Many Phases of Yard Work

Today is a busy day for me. It started with a nice breakfast at a local Mom and Pop restaurant. Then back to the house for the real work. Note: Photos to be added later after I take another break.

I had been working on the dirt already. Last night I moved all the dirt I had loosened into the wheel burrow. This morning I dumped in a bunch of peat moss in and used the tiller to work that into the top layer of earth. I then augmented the soil with a bulb food similar to bone meal but supposable better for bulbs. A little bit of raking later and the soil was all prepared for the 51 bulbs to be planted. Phase complete.

The next phase was to mark off the bed and actually place the bulbs where they belong. On the left are the existing Iris plants. In the center are clumps of various hybrids of Tiger Lilies. On the right are a border of Purple Passion Tulips. Phase Complete.



While working on the previous phase the 2 yards of topsoil arrived. Phase complete although I did not have anything to do with it other than order and pay for the topsoil.







Now lets take a quick look around at the planting beds. Above was the planting bed from the right side of the house (faces west). This is the two small planting beds from the left side (easterly exposure) of the house. On the left are hostas. In the spring I will be fertilizing and covering this with mulch. On the right is where I typically plant some nice annuals and there will also be 2 inches of mulch here in the spring.



Moving on this is the front planting bed. You will notice the two cute little baby shrubs. It will take them forever to grow. I so wish I had planted them the almost 10 years ago when I bought this house. Oh well, it will be fun to watch them grow. The two outside ones will grow into Christmas Trees (more of less) that are 6 to 8 foot tall. I will be placing a majority of the dirt I took delivery of here. The remainder will go on the first planting area you saw. The center one will be squatty . This spring I will be covering this with a weed barrier and placing 2 inches of mulch on top of that.



I do have two more planting areas up front. First we have the area around the mailbox. This area never grows but I will make a stab at it again. Next year I add mulch here. The is currently some iris planted here. There used to be tulips but they died off. I will probably plant some annuals here next year and in the fall replace them with some perennials. And now my final planting area is around my flag pole. This area is full of iris plants and tulips. Next year I am going to have to split the iris plants are they are out of hand. Anyway the second and third pictures are of the flag pole.







Sorry I did not place up a nice Veteran's Day tribute as at least one of you wonderful bloggers out there have. We will have to just pause a moment and look at my motionless flag. Thank you to all of you who have served especially to all of you who have made the ultimate sacrifice and of course to all of their families as well. Without your sacrifice we would not be the country we are today.





So the next phase will be adding the dirt back into the westerly planting bed that I dug out being careful not to disturb the bulbs. Then I add 2 inches or so of topsoil of the planted bulbs and that bed should be about ready to go to bed for the winter. I also will be adding the 2 inches or so of topsoil to the front beds and they two will be ready for winter once I add the peat moss around the shrubs. This will be a big phase as I am so out of shape. Moving two yards of dirt will be fun but I will just spread it out over a big part of the day if I need too.

[Completed projects front and right side planting areas]

I have other plans of what to do outside but I am betting I will not get to them. If I can get everything list above done I will be most happy indeed.

Update: I started just after 7:00 AM with this project and called it a night just after 6:00 PM. My body was ready to call it a day about 2 hours before that. I got cramps in my right arm that I had to be careful what I did so they did not come back. I know I was dehydrated as, even thought it probably did not even hit 45 today as I sweating and I only drank about a quart of water. I should have had some outside to where I could grab some when I needed it. In the end it was to dark to take the finished photos so hopefully that will be tomorrow. I also did not clean up the cement as I knew my right arm would give me trouble pushing a broom. Finally I decided to put in more dirt than I planed because I never considered the fact the the soil was not compact and it would certainly compress before next year when I add the mulch. When I came down to the wire I was about 4 bags of topsoil short (160 pounds). I might have some bagged topsoil already. If not I will be making a trip to the store so I can finish the project.

I will say one thing, being out of shape I pushed myself harder than I should have. This project kicked my butt. My blood pressure and pulse were really elevated but after taking a 4 minute rest it had come down a fair amount but still was high. In the end I think this saying applies just as well here as anywhere. What does not kill you makes you stronger.

I can not wait for next spring.