The Garden of Live Flowers

Tales of the bintgoddess and her zone 5b garden in Chicago, Illinois

Saturday, October 11, 2008

October: infrastructure, earthmoving

The new retaining wall on the garage garden looks very nice:

(Note the little patch of orange that represents the only mums left after the plant got smashed during construction.) :(

I have yet to backfill the edges where the soil collapsed, and at the moment I'm too tired to think about it. I have a feeling the entire garden is going to sink this winter because I'll be too lazy to shore it up.

DH is out of town for the weekend and the weather is super-fantastic so I promised myself I would finally finish laying out the patio garden that has been a half-assed work in progress for about 3 years now:


Since most of it is former lawn, the soil was compacted and awful to work with, but about three hours later, the edge was defined, the grass was pulled, and four bags of tulip and daffodil bulbs were planted. Foley was very helpful, occasionally walking into the hole I was currently digging, lying in the bare dirt, or standing almost directly on top of me so all I could see and smell was brindle dog flank.

Anyway, as the "great" "leaders" of this great nation say, Mission Accomplished:


The dog dish is only a placeholder; there will be a bird bath there as soon as I find one that isn't hideous or plastic. I just needed to make sure I didn't plant any bulbs there! The edge of the garden will be red brick like the rest of the borders. I like brick because it's easy to lay down, it's pretty, and DH can mow right over it. The shrub is Carolina allspice; the other plants are volunteer purple coneflowers, Clematis 'Jackmanii' on the coachlight, and Gaura lindheimeri 'Siskiyou Pink'. More will come, next year.


The McHouse back yard, today

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