This is a lot of work!

OK, creating this bed is a lot more work than I originally thought it would be! It has turned into a 2 day job.

Today was Saturday, so we both could throw some effort into it. Unfortunately with two little ones it isn't like we can both work on the garden - one of us watches the kids while the other works, and we trade off. We did get a lot done, my back shows it, but it isn't finished. Frankly the roses aren't even planted yet!

We decided to make the bed bigger, taking out an entire section of the lawn that wasn't looking so hot. So we dug it pretty big - I'd guesstimate 4 to 5 feet in wide, about 6 feet out running South, a big curve around back towards the garage, and then running about 4 feet down the side of the garage and maybe 3 feet wide. Pretty good sized! We had to cut and pull off all the dead sod and weeds on the top about 3 or 4" down, which was a struggle. We found a surprise under the sod - about 5" underneath the surface we dug up decaying electricity flags letting us know the line was buried under this bed. We had to stop, do some research, make some calls to places that weren't open on a Saturday, and finally a couple of hours later figured out that hand digging (as opposed to excavating with power tools) was probably OK as long as we were being careful.

The dirt in that section has been neglected for a long time and is very heavy in clay. It was HARD and really cemented together. Adding to the joy there had obviously been something there at some point as we kept digging up bricks and pieces of slate, like paving stones. Every time we put the shovel in something blocked it, it seems. Combined with the heavy clay it was a back breaking effort. We dug, broke and turned the soil down to 12 inches. And then we took a break!

I amended it with 5cf of vacuum packed peat moss (which I wasn't sure would be enough, but expanded out really well) and almost 200lbs of well composted manure. Those bags were HEAVY. Once it was in the right spot we dug it all again, turning the amendments into the soil and continuing to break clods and aerate everything. We watered it and let it settle. By that time it was about 5pm, and we decided to pack up the kids and head to the county fair rather than fight with it any more today!

Tomorrow I have to:

Get the 5 roses into the ground: Dig 2' wide holes, plant, cut away the pots, add starter and root fungus stimulant stuff, backfill with amended soil, water.
Mulch everything with the 10cf of cedar mulch I have in the garage. More big bags to carry yay!
Go to the local nursery and pick up a stack of bricks and some annuals
Edge the bed. I want one brick flat with the grass so it can be mown over easily and one brick holding in the soil and mulch. A big hassle.
Plant the annuals and get them mulched
Continue to look for the missing pieces of the garden we still seek: A couple boulders, a statue, something.

Biggest headache of the project we forgot to anticipate: Where to put the dead sod, weeds and topsoil we removed. We have this HUGE mound of it just sitting next to the bed looking ugly. We don't even own a wheelbarrow to move it. Going to have to figure something out.

Seeing as tomorrow I not only have to finish the bed, I need to clean and prep the garage for window delivery Monday, clean the house and remove all the blinds etc for window installation Tuesday, cook a few dinners and take them to Shannon who had her baby this morning, and while Pete's home run into the home store to pick up paint and supplies to paint or repaint all of the trim on the house, which needs to be done (by me!) on Wednesday. Several of our windowsills were rotted, and they're being replaced with the windows which is great, but they will be plain wood. They need to be sealed and painted so I get to repaint the whole house extreior trim. Yay me!

It's going to be quite the week but I *will* have a rose garden to show for it when I'm done!