 27" in diameter, but with careful tilling I'll try to reduce the size a bit and shape it and the openings more precisely. I am not getting my hopes up that I will be able to plant much this year. I'll need to save. And once I know which plants to use, I can get creative about finding them.

I am unsure how important it might be placing plants at specific direction points, but then I've never tried it. If you have any wisdom regarding that, it would be sweet to read! I'm aiming for all perennials and hopefully some herbs that will winter well in zone 6.

Really, any thoughts anyone has about what to put there or what to avoid would be great! Oh yeah, wild peppermint is growing like mad there too. I may keep that and try to tame it. Thoughts on that? Losing battle or worthy cause?

I have no money to give you, but I did make this collage for you of the many flowering plants that are blooming around this area now:

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Clock wise from top left: white baneberry, foxglove beardtongue, birdsfoot trefoil, tiger lilies, hairy winter vetch, purple crown vetch, great or common mullein, moth mullein, ox eye daisy and everlasting pea. And a heron in the middle for good measure.

Thanks for any time you can give helping me brainstorm this project!