On October 3rd we began the fall project of helping our friend Nancy (organizer of the Peninsula garden tour) create an ornamental border with the newspaper and cardboard method.
October 3rd
Day one: painfully hot and bright! I was so desperate for a cooler work shirt that we almost left to drive home and get one; then I realized I had a cotton shirt in the back of the car. October is not supposed to be so darn hot!
(Above). The beds behind Nancy (standing, on right) who did not want to be in the photo but did not back up far enough, oops) are her extensive veg garden. After seeing our garden, she wanted more flowers, thus the new area.
(Above) I have cut lines in the sod with the half moon edger (which is leaning against the wheelbarrow.) Allan has begun to pull up the strips of sod.
By blissfully cooler early evening, we have dug out a wide strip of sod along the edge of the new border, and we also dug out around existing trees so the roots won’t be buried too deeply.
Looking east: Grass path between veg patch and ornamentals will remain. Salmonberry patch (right) will remain for hummingbirds. And also because I am too old and tired to dig them out. It is true, however, that salmonberry flowers are one of the earliest hummingbird foods, and I have used the same excuse for not digging them out in my own garden.
Looking east from halfway back….areas dug out to tuck newspaper down into. Soil will cover the newspaper to make an instant bed. Well, instant considering it took five long hot hours to dig out these areas. Maybe a sod cutter would have worked, but I prefer the quietude of hand tool work.
We leave this garden for awhile as Nancy is going on vacation and the whole idea is to create the garden with her. We will return on October 17th.
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