Sunday, April 22, 2007

Alas, vacation draws to a close

I'm sure you'll be surprised to learn we spent the last day of the vacation outside, working on the new arbor garden bed, and gathering the prunings from the blackberries (ouch!) and transporting them the the town transfer station.

I also took advantage of the weather again to hang out the laundry --as of today I'm almost caught up with the laundry backlog.

We had covered the future garden bed site with
cardboard last fall to kill the sod over the winter, holding it down with stones. This morning we picked up the cardboard, then Dan used the broadfork to turn the soil, while I followed behind and broke up the clumps with a cultivator. After letting it dry out a bit more, I added some Fertrel organic fertilizer, then went over the bed with the cultivator again.

Friday I pick up my FEDCO order. I planned a lot of fragrant flowering shrubs for this bed. I've ordered a Honeycomb butterfly bush, a Morden's Sunrise rose, and a native-hybrid Dropmore Scarlet Honeysuckle to climb up the arbor to meet the grapevine. I hope to include another Ruby Spires Clethra on Friday. I'd like to include a dwarf fothergillia and a dwarf mock orange

In inventory, I have a flowering almond, a beach plum, 3 Golden Mop chamaecyparis pisifera, and 2 Rocky Mountain junipers, and a good selection of herbaceous perennials to divide and plant in front of the shrubs.



4 comments:

Vincent said...

Dan might consider wearing a broader rim hat, or to tip it back more, or he might become a red-neck.

Anonymous said...

At least you got to spend one day outside! ;)

Kathy said...

It's hard to believe that this is the same yard that had all the snow from last week. The new bed will be stunning! Excellent choice and less to mow. That's always good.

Sugarcamp said...

Wow! What a marvelous landscape design this will be. mom