Here’s my hard-working man. He’s just excavated the sod from a pretty impressive area in front of our shed. This was hard work. He sliced the sod. We then lifted each piece and banged it against our tools to get as much soil off as possible. Later, he had to lift and move all that sod from there to near our compost area. The soil is nice here. Lots of worms. The only thing remaining in this spot is a clematis planted a few years ago that was being choked out by weeds and hit by the occasional stray dog ball. I hope that clematis has a chance now.
This area is a wonderful sunny spot. We’ve wanted to create a perennial bed here since we moved in last fall. A weekend or two ago, Tygh built the short fence around the area and moved a blueberry bush and 4 lavender plants to the west edge of the spot.
We planted a rhubarb in the bed yesterday. A Crimson Red rhubarb. I can’t wait to make our first pie. We can’t harvest stalks this year as the plant works to set down roots and establish itself but I can already taste it next spring!
We have so much work to do in this little half acre of ours. But all I want to do is head to the nursery to buy my favorite perennials to fill up this space. Hot Lips Salvia? Oh I remember you. You will have a nice sunny spot to flirt with those hummingbirds each day! There are so many wonderful plants I’ve grown in the past that I plan to fill this space with. Black-eyed Susans, Coneflowers, zinnias. My grandmother used to grow a pincushion flower that I loved as a kid. I’ve got a spot just for that now.
The picture of Tygh giving Autumn and Elliot a ride around the yard a few days ago just makes me happy. They are part of the reason we bought this place with the nice big yard. I love watching them run around the yard and hope at least one of them is bit by the gardening bug over the years as they watch Poky and Gammy tend to our little plot of land.