In the interest of truth in gardening, I feel obliged to expose what goes before the planting. It is not the work of an instant. Here is the bed that has gotten overgrown with Bermuda grass. I thought that the yew shrub died from the drought, but perhaps it was the horrible weeds. The sage plant on the right looks fine.
The motivation for working the bed out front was two gift perennials and several more seedlings looking for a home.
Earlier, I had to rake up bushels of the hickory hulls because they made a terrible mulch. Tossed them down an eroding hillside crevice.
Then, on a sunny day, I sprayed Roundup over the grasses. The first step in any exhausting project must always be quite effortless. Drew up a plan for what to plant in the 5 by 10 foot plot.
Waited days for the foliage to die. Occupied self with myriad other gardening chores.
Next: sliced open the places where the grass apparently died. Took small shovel bites. Resprayed any remaining green weeds with Roundup.
Following day: Ran small tiller over the dead grasses. Hand sorted clumps, saving as much dirt as possible. Lugged bushels of grass roots to a pile outside the yard, not the compost heap.
Working close to the fragrant sage plant, now in bloom, I was encouraged to make sage tea, a lovely sweetened tea with lemon.
Cleaned Tillie's tines with my favorite tool for the task, a cotter pin puller.
Used the shovel to slice the ground where the Roundup was still working. One of my hidden talents is the ability to hop up on the shovel with both feet and then hop again, driving it into the thick turf layer and down as far as possible. It's quite a trick. Surprisingly, no one cares to see it.
Days later, ran Tillie over the mess yet again. Plucked out several more buckets of dead Bermuda grass. Added granulated gypsum and tilled some more. Planted the awaiting plants on a too-sunny, unseasonably hot 85 degree day, with every promise of rain. Much traffic on the nearby gravel road created billows of dust.
Last step: dragged the hoses around and watered the bed when the forecast rain failed to show up.
Posing for their first group photo are the pincushion plant, gazanias and gaillardias. Not shown: Mammoth Russian Sunflowers, which will be up later, rudbeckias, perennial butterfly weed plants, purple and red big zinnias. Also, a small hollyhock that resented being transplanted and refused to be in the picture.
