Hillside Garden

We went ahead and finished the hillside garden today.  Abbie didn't think we'd finish it by sundown, but somehow, we did.  He has worked so hard and shoveled so much.  Today, I got a taste of shoveling and it is back-breaking work.  I'd forgotten how hard it is.  We started this project two weeks ago.  We laid the rocks for the lower section and moved dirt in.  Yesterday, we finished adding dirt (lots and lots and lots of dirt) and plugged in several bulbs and some flowers.  Today, we dug out, laid rocks and did the dirt for the upper section.  And, I went ahead and got flowers from here and there to stick in.  We ended up using half the day lilies that grow at the end of our pool.  There were some tiger lilies in there as well.  And I went ahead and threw in some of the tulip bulbs I had left over.  All we need to do now is add a little mulch and keep it watered and happy.  I hope all the babies aren't too shocked from being moved around, and that they will perk up in a day or two.  The forecast calls for rain tomorrow and the next day, so that will help.  Speaking of help, John Campbell was super helpful today - he helped me replace dirt and grass in the area where we removed all those rocks two weeks ago.  I couldn't have done it without him. 

The whole reason for putting this flower bed in is to keep from having to mow this hill.  It is a real pain to mow.  Hopefully, we've curved the bed so that the mower can get really close without having to go too steeply up the hill.

 In front of the waterfall and flower beds, we have lots of work to do.  There is a ton of gravel and small rocks surrounding the entire pool.  We've removed one side, now we need to do this end, the other end and the side against the house.  We hope to put down some kind of pavers instead.  Right now, I'd be happy with just plain old dirt.  Anything but all those little rocks.  Moss would be nice on this end too, to soften up all the rocks.

Side view - there will be a smaller hillside flower bed on the far side of the waterfall.  That will have to wait until the fall, or even next year.