Some Planting Done

Today we did some more planting in the area by the path. We made some discoveries as we were working on it:

• Compost that has spent two full summers cooking is really good stuff!


• Compost that has spent one full summer cooking is pretty good, but it's still a little chunky. (We don't have a sifter to use.)


• Beneath the topsoil, we have something akin to beach sand as our native soil.


• The sun beating down on a south-facing slope is as good as roundup for killing lawn grass.


• Zebra grass and porcupine grass look kind of the same when they are small, but zebra grass comes in dwarf varieties that will not grow 6' tall.

I managed to get some good pictures of the final result (for today) before the rain started. Here they are:





















Compare these pictures to the "before" shots located here.

I had these great plans for what would be alongside the deck. I would do a mass-planting of purple daylilies. Who am I kidding? I don't do mass plantings. I am the mosaic gardener. I am the foliage freak. I do pointillism with colour and texture. So, I'm not sure how it's going to turn out, with three Cricket Dance daylilies, three plantaginea hostas, two harlequin honeysuckle, and a few different specimen plants.

Of course, we are just doing the planting this weekend while we wait for the landscapers to come back and finish next week. Some time after next week it will all be mulched (where the plantings are) or covered with river rock (around the grasses along the fence), and of course there will be actual flagstone on the path.