It took me awhile, but the new garden is finally weeded. When I first started this new flower bed, the biggest job was to dig up the existing sod and to shake all the soil off of it. Once that was finally done, I started transplanting from here and there and then watered, and watered, and watered some more. Of course I planted things during the hottest part of the summer....not the best idea I admit.
Now the biggest job is weeding. It always amazes me how quickly the weeds grow, especially in a newly cultivated garden. All the crab grass in my new garden certainly was making me crabby!
The new path and shade garden are complete! The path is filled with 3/8” Algonquin Pebble, which is a mix of coloured smooth round pebbles that glisten when wet. For the shade garden, I transplanted and divided plants from other parts of the garden. The rocks were lurking under forsythia, so I hauled them over to add interest in the new garden. So aside from the lumber, rebar, and pebbles, our new shade garden didn’t cost that much. And the best part – we no longer have a ugly bare patch of grass under the apple tree!
The path renovations have began and so far, progress has been excellent. It took us a day to dig up all the grass, everyting, and then frame the path and flower beds with lumber. The frame is held together with rebar that we hammered in.
Then we dug the extra soil out from the path and used it to build up the flower beds. Next step, finish the path with landscape fabric and aggregates and then comes the fun part.....SHOPPING AND PLANTING!!!!
The only downfall to our plan is the locatin of the hammock. It use to hang from the deck to the post on the left hand side, but now it would hang right across the path. A minor dilemma, but still annoying.
Welcome to my landscape dilemma in the garden. As you can see from the photo, I have a big patch of dirt, where the grass refuses to grow. There are a few factors contributing to the bald patch. First, the apple tree above shades the area for most of the day. Secondly, it’s a high traffic area and the grass endures a great deal of abuse from pedestrian traffic, as well as being a main thruway for the wheelbarrow and green bin. And thirdly, when my dog, Gimli goes out for his morning and evening pee, he always chooses the closest patch of grass (or dirt) from the door.
We’ve tried seeding grass and for the first few weeks during the spring, the grass become lush and thick, but as soon as the apple tree is in leaf, it’s game over. So three strikes and you’re out! The plan is to extend the flower beds from either side of the space and edge them with 4x4s to match the other flower beds. Then we’ll build a path between the two beds. Problem solved? Hopefully. We still need to figure out what kind of path we want, but I think it’s the best solution to my landscape dilemma.
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