Flowerbed reboot!
Sep. 22nd, 2012 09:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crafty_packratShortly after I arrived at the new apartment, I planted hibiscus in front of the hedge with the hope of harvesting them for red zinger and agua fresca making. However, they were shortly weed-wacked out existance by the groundskeeping staff.
So, my solution -- since tenants are allowed to plant in the flowerbeds and even lay out raised beds if they spring for the supplies themselves, was to buy supplies and make a bed for my plants that was unambiguously a maintained, not to be weedwacked, in-cultivation bed.
I did it this morning -- with some help fromholli last night to get the bags of topsoil, compost, tools and such to my place
As you can see, it was pretty unpromising ground. I got out slightly after dawn, unrolled the flowerbed edging, and laid it out in roughly the area I wanted it to go.
I only overlapped the two lengths of flowerbed edging by one picket, to enclose the maximum amount of space. I then poured water onto the ground to give me a rough line to follow, and moved the flowerbed edging out of the way. Using my new garden fork, I turned up the soil. If you stick the fork in ground, turn over a clump, and retreat before repeating, it's pretty easy to do the job. Of course, the further I got from the hedge, the harder and more clay-content there was in the soil. My area is pretty much all red clay, just about the color of terra cotta pots -- it's not very promising for gardens. After about an hour of work, I had turned over the entire bed, finding several stones along the way and more than a little hard-packed earth.
I finished the edge of the flowerbed by digging a shallow trench in outline and putting the flowerbed edging along its length. It's not spectacular edging, but it's suitable for the job -- obvious, yet short enough I can reach over it easily. Then I opened five bag of the topsoil and spread them out with the new spade. I mixed them with soil a bit with my garden fork, which is excellent for breaking up clumps of clay; I didn't mix them too much, because I didn't want the topsoil to disappear into the clay either. Then I opened the bag of leaf compost and dropped a thin layer of that over everything.
I transplanted the hibiscus that I had in a pot, some carrot and radish seedlings, cowpeas, fava beans, green peas, collards, kale, lettuce, roquette, and chard seedlings into the bed. Tomorrow, I'll scatter more radish, collard, and kale seed, and maybe some endive, cabbage, and fractal broccoli seed that I picked up at the hardware sore. I'm hopeful that I'll have a vigorous fall garden in a few weeks.
Also, I went with a neighbor up to Behnke's Nursery, and came back with fish fertlizer, microrhyzia innoculatant, and some pamphlets on amaryllis care. We had fun looking around, and she might go back for some indoor paperwhites. If that happens, I might go with her for saffron crocuces and maybe a few more amaryllis bulbs. They had already sold out of all the fall vegetable seedlings they carry, which surprised me. But I picked up two dill seedling and planted them when we got back. At the very least they'll give me fresh dill for a while -- they might seed and give the caterpillars something to eat next spring, if I'm lucky.
Surprisingly, all the work on the flowerbed (including cleaning up) only took two hours. We'll just have to see how sore I am in the morning, to see if I'm up to digging up all the mint some ex-neighbor planted in that bed -- it has to come out, but it might be next weekend.
So, my solution -- since tenants are allowed to plant in the flowerbeds and even lay out raised beds if they spring for the supplies themselves, was to buy supplies and make a bed for my plants that was unambiguously a maintained, not to be weedwacked, in-cultivation bed.
I did it this morning -- with some help from
holli last night to get the bags of topsoil, compost, tools and such to my place As you can see, it was pretty unpromising ground. I got out slightly after dawn, unrolled the flowerbed edging, and laid it out in roughly the area I wanted it to go.
I only overlapped the two lengths of flowerbed edging by one picket, to enclose the maximum amount of space. I then poured water onto the ground to give me a rough line to follow, and moved the flowerbed edging out of the way. Using my new garden fork, I turned up the soil. If you stick the fork in ground, turn over a clump, and retreat before repeating, it's pretty easy to do the job. Of course, the further I got from the hedge, the harder and more clay-content there was in the soil. My area is pretty much all red clay, just about the color of terra cotta pots -- it's not very promising for gardens. After about an hour of work, I had turned over the entire bed, finding several stones along the way and more than a little hard-packed earth.
I finished the edge of the flowerbed by digging a shallow trench in outline and putting the flowerbed edging along its length. It's not spectacular edging, but it's suitable for the job -- obvious, yet short enough I can reach over it easily. Then I opened five bag of the topsoil and spread them out with the new spade. I mixed them with soil a bit with my garden fork, which is excellent for breaking up clumps of clay; I didn't mix them too much, because I didn't want the topsoil to disappear into the clay either. Then I opened the bag of leaf compost and dropped a thin layer of that over everything.
I transplanted the hibiscus that I had in a pot, some carrot and radish seedlings, cowpeas, fava beans, green peas, collards, kale, lettuce, roquette, and chard seedlings into the bed. Tomorrow, I'll scatter more radish, collard, and kale seed, and maybe some endive, cabbage, and fractal broccoli seed that I picked up at the hardware sore. I'm hopeful that I'll have a vigorous fall garden in a few weeks.
Also, I went with a neighbor up to Behnke's Nursery, and came back with fish fertlizer, microrhyzia innoculatant, and some pamphlets on amaryllis care. We had fun looking around, and she might go back for some indoor paperwhites. If that happens, I might go with her for saffron crocuces and maybe a few more amaryllis bulbs. They had already sold out of all the fall vegetable seedlings they carry, which surprised me. But I picked up two dill seedling and planted them when we got back. At the very least they'll give me fresh dill for a while -- they might seed and give the caterpillars something to eat next spring, if I'm lucky.
Surprisingly, all the work on the flowerbed (including cleaning up) only took two hours. We'll just have to see how sore I am in the morning, to see if I'm up to digging up all the mint some ex-neighbor planted in that bed -- it has to come out, but it might be next weekend.
no subject
Date: 2012-09-23 01:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-23 09:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-23 08:31 pm (UTC)I can't wait to see what happens when you're in full bloom, so to speak.