Garden Journal: Making Progress cont'd

Read Part One of this multi-part series by clicking here.

Saturday:
Up early and a little tired and sore from yesterday’s efforts. We finished moving all the earth though it seemed to take forever! We took quite a number of barrowfuls to the back to even out where we had edited out the pachysandra. Dave rotatilled the area and then packed it down with a tamper. We’re slowly reclaiming the backyard. Just in time too, as the kids, won’t have much space to play up front with the new garden in place.

Before we had completed moving the dirt, we took a trip to the garden center.

My focus was getting the plants for the borders and letting the kids choose some annuals which they would like to plant. I wasn’t able to get everything I needed, but here’s what we ended up with:
2 bishop’s weed (need more)
2 lavender plants
11 sedum
2 flats of orange and white zinia
a few nasturtiums
1 black-eyed susan
1 painted daisy
6 marigolds (Reese’s choice)
1 petunia like flower (Brie’s choice - need to look up the name)
2 strawberries

I got the wrong kind of sedum - I wanted the taller kind but somehow overlooked them and ended up with the shorter, ground hugging kind. C’est la vie! I may get some of the kind I originally wanted because they are great to look at and attract the bees.

I also need more bishop’s weed and snow-in-the-summer to fill out the borders of the garden.

Dave stopped at Home Depot to get edging material so our soil wouldn’t run off when it rained. At first, I resisted it, because it’s plastic, but it definitely was the right move because it keeps the soil in place and will prevent the garden hose from crushing the flowers as we water the garden.

When we returned home, I realized we needed to get some straw and composted chicken poop. I had been hoping to score some free mulch by another neighbor who had to cut down a tree but no such luck - they needed it. Dave went to pick those other two items while I took the kids to the park for a break from the yard.

Once the kids were down for a nap, we finished moving the soil and began planting and transplanting. I am so grateful of the plants we choose a few years ago, by happenstance, as many of them propagate well and enabled me to move them around. I also put our straw pathways in place which will help us avoid compacting the soil.

By the end of the day, I had gotten most of the border in place and had transplanted most of the plants which needed to be moved, in addition to on-the-spot weeding and watering the newly planted additions. For most of the plants, I added 1-4 scoops of composted chicken poop to help them out.

Our main problem in the old beds is bindweed (that stuff is tenacious!), clover and bulb plant leaves. I’m realizing that while I like the look of bulb plants when they bloom in the spring, I begin to resent their leaves and how long they stay around. How weird is that! I guess it’s because I look at the space the leaves are taking up and what I could plant in their place. Not sure if we’ll replant the bulbs -still need to figure that one out. Also, I’m discovering quite a number of slugs who like to hang out on the undersides of our edging stones - the ones I find end up in soapy water. They’ve been enjoying the leaves of our rhubarb plants.

Weather: a gorgeous, sunny mid-60 day. Again, perfect for planting.
Total invested to date: about $700
Hours invested: 11+