Progress....

Well, by now I think many of you know that we are in a brand new subdivision and my yard is a blank slate. That's daunting and inspiring at the same time :) We have a full schedule for the next 2 months, especially... getting beds ready, planting, building up the "bones" of our garden.

Nature hasn't been too cooperative here, though. We've not had a pretty Saturday, yet. I know it's still very early, but I'm a woman on a mission and we need some sun to get out there and get things ready!!! LOL :) So, today, as we were driving home from my parents' house so we could make the most of the day yard-wise, it started raining. Ugh. But my MANLY man got out there and did what he could do in the rain :) We may not be able to dig, but we can take up sod!!! We have such Springfever it's ridiculous :)

So, I'm hoping to post on here as the season progresses and share how our property is progressing. Today we had to move our children's play equipment. A recent land survey showed that our sod had been laid 6 feet too far out last year. Basically, that just means we don't technically own the last 6 feet of what was sodded. Problem is we have a tree and a mulched play area w/i that six feet. So, today we moved the toys up into the yard and reshaped the mulched area they are in.

Here's what the mulched area looked like before we moved it closer to the house (see the robin?)

I laid out a garden hose in the shape I wanted for the play area. Hubby was so galant out there :) What says love more than diggin for your woman in the rain???

We extended the mulched area out a bit and removed the sod for a small "bed" that will run alongside the back of the property. There will be a Hawthorn (I think) planted at the right of that new bed area.

We had a lot of trouble with weeds in this play area last year, so DH took advantage of the opportunity and decided to lay down weed-control fabric under the mulch. The mulch had to come off half of the area anyway, so it wasn't too much more work to just go ahead and put the weed fabric down before respreading the mulch. Don't get me wrong... I deeply appreciate all this work... and in the rain :) Thunder is a different matter, though, and he did have to come in for about an hour at one point because of distant lightning.

When the weather dries up a bit we'll prep the area where the tree will go and amend it. I'm trying to decide what to put between the play area and the tree. There's about a 5x2 space there. I'm planning on some switchgrass in the corner behind the toys, so I don't think I want more grasses in the other place. Arborvitae are going elsewhere also, so I'd rather not plant more of them. Hmmmm.... well, the brainstorming will maybe help pass the cold, gray indoor days remaining :) I'll post more later on!

Hugs :)

Hugs, glad you were able , at least you dh to get some of your gardening done even in the rain. We are at long last receiving a little rain. Light rain on and off all afternoon, and it is wonderful to hear the rain on the roof!!!!! DonnaS

Thanks, Donna :) I'm very glad for your rain!!!

Not sure if we can call it "gardening", LOL :) I'm ready as anything to get my hands on a PLANT! Any plant! LOL :) But, I'm very thankful that at least a check mark was made. Moving that play area was a priority because I get the feeling the HOA is getting ready to seed the common area behind the house (where our toys were). So we really needed to move them. You can't really see the "new" shape too well in the pics because the old shape is still very dark from where all the mulch was. I think the Hawthorn will look really nice in the rounded off end there. I can see it all in my head... now if it'll just look like this in reality we'll be in business :) Thanks for the encouragment!

Hugs :)

I'm in the same boat as you! It looks like you are making great progress! I have my hubby concentrating on the hardscape areas and leaving the plant choices to me, otherwise it would be all grass, pampas grass and boxwood! I have a feeling your garden will turn out gorgeous!!

Yay for your progress! And three cheers for your damp DH!

It can't possibly rain next weekend... right?

"It can't possibly rain next week".....hahahaha..... honey, it is officially Spring now in the Heartland and rain is on the menu! :) Every dry chance we get we'll be out there, though!

Thanks for the encouragement, Tammy :) We'll see!

Raining today again.... LOL. But I went out during the kiddos naps and marked off the next "bed" with the garden hose. First sign of sun and we're out there. Well, probably DH. This sounds really funny, I know, but I wish he didn't like digging sometimes :) Because I like it, too!!! :) LOL! But, this is his manly-man contribution to the yard and I'd make him feel like a big woosie if he was inside holding the baby and I was out with the shovel in the rain :) Not to mention what the neighbor guys would think ;)

Also, today I reserved a rental power aerator for the grass and a power bed edger. I'm pumped about the bed edger. That means i get to mark out all of my future beds this Spring!!! Yippee! Even if they're empty...atleast they'll be marked off and shaped. I love the curvey lines forming the framework of the lawn. The edger will help give us those clean lines that hubby drools over in lawncare books :) The equipment is coming April 2 (unless it's raining).

I also ordered 10 cubic feet of SuperSoil, lol. What a corny name! It's "high-quality" topsoil amended with leaf compost and other organic matter. This and some sphagnum peat moss is going into the beds before the plants do. That's supposed to arrive on the 9th. PRAY for good weather on the weekends, folks!!!

Take care,
Jacci

Reading this makes me see the err in my ways. If I had realized years ago that hubbys could be bribed or coerced into all the yard work I would have gotten one for myself lol. Ernie

Hey, now..... I'm telling ya.... I'd dig in a heartbeat :) Actually, he started doing even more outside in the garden for me when neighbors started commenting on my habit of doing major garden work in the wee hours of the AM while nine months pregnant! :) That was in Virginia. Here they just say, "What's that woman got you doing now?" LOL! It's a joint effort :)

huga--fun to see your progress. Pls. keep posting.

BTW your DH is a sweetie.

t.

Wonderful effort so far, great plans. Planning and then following the plans, I need to try that. haha Keep posting pics it all sounds so great.
Ernie, be sure and check out your choice. Not all DHs are that helpful. - Glad yours is Hugs, 'course it's his yard too.
~Blooms

You're starting from scratch too! :oD
Great to see all you've been doing... Please keep posting pics Huga & I hope you get some dry weather soon.

Annie

hugahosta,

I know EXACTLY what you mean. I moved into a new subdivision four years ago, and was faced with a bare landscape with one tree in the front and not even grass in back. I am finally starting to see the fruition of four years' worth of work, and it is always a work in progress. I am soo jelous of people with big old trees. I have planted several, but they're still small. Keep up the good work and the faith ;-)

I saw your Spring Pics thread, Steve. You've done great!!! I wondered if you were in the same boat when I saw your wittle trees :) But you're yard is looking great!

Ah, yes. SOD. That was my all-time-consuming gardening duty last summer. Yes, summer. For some reason the landscapers decided it would be great to lay our front AND back sod in late May!!! Ack! So there I was, just at the end of morning sickness, at home with a 3 and almost 2 yo, running in and out soaking myself in a sprinkler every 40 minutes just to keep the new sod from burning up and dying! Whewy! Glad those days are over! :) LOL

Yes, Annie! Look at my from-scratchy lot! LOL :) Tell ya what, I'll watch your thread and you watch mine! :) We'll learn from each others mistakes :) LOL...

Thanks everyone for the encouragement. I looked at the 10 day forecast :( Those who pray, pray for me. I'm liable to spiral into depression this spring. "April Showers" and all that. April showers ONLY bring may flowers if April gives you enough sunny days to prep your soil and plant something!!! LOL :) I know, I know.... there will be sun again. Just feeling dramatic as the rain trickles down my window panes... LOL :)

Hugs :)

Mapped out new beds today with the garden hose again :) These are the HOSTA beds, to be planted Spring 2006...

pic 1 of 4
Looking from the front/side yard toward the backyard

Pic 2 of 4
From the backyard looking toward the front

Pic 3 of 4
From the backyard, a better look at the grass path and the smaller bed

Pic 4 of 4
The path isn't even "real" yet, and the girls had the best time running back and forth in it :)

I'm hoping the grass will hold up and I won't need anykind of stepping stone or other material. I like the way the grass path looks in my mind's eye :) Hoping to have a few more dry days to get some sod cut! BTW, not all of this area will be cut, the largest part will be layered w/ the newspaper and tilled later.

Thanks for following my "progress" :)

Looks like you've got a real plan going! This is neat!

Used up some of the sunny day (hooray!) getting some of the sod up. Of course, with the baby hollering after about 30 minutes and the older girls asking me bug questions every 2 minutes, it took MUCH longer than it would take under "normal" circumstances :) I got about half of the sod up in the circley looking part. Apparently, rain is in the forecast for the end of the week, but we're gonna be out rain or shine, I'm afraid :) I've made little raindrop drawings next to the items on our todo list that can be done in rainy weather.... we're on a mission! :) LOL....

Hugs :)

P.S. Hannah made a lovely slide for earthworms while we were out today, nice little addition to the landscape :)

Good organizer, aren't you?

This year, if we do any new beds (unlikely), we're going to use Roundup or Spectracide on the grass/weeds, wait until everything's definitely dead, and then adding compost over a thick layer of newspaper. Topping that off will be mulch. We did this on our island bed in front, but we didn't kill the grass first. If we'd waited long enough for the covered grass to die, we'd have been okay, but we planted stuff too soon and our perennials ended up with grass coming up around them. :P

Earthworm slide, huh? That's funny! I remember making little forts for pillbugs.

Yes, RoundUp was in the original plans, but I got creeped out by the chemicals around my children and their play areas. Planning on laying out newspaper in these beds (like you said) topping with a good bit of amended soil and waiting to plant until next spring. Not the quickest route, but wanted to avoid the spray, and didn't have the budget for plants in this bed this year anyhow!!! LOL :)

I've read that if you put as much as 6-8" of good soil over the newspaper you can plant right away and the roots will eventually just grow through the decomposing paper. That much soil above the newspaper layer basically gives you a raised bed, but I'm figuring out that might be the best route in some of my poorest sites anyway. You could use less, like you said, if you were willing to wait a bit longer before planting. I figure several inches over newspaper for a year will do the trick :)

The front yard beds are the ones I'm planting in this year... there are a few I know weren't too weedy last year, and I'm just going to amend them and plant in them as is. Hopefully THOSE pics will show up on this thread soon :) We have to wait for drier weather before we get those beds ready. All this sod removal is just a way to use the rainy/wet soil days. Thankfully, we have enough to do that I don't just have to sit on my hands and wait for sunshine. We can still get quite a bit accomplished in the poor weather. But, I'm still watching out for a sunny stretch so we can get out there and amend! :) I'll post more progress, hopefully, after Saturday :)

Hugs :)

Check out these threads regarding lasagna gardening - sounds like a plan. :)
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=site%3Adavesgarden.com+talk%3A+lasagna+gardening&btnG=Search

Oh, and about Roundup - I forgot this link: http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/pesticide-education/faqs/roundup.faq


This message was edited Mar 31, 2005 2:44 AM

Thanks for the link, GW :) A portion of one of the article exerpts basically sums up why I decided to go "unchemical"...

Boy, this is the time to do the sod, too. All the rain lately has made the ground so nice and soft! We removed sod last summer when the earth was hard-packed and the roots were dense mat. I need to start weeding while the ground's nice and loose.

I about killed my poor body as it was -- can't imagine if it had been dry. Although, it atleast would have been lighter!!! LOL :) My DH came out back after work and his eyes about bugged out of his head. :) Glad to have a check mark down, though, before the rain comes tomorrow.

There's really a ton still left to do before I can start getting plants in the ground later this spring. It'll be fun to look back over this thread at the end of the summer and see what all we've accomplished :) I've really enjoyed laying out the shape of the beds and deciding where the walkways will be. Starting to feel like we have a little garden structure now, instead of just grass. Fun, fun! Mom & Dad are coming to stay w/ the girls on Saturday so DH and I can be out most of the day. It's supposed to be drizzly, but hopefully no storms :)

Take care,
Jacci

What did you use to lift the sod? Did you skim it off with a shovel, or do you have a sod cutter? That's what I wish I had.

I skimmed it off w/ a shovel, but hubby used some pic ax-looking thing. He swings it and it wedges under the grass. I couldn't get the hang of it, though, my body mechanics were all off with it, so I stuck to the shovel. I just tried to get relatively close to where the roots would come up fairly easily and then PULLED like a mad dog. Whewy, feeling it today :) I took the lid off a tupperware container today and my forearms hurt!!! LOL :)

Way to go Hugs, Looking Gooooooooood and sounds great after the sod busting. Oy! With a shovel and pick-axe?!! Ouch!

Was very happy to read you dis'ed Roundup. The stuff gives me the willies too.

Love the lay-out of your beds. Boy, getting that sod up must be such a wonderful feeling. Instant gratification! :o)
Please keep postin' pics and know we're rootin' for ya!

If I can get my hands on plastic (lots of it) I'm going to try the fry method. Will prolly be a combo of fry/paper since there's way too much ground to cover for plastic alone.

Hugs sounds like you are really getting going despite the rain with your new garden. Just remember to take the pictures, and don't get too tired. DonnaS

Here's part of the area that I tore up at the end of last week. Like my new birdfeeder?? :)

And this is the other part of the "plan" where I ripped up sod the other day. Very sore.... LOL :)

Can you see it starting to get some shape? I'm getting excited :)

Wow, that looks great! I noticed that in your March 29th posts your hosta beds are in the sun. I'm guessing they can take a lot more sun than my "Texas" hostas. :-)

You are working your buns off girl! I can't wait to see it all done. I have to ask though, now that someone put all that nice grass in, how many of your neighbors are looking at you like you are nuts? LOL

It looks super H-a-H, it must be nice to have weather that you can work in.

Keep us posted.

Don