Dig, and dig, and dig, and diggety...
Dad and I had gone last week to pick up flowers, but we never got them planted. We thought about doing yard work yesterday but ended up…not. (I think he spent a fair amount of yesterday on the couch.) Today, I had inside-the-house things to do in the morning, but in the afternoon, I felt like digging some dirt.
Our front flowerbed hasn't been the same since we had the siding done, and we really have to break up the dirt to get it to be usable. I pulled a few weeds--and dad had already pulled some in the past week as well--before we broke up the ground with some shovels, then dad set to work tilling and adding peat moss while I tackled some weeds by the front bushes. Once tilled, dad decided to put down landscape fabric, which we then covered with mulch. Three different mulches. We had the leftover mulch from last year which we'd raked onto the sidewalk while we worked; there was the fresh mulch he'd bought this year; and there was some left over from last year which was all wet and dribbled onto the sidewalk before we used it.
We've not put down landscape fabric here before that I recall. It did not make things easier. After I laid out the flowers (we went with vincas and impatiens), we then had to dig through the mulch, pierce the landscape fabric, then do our regular digging. This made things go at least a third longer than normal, maybe as much as half. I expected us to be done planting in half an hour and it was not that quick. Boo. We're getting old, so this gets harder every year, but we got it done. Even though I'd already taken a shower this morning, I made sure to take a second, quick one just to scrub myself down afterward. Not only was I all dirty, but it was hot out, like 90F. But it's done, and it should be pretty, but the flowers are kind of buried in the mulch right now so it might take a couple weeks to really tell what's going on in there.
I don't think I mentioned the flowers. We had such luck with the vincas last year that we got some more, this time in bright pink, pale purple/pink, and white. I put those around the edges, and I had them staggered, color-wise, and then dad promptly messed it up. Thanks, dad. Oh well. Like, I purposely lay out where I want them to be, and all you have to do is dig a hole underneath where the flower is and there you go. My father is special. With the impatiens, those were all the same color so wherever they ended up didn't matter. Our wacky spring apparently took out the impatiens at the store, plus they haven't been doing well commercially for a few years now, so we had a hard time even finding them. When we did, they were in a bargain section, selling for 50¢-75¢ each. Normally they'd be $1.98. They're all pink, and a week recuperating in dad's outdoor greenhouse on the deck made all the difference. They had looked sort of sad at the store and didn't have many blooms, but they're coming along. What's funny is that there's a rogue plant in one of the impatiens trays, some sort of spiky purple thing. I'm going to have to plant that in a small container to see what it'll turn out to be. We still have other flowers that need to go somewhere, but it wasn't happening today. Just the front bed was plenty.
Our front flowerbed hasn't been the same since we had the siding done, and we really have to break up the dirt to get it to be usable. I pulled a few weeds--and dad had already pulled some in the past week as well--before we broke up the ground with some shovels, then dad set to work tilling and adding peat moss while I tackled some weeds by the front bushes. Once tilled, dad decided to put down landscape fabric, which we then covered with mulch. Three different mulches. We had the leftover mulch from last year which we'd raked onto the sidewalk while we worked; there was the fresh mulch he'd bought this year; and there was some left over from last year which was all wet and dribbled onto the sidewalk before we used it.
We've not put down landscape fabric here before that I recall. It did not make things easier. After I laid out the flowers (we went with vincas and impatiens), we then had to dig through the mulch, pierce the landscape fabric, then do our regular digging. This made things go at least a third longer than normal, maybe as much as half. I expected us to be done planting in half an hour and it was not that quick. Boo. We're getting old, so this gets harder every year, but we got it done. Even though I'd already taken a shower this morning, I made sure to take a second, quick one just to scrub myself down afterward. Not only was I all dirty, but it was hot out, like 90F. But it's done, and it should be pretty, but the flowers are kind of buried in the mulch right now so it might take a couple weeks to really tell what's going on in there.
I don't think I mentioned the flowers. We had such luck with the vincas last year that we got some more, this time in bright pink, pale purple/pink, and white. I put those around the edges, and I had them staggered, color-wise, and then dad promptly messed it up. Thanks, dad. Oh well. Like, I purposely lay out where I want them to be, and all you have to do is dig a hole underneath where the flower is and there you go. My father is special. With the impatiens, those were all the same color so wherever they ended up didn't matter. Our wacky spring apparently took out the impatiens at the store, plus they haven't been doing well commercially for a few years now, so we had a hard time even finding them. When we did, they were in a bargain section, selling for 50¢-75¢ each. Normally they'd be $1.98. They're all pink, and a week recuperating in dad's outdoor greenhouse on the deck made all the difference. They had looked sort of sad at the store and didn't have many blooms, but they're coming along. What's funny is that there's a rogue plant in one of the impatiens trays, some sort of spiky purple thing. I'm going to have to plant that in a small container to see what it'll turn out to be. We still have other flowers that need to go somewhere, but it wasn't happening today. Just the front bed was plenty.