Saturday's Yard Work

Sunny and 65 degrees in January is a recipe for yard work!  First thing I did this morning was head out in the truck and go get a load of "Compost Blend Garden Soil" from my supplier.  I needed this to complete my new raised bed garden (which I actually finished last night with some rebar stakes and some screws.  Unfortunately, I dramatically overestimated the amount of soil I would need to finish it up, and it only took 3 or 4 wheelbarrow loads!  The picture to the right is the finished product.

Now, since I had a half a truckload of soil left, that meant I had more work to do.  That meant working on the sidewalk area out front.  This is an area of our yard that gets complete full hot sun all summer along, is hard to water, and has the poorest quality soil.  It used to have grass but we gave up on that years ago and mulched it.  It contained some ornamental grasses and a creeping phlox groundcover, none of which did very well due to the heat and poor quality of the soil and my indifferent to watering them.  So I dug those up and moved them to a location in the side yard, and then proceeded to till the whole area.  I then removed all of the tilled earth - bringing the ground level down to an inch or so below the sidewalk and curb.  It had mounded up quite high with several years of mulching.  I moved all this dirt into a part of the side yard in the wild area, probably 30 square feet and and a foot deep.  Seriously, I moved a LOT of dirt.  I then dumped the remainder of my compost blend soil along with a few wheelbarrow loads of leftover compost, and tilled all that in. Here is the finished product:

Newly prepared sidewalk area.

Creeping Phlox and ornamental grasses moved from the sidewalk area.

New mound of dirt to contain...?

In the sidewalk area we are going to plant a 5' tall Catawba, which is a beautiful purple, and it should enjoy the hot sun.  My man Russ will be taking care of that in a couple of weeks.  We're going to sod the rest with a nice warm season southern grass like bermuda - something that will require a lot less water and won't mind the summer heat.  The amended soil should help a lot too.  Of course we can't lay down bermuda until mid-April at the earliest, so I guess this area is going to sit empty for 3 months.  That's what I get for getting overzealous!

I might actually keep a strip in the middle and plant perrenial evergreen herbs - rosemary, oregano, thyme, etc.

So, now I just need it to be spring.

And my arms are sore.