If you've been following the blog then you know that when we moved into our house there was absolutely no landscaping whatsoever. In the first year we took our house from this:
To this:
Not too bad huh? As lame as it may sound, this year I was more than excited to see the fruits of out labor from last year. Our bushes are a little bigger, our trees are fuller, and the hydrangea's are taller (sorry, didn't snap a pic of that). Nevertheless, the side of our house was still absolutely bare. Boooo!
Originally, I wanted to create a sedum garden. Unfortunately, the sedum we purchased is dead now. I won't be buying anymore sedum until next year, but we did get a little something in the ground to get the garden going. But first I had to make the bed.
If you have never made a flower bed from scratch before, let me tell you, it definitely isn't work for the weak. I wanted to stop so many darn times, but then I thought of my ancestors, lol! How dare I give up on making a simple flower bed? How dare I not work for something that I would enjoy? I felt like I would be a disgrace to every slave that ever tolled in the hot sun if I stopped, but that's exactly what I felt like--a slave!
Who knew that digging into the earth was such hard work? I mean, it doesn't seem like it should be that much of a feat, but our ground was so HARD! By the time that I finished I was dirty, sweaty, hot, and tired--but most importantly I was done. I would never have to make that bed again.
*Insert tired pant here*
The next step was to get the rocks to use as the border...which was an adventure within itself! The quarry was a whole new world to me. I stood in line listening to people make orders of upwards of two-thousand dollars, and when it was finally my turn I confidently walked up to the desk and said, "I just need a few rocks", lol. Shoot! No shame in my game. They had big bins of boulders, but since my money wasn't laying like that I was directed to select my own rocks at $.10 a pound.
The rocks were housed in these brick wall separators. I went from section to section looking for the rocks that I thought would work best for me while being mindful of the $.10 per lbs. price tag.
Moving about the quarry. You can't tell from this picture, but there was so much movement going on that I really had to be careful of where I was walking. There were dump trucks dumping mulch, bulldozers hauling rocks, cranes lifting who knows what...I felt like I was on the Island of Sodor (for all you Thomas the Train fans). I got more than a couple of amused stares as I travelled about. It was almost as if their faces were saying :who is this chick with this afro and this measly amount of rocks?" But I was undeterred. My money spends just like anyone else's and I was getting what I needed, so boom! I might add that everyone at Bedrock Quarry was very kind and helpful :-)
I couldn't wait to get my rocks home. Imagine my disappointment when I realized that I still didn't have enough. I'd spent $12 (way too much for something that should be free in my opinion) and it didn't even cover the halfway mark. Refusing to pay anymore money on a natural resource, I decided that it was time to go rock hunting...the real way. The hubby came with and I took to Facebook to declare my appreciation.
We eventually found what we needed and all was right with the world. But that's when life began to happen and those two dirt piles sat there for so long that they killed my darn grass *deep sigh*. So now I had an empty bed, dead grass, and a gang of rocks highlighting the ton of nothing that I had planted. I hate not finishing projects, but I had to just leave it alone until I could do better. I didn't "do better" until 3 months later--3, wow!
Unfortunately, I didn't get any really good pics, and the things that were planted need time to grow before it will really make a statement, but here is my new flower/sedum bed.
If things look pretty spaced out to you that's because it is. Many of the things we planted will eventually grow quite a bit, so we had to be sure to leave the proper spacing.
But before we got to the finished product we had to put in some work! The first thing we had to do was line the bed with paper (you can use fabric, we've used it before, but obviously paper is cheaper). This helps with weed control. Once the paper was staked in place it was then time to pour in the dirt. We used plain old top soil.
Here's the hubby pouring the dirt. I was very upset about the clumps. It meant more work, breaking the large chunks into "plantable" (is that a word?) dirt.
After getting the dirt together and lined up to the height of the rocks, we began planting. I selected Elijah Blue Fescue Grass, China Boy Holly, Veronicas, and Lupines for the space. Because you can barely see our little budding garden I decided to include pics of the full grown plants for good measure:
Elijah Blue Fescue Grass
China Boy Holly
Veronica's
Lupines
I can't wait until it all fills in!!! I hope it looks as good in real life as it does in my head. I wanted something that would come off a little wild, but still very contained--sort of like me ;-)
Of course our little guy had to get in on the action too. He gave the plants a good watering and he helped dig the holes as well :)
Mr. Helpful. Watering the China Boy!
Loving those gardening gloves!!!
Digging and planting with daddy!
After it was all said and done we finished off the bed by adding some free annuals that I picked up at the nursery across the street, and of course some black mulch.
I was geeked!
Next up,is spreading some dirt and planting some grass seeds in the places that my negligence killed :( I find comfort in the fact that new grass was inevitable anyways, we already needed it, and we already have seeds in the garage. No cost there!!!
And that, good people, is that! One more flower bed down and a whole backyard to go. Until the next time guys, XO!
Can't wait to be done with it all lol!
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