Garden Update - Rock Garden

Before...just a little overgrown.

I love my house and I love my yard. I have a long way to go, but I really am enjoying working in the yard and making it look nice.

My first big project was clearing the ivy from the sideyard. That was a chore. My next project is the rock garden between the driveway and my back door. I see it every day, so I thought it's a good place work on next.

The soil here is in pretty bad shape. There have been many, many years of neglect, and the dirt is dry and compacted. The first step is breaking up the churt & root mess and adding a rock edge. Then the plan is to mix in compost & top soil, and top with mulch.

My mom and I have done the center section, and it's up to me to do the rest.

Ignore the peeling paint, and look at the pretty weed free dirt & rocks

 The rock boarder isn't perfectly straight.  Normally this would bother me, but nothing about this house with multiple additions is straight, so I think it fits right in.

The plan for this year is to clear out the rest of the bed and amend the soil so that it's ready for planting this fall or next spring.  I'll plant herbs in the hollow tree stumps, and add annuals in pots in between.  It should look nice this year when it's mulched and give the earthworms time to come back and do some work. (The joke here is that to encourage the bugs & worms to come back, I have been watering my dirt.  My water bill is usually $5- $10, so I don't mind.)

Future home of the butterfly bush

There is a bird garden at the end of this bed, and I'm going to clear out the vinca minor from the top section and add a butterfly bush.  There's just enough sun here that I think it will do ok, but not get super huge.  Eventually this will be a patio space as well, but time & money are two things I do not have enough of.

It's a work in progress, but it's going to be pretty

That's it for now.  I hope to have more to share by the end of the week :)