Saturday, June 16, 2007

Mulch madness

After my sad chick news, I mourned for a few minutes, then moved on to plan B, mulching the new flower bed near the deck.

Of course, it wasn't that simple. First, I wanted to create a nice sharp edge, and I needed to weed again, as last fall, this area was full of broad leaf plantain and my weedly nemesis, ground ivy. I'm hoping the edging will help prevent weeds creeping in from the lawn. I had watered the bed the night before to facilitate weeding. Once weeding was complete, I again watered thoroughly, as the top 1 inch of soil was already quite dry. This area gets full sun, and another reason I wanted to mulch was for moisture retention. Then, along the deck where there are many persistent weeds coming in from under the deck, I laid a thick layer of newspaper, and soaked that thoroughly with water.

Finally, I was ready to mulch. It took an entire yard of shredded bark mulch, and most of the day.
It looks good, and I know mulching is an excellent weed and water control strategy, so it was worth it. The plants still look a bit sparse in the bed but it will fill in over the next couple of years as the plants mature.

I just need to be patient, or I'll have an overgrown desperately needs dividing perennial garden like this one along the NE edge of the lot.

Yep, that's on my list, too.... I'll be dividing perennials and moving some of them to the other new bed across the path from the bed by the new deck.

2 comments:

Mary said...

You've been working hard! I like the water-drip arrangement and hope it attracts plenty of birds to eat the insects you dont want. It's hard tobe patient waiting for flowers to fill-out isn't it. I usually go for overkill to get the effect I'm after, then remove some plants later on. How long do you get for school holidays in USA? My daughter is a teacher and has 6 weeks Summer holiday, not starting until mid July (when I sincerely hope the weather is better than it is at the moment, very, very wet - but that's England for you!)

Louise & Lee said...

The new bed looks spectacular!! So does the old one!! Hard work paid off in dividends here.