September 27 - Bed #2 done!
I was afraid it was going to rain today (OK, and I was a little bored), so I went out before Brian woke up and finished off bed #2. It was pretty easy- only 5 bags of dirt and one full wheelbarrow of mulch and it was set! I think it looks really nice too! A little sparse again, but I am really just going for the 'bones' of a landscape now- I can add flowers, rocks, smaller shrubs, and ornamentals later once the basics are there...
September 26 - Bed #2 halfway done
Went to a couple nurseries this morning looking for Wichita Blue junipers for the corner of the back yard fence. The first nursery had 2-ft ones and 5 to 6-ft ones, nothing in between. The 2-ft one was really inexpensive though, so I picked it up and went to the next nursery. They had 3 to 4-ft junipers for about twice what the first place had, so I picked up one of those too.
I decided to plant the taller one on the side by the patio since we spend more time over there, plus we need more coverage to hide us a little from the puppies next door who get upset and barky every time we are out there.. :) I will hopefully have enough dirt to put in another small bed in the corresponding place on the other side of the yard. I spent about 3 hours digging and arranging dirt- ground was hard again since we haven't had rain in a couple weeks. But I finally got the bed about half dug up, got the juniper planted and half the bed built up with dirt and mulch.. Hopefully will be able to get the arborvitae planted and the rest of the bed built up later this weekend...
September 21 - One new bed down, one to go!
We managed to get the BIG bed on the northeast corner of our house finished today- used about half the dirt we got from Warren and Jenni, and maybe 1/4 of the mulch we got delivered yesterday.
I changed my mind on where I was going to put the Tamukeyama maple- I had done some reading that said that cultivar tends to be really touchy if it gets too much sun- leaves wilt, loses color, etc. So I put it in the corner of the dining room and the morning room instead- it gives it more room to grow, the soil back there is always more moist, and it doesn't even get full morning sun, let alone most of the day so it will be a lot better protected. More protection from wind too- most of our nasty gusty winds tend to come from the south and west. I put one of my 2 spare rheingold arborvitae in the spot I had originally planned for the maple.
I think the bed looks good, neat though a little sparse so far. Well, the Japanese maple will get to a 8-10' spread eventually, so the space will fill in! And I plan on planting more things in that area eventually too. Once my back stops hurting from this batch! :)
September 7 - The dirt trek
We found out by accident that two of our friends were in the process of removing garden beds and yard from the back yard of their townhouse and putting in a patio. And they had a LOT of excess 'good' dirt they needed to get rid of. Since we have a bunch of things to plant (and beds to build), preferably BEFORE winter comes and kills my Japanese maple and two Rheingolds in their pots, it was a match made in heaven!! we borrowed my brother's muscles and my parents van, and took a trip to our friends' place and loaded up the van and my Rav with as many garbage bags of dirt as they could carry. And we are hoping to go back next Sunday for more. Now I just need to get the dirt out of the garage and actually into the garden- then more pictures will be forthcoming.. :)
