The New Garden

Besides taking a long trail walk last Friday, I also dug and planted a new garden. The two, combined, were a little too much for me, and I paid for it on Saturday at the track. But, I was really proud of myself, when the garden was finished.

Before I started, at about 8 AM.



Because this garden is right by the road, the dirt there was compacted, and full of road debris and salt. I thought it would be best to take that stuff right out and add new dirt. Here's what it looked like after I had all of the sod out. Let me tell you, that was hard work!



For the new dirt, I mixed two parts of topsoil with one part of composted cow manure. That should give the new plants plenty of encouragement to grow. It looked pretty good, after I got that new dirt in.



By then it was around noon, and it was HOT. I didn't want to put new plants in during that heat, and have the sun shine down on them all afternoon, so I left the gardening for a while, and went to Whiting Road to take my walk. It was a lovely walk, which I chronicled yesterday.




After supper, I went back out and did my planting. I had some of the plants from the Amish Nursery to put in there. I did suffer one disappointment, however. The False Spiraea was supposed to be the eye catcher in this planting. However, it was a big plant and when I started to dig a deep hole for it, no more than a couple of inches down, I hit stone and gravel from when they widened the road, and put the sewer in. I couldn't put the Spiraea there. So, I changed my plans. The Goatsbeard will eventually grow around three or four feet high, so I put that on one side, and I put a young Butterfly Bush on the other. In between, I put the English Daisies. I filled in, in front of those with some Sundrops and some blue flowers that I don't know the name of.




The sundrops always crack me up when I plant them. That year, you can't get them to stand up straight, and they wilt if you look at them crosseyed. But, the following year, there they are, straight and tall, and many more than what you had planted the year before. That's my kind of flower.

So, now comes the settling in period, and the growing period. This is another garden that will, hopefully, look much better next year. I think I did good!