I have continually dug out more garden space, and I always think this is it… however, I see more daylilies, iris or daffodils that I would like to grow and then I need to find more room. It seems that somehow, and it must be a miracle, I have always been able to chip away more grass and make yet another flower bed. Three summers ago, I decided this was just too much grass to mow! The maple tree had died, and was recently cut down. I would lay an old garden hose out, to try out a variety of shapes for the flower bed I was planning.
With this much space to cut out, I did have some help. The tree trunk needed to be removed, so at the same time I had the ground tilled.
This area became my large island bed. The soil was amended, tree roots, stones removed, then I was lucky to have access to large stones from a local farmer’s field that he wanted removed.
Still needed more room, so I went to the other side and once again had the ground deeply tilled and tree roots removed. The ground has a slight slope so I needed to raise the beds somewhat on one side. Used a variety of bricks on these beds to edge them in. It seemed like an overwhelming job to do, but it was actually quite fun, and the extra garden space was amazing. Too bad it filled so quickly. I started out the same way, only this time using bricks to mark out the outline for the new space.
The ground was tilled and it seemed like I had a mountain to move. I did two really separate flower beds this time.
This is the flower bed now, after two years. It is getting better each summer.
At times, I can just cut out a small spot for a few plants. I have several of the semi circle beds, that have worked out well.
or I will thin out older plants, this time it was iris, to get more space. I was able to plant some of the iris I took out across the street in my neighbor’s empty lot.
Here I just extended out an exsisting bed to get the room.
This is another pulling out of an exsisting flower bed in order to get more planting space.
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