6.1 new garden

This weekend's project was starting the prep on a new flower bed. The structure of this bed has been in my mind since we moved into the house. The tree was put in before the lawn, but the rest of the bed has taken a while. For scale, the tree is about 3 feet tall now and the bed is about 3 feet across.

J helped me rototill it yesterday (that is, he rototilled, I removed bits of sod and hundreds of rocks). J and S put the lower border in, which matches the border on the bed by the front walk. We have a huge electric box at the side of the yard, just at the border between our yard and the neighbors. I talked with that neighbor about possibly planning a joint garden to hide the box, but his ideas and mine on plantings didn't mesh very well and when we actually read the sign on the box which says we can't plant within 5 feet of three sides and within 12 feet of the street facing side, he seemed to lose interest. That was 2 years ago and I quit waiting for him.

Mostly I care about not having to look at it from the house, although I suppose for "curb appeal" I should care about the street view as well. The box is not in the picture here, but the upswing of the garden is about twice as far as it appears from here, and I plan to put a white lilac at the top of the bed, then several tall ornamental grasses in between me and the box. The inside border will have lavendar and the outside border will have white and yellow Carpet Lilies (a miniature). Further plantings TBD. Some tulips, some aliums, some shrubbery and possibly a Japanese maple of the dwarf and bushy sort.

Before we get to planting, however, I need about 4 yards of top soil and about 8 yards of mulch delivered. I foresee much hefting in our futures.