Whew!!!!
Bri worked really hard this afternoon to cart all the dirt to the bed for me, so all I had to do is plant things. All the large stuff is now done, and the bed is pretty much built up. Now all I need to do is get the 5 weigilias, plant them and the two threadleaf falsecypresses, and get and place the stones for the walls. And mulch everything of course.. I think it is really coming together!!
and a bunch of hauling dirt...
Another 3 hours this morning- all I could do without my arms and back falling off.. :) I got about 1/2 - 2/3 of the dirt placed and the buckthorn planted. The 'wall' in front of the buckthorn is where rock wall number 2 will eventually go...
And more digging..
2 hours last night and 5 hours this morning. I managed to get all the turf dug up except for this portion:
I also managed to finally get ONE of the six plants planted:
That lump in front of it is where the stacked-stone retaining wall is eventually going to go. Once we actually get the stones that is...
Now ALL I still have to do this weekend is finish turfing up the last 3rd of the bed, and get all this:
moved over here so I can plant the rest of the plants.
I do feel a little discouraged, because after all that work there is still SOOO much that needs to be done.. and every muscle on me hurts right now. I can't even grasp things with my hands without hurting.
Digging and more digging..
Spent 3 hours this morning de-turfing the bed-to-be. Doesn't look like much, but it was a lot of work! Ground is too dry for actual shovel, so I used my little weeding spike to tear up the grass roots along the line then levered chunks of sod out. I was just happy I managed to get the whole border-line done. Now I just need to clear it a little further back this week and I will be set for planting stuff! Will dig the trench around it later once we actually get rain again (October?). :)
Final plant (for now)
Went out this morning and picked up the final plant for the spring planting- a Baker Blue spruce. I believe it is a sport or cultivar of the 60' tall Colorado Blue spruces- should only get 8-12 feet tall supposedly? It has almost ice-blue needles and is a gorgeous compact shape. Had to get some help to get this guy into my car- he is almost 4 feet high right now and HEAVY!! I did some fancy juggling to get him to the temporary plant holding area once I got home- but I will definitely need help when it comes time to plant him. My first try planting something that big and with a burlapped root ball instead of a pot- fingers crossed that all goes well!! He is beautiful, I really don't want to accidentally kill him...
My photo doesn't quite do his color justice since it was taken in the shade..
New plants!
I did some running around the last couple days to find the right plants for the layout that I wanted to get done this spring. 6 plants total (then another 5-6 for fall)- I have 5 bought already. The 6th is kinda hard to find, but I tracked down a couple at our next-door nursery, so will probably be picking it up in the next week. Dirt due to be delivered next Fri, so hopefully in the next 2-3 weeks I will be able to get everything planted and all the new beds put together.
The buckthorn I found bigger and cheaper than the one I saw last year. The elderberry and the falsecypress I got from a locally-owned nursery- they are very helpful, and they frequently have small 'starts' of interesting plants for pretty cheap. I am hoping to get 5 Midnight Wine weigela from them this year too when they get them back in stock- it is a 2' round weigela that is a mini version of Wine and Roses. Beautiful burgundy foliage, and perfect size for what I had in mind! The Viridis Japanes maple, I got cheap on sale at Home Depot- my Tamukeyama from them last year turned out SOO well, that I figured I would give it another try.. especially since it was less that 1/3 of the price of the rest of the ones I found!! The last plant I haven't picked up yet is a Baker Blue spruce- beautiful blue color, compact conical shape, max 12'-15' tall.
Here are the plants I have already:
and here is a plan of what I have in mind by the end of the fall. Colors aren't quite right- the weigela is more maroon than this red, and the elderberry is almost black, but at least the shapes and location are mostly right:
Spring!
Well, I must have done something right or just gotten really lucky- my 'bargain-bin' japanese maple made it through the winter and is THRIVING!! Beautiful fluffy leaves and branches. I am still not sure if it actually is a Tamukeyama or some other cultivar mislabelled- the leaves seem to be coming in solid red this year instead of the variegated red and green that I though Tamukeyama's were supposed to have. It also has that one squirrelly branch that is growing out straight instead of drooping- it probably should have been trained as the leader, but by the time I got it it was too strong to re-train, and at too much of an angle. The branch actually looks as if it belongs on a totally different tree, so maybe a graft attempt gone wrong? I am trying to train a different branch as a leader so I can keep going up and cascading down from there- will see if that works or not in a couple years...
But all my plantings from last year lived over the winter!! Hopefully I can keep that streak going!
