Garden Day

 

The past two days were sunny and mild, so the ground is thawed out enough to be workable.  This afternoon I'll be attempting to de-root some new crown vetch growth in the front-side bed that took me days to weed last fall.  If that doesn't wear me out I'll do a bit of rototilling in the back yard.  Phil put together one of the new galvanized steel raised beds I've bought to replace the breaking and rotting wooden ones.  The new beds are a foot deep as compared to the 6" of the previous ones: I may have to buy some new soil to fill them up as the existing soil has compacted a bit.  Tilling will fluff it up some, but not enough.  

The trees here are greening up nicely.  My forsythia have tiny buds ready to bloom, and the lilac has also started to produce some buds.  I'm looking forward to seeing that lilac bloom this year.  (I do wish we had a window or two on the east side of the house!) I pretty much missed it last year as I forgot I had it! 

Once the rest of the weeds have been cleared from that bed I'll be adding some tulip and crocs bulbs, sprinkling alyssum  and wildflower seed in an attempt to crowd out the weeds, and planting a few leeks, scallions and basil just to make things interesting. 

The mint bed, which is supposed to have several varieties of herb, is a mess.  I've been contemplating moving the blue hydrangea from a shady corner of the yard into the center area.  It will get more sun and be more visible there.  It certainly isn't too happy where it's currently planted! 

A New Fence

 

We've been having a landscapey week.

   After several years of dithering, we've gotten around to having a fence put up along the back property line.  Someone has been yanking out the little ornamental fence we'd installed and cutting through the yard, so it was time to get something more robust.

   I chose a shadow box style as it will still let light and the breeze through but provide a good deal of privacy.  I asked for a full-slat spacing; once about half the boards were up I realized that was far too wide.

   The next day the guys had to remove all the slats and respace them before they finished the rest of the fence. 

  One of our contractors (M) was a landscaper for years and suggested we level the soil in the yard rather than vary the fence slat length. That would, of course, be the more long-term solution to the problem of our crooked yard, but I thought it would be too time-consuming and expensive.  

   I ordered two tons of soil.  (For reference, one ton is about 20 cubic feet; the new garden beds  -that silver thing in the image above- are 18cf each.)  On Thursday, The Hubby did a lot of wheelbarrowing and dumped about a ton of the pile along the fence line and raked it out a bit, then used most of the rest to fill one of my new garden beds after I rototilled the existing soil.  On Friday, M spread the fence line smooth and graded it nicely while J built the gate, then the two of them installed the gate.  I think it looks quite nice, but as you can see by the space between the ground and the fence, I'm going to need to order another couple tons of soil! 

I've been wanting to level out the area between the garage and the higher portion of the yard since we moved here. I guess it is now That Time. It means learning how to install a French Drain, and of course,YouTube makes that look really simple.  I do not believe it. 

 

   I'm pondering whether to make a sort of rustic corduroy pathway from railroad ties or 4x4s to run over the drain from the gate to the back porch, or whether to use large stepping stones with a gravel fill and densely planted Roman Chamomile. 

   Today, we're getting a nice soaking rain that should help to settle and sprout the grass seed