On Tuesday my helper friend was here and I wanted to tackle the other garden beside the steps so I could plant the other mum. I took the topsoil and compost off that my intern and I had put down weeks ago. Then my helper friend used a maddock and loosened the gravel. I shoveled it out and we spread it in the low spots in the driveway.
Then he brought around wheelbarrows of loam and after we emptied the tote of loam/compost mix into the 6” deep hole, we put more loam on top and another bucketful of biochar compost. I also put down some Espoma FlowerTone and then planted the mum.
It had taken me 3 hours to do the other garden by myself, and only 1 hour with the help for this one. So we decided to tackle the gardens along the addition.
First we put the edging in. We found that the gravel hadn’t extended into this garden. Yay! So it went in pretty easily.
I scraped up the last of the biochar compost and spread it as far as it went. Then I selected some large stones to try to keep the soil from washing away in the coming rain. Lastly he brought around wheelbarrows of loam to put along the walkway.
The gardens in the entryway are finished, mostly. Next spring, when I go to plant, I will probably have to dig gravel out from the left side of the porch, back past the drainspout. But outside of that, they are ready to plant.
Later in October, I will take the bulbs in the pots in the Big garden and start planting them along the edges of these beds. I have a bucket of wood hyacinth bulbs I collected when I did the South garden and those will go in the fern/lily of the valley area.
It’s a bit changed since July….