October 30, 2010
Yesterday was quite a busy day .. to the Saanich yard with garden cuttings, recycling, dentist and then finally, home, free to garden!
Working away at the side yard … thinking, how to sove the problem of comfrey, blackberry and weeds growing in the gravel path. Last year I had removed deeply rooted blackberry plants .. we had never used this area of the yard so this was quite a challenge.
It took a few days of hard work and finally, I cleared the area away. Then I’d spent a few days, working at levelling the ground surface . .using a pickax, shovel, etc. After this, I carried in a supply of old bricks, to use as edging, laid down a layer of landscape fabric. In hindsight, several layers of heavier fabric would have been better! Or perhaps, putting old carpets on the ground first, then a layer of the fabric, would have deterred the weeds from growing.
Then I carried over, one by one, rubbermaid containers of (sorted, sieved, rinsed) gravel and shovelled this on the fabric, and installed round pavers to create a pathway on the gravel walkway.
I was able to install a few plants and place ivy cuttings in pots, before winter set in. And that was that for this area. Until a few days ago, when I attacked the weedy growth that was again overtaking all my work. So now the area is again clear and I was thinking that I should bring more gravel over to make the pathway thicker.
So .. after my running around was done, I came home, donned my gardening gear and escaped outside to relax in the sun, sudoku and mug of tea. I pondered the energy required to move more gravel to the side area. While working the Sudoku numbers, thoughts of the side yard kept popping up .. maybe it was the postivity of the conversations that I’d recently had at the dentist’s office combined with the warmth of the sun’s rays .. but I suddenly thought “why did I make the gravel pathway so wide .. it could be narrower and I could plant more plants”!!!
Walked over to the side, visualized “more plants” and thought, yes, this will work!!! I’d mixed up some peat moss/organic soil mixture in my ‘barrow, so quickly planted some bushes and topped up areas around a boxwood (these are tough, tough, plants … survived a year without having been properly planted last year!)
Now, with garden tools, empty ‘barrow, rubbermaid containers & tarp .. I began the task of shifting the gravel. My plan is to remove the gravel, put in containers and as space becomes available, onto a tarp. Once this is done, I’ll dig out as much of the weeds as possible, then install a triple layer of l/fabric, creating a slightly curving path. Then I’ll plant more of the recent sale bushes.
By this time, the mulch should be here, so I’ll be digging, filling containers and bring them, one by one, to install over every plant in the yard. And look forward to seeing all the new growth next year!
Also, I’ve decided, starting November, to only blog on one page! Since gardening does occupy most of my life .. it seems silly to go back and forth. Besides the retirement blip has passed and I’m now in my next stage, of gardening. And I’ll be focusing on getting my business going. But I’ll only be writing about my own gardening!!!
These past two months have been so therapeutic . . I’ve been working hard every day, and feeling more energized every day. My creativity is making a very strong comeback. Ideas on things I can make for gardens, methods of working, playing around with found materials .. it’s all very exciting. And ideas grow more ideas, and so on and so forth.
Camera set to “on” .. I walked around, taking pictures of happy flowers .. memories for this summer and points of reference for next summer. I’d removed the tarp used to shield the interior of my car from soil, when I took more garden stuff to the yard. Rinsed it off and draped it over one of my pvc arches .. worked well. Tarp dried and easy to fold up. (photo)
🙂
