Blog de Puree

This weekend, I tackled a number of yard projects that had to get done early this spring in order to be ready for other projects to come when the weather warmed. While it was a bit chilly (40 to 50 degrees) and there was still snow on the ground, it was warm enough to break a sweat.Here’s the breakdown of what needed to be done.

1. Remove the cement walkway that extended from the front of the house and went around and along the side yard.
2. Transplant some of the Korean boxwoods to enlarge one of the front planting beds in the front of the house.
3. Amend the soil in the two front planting beds.
4. Build a planter box under the sugar maple tree in the front of the yard for a shade garden. (Top soil should be arriving later this week.)
5. Plant some of the perennial flowers that have already started to arrive by mail.

Saturday morning started early. I shot off to Home Depot and rented a demolition jackhammer for four hours in order to blast through and break up the 6 to 12-inch thick concrete walkway. Here’s a quick video of the project that lay before me as well as some during after photographs.

The cement was a bit ornery. The recent snow-melt had created a good, wet suction that made it tough to pull up the chunks. It was a wet, messy day.

This is about 45 minutes into the job.

 

Just over two hours in. The entire sidewalk along the side hasbeen
turned to rubble and just the front portion remains.

 

Randye takes a quick shot of the handsome, iron workhorse. Um, that would be me.

 

And done! Three hours later and not a moment to spare.
I quickly cleaned the gear and returned it to the store.

 

It was about 2 p.m. when I came home from returning the jackhammer and a couple bags of top soil. I snarfed lunch, pounded a liter of water and moved boxwoods, which took about an hour-and-a-half.

Moving the boxwoods at this time of year probably wasn’t the smartest thing I could have done, but flowers had already started to arrive and we needed to make room. When transplanting the shrubs, I used copious amounts of water and fresh soil that was created for trees and shrubs.

End of day 1. I took two Advil, a luke warm bath because I’m a nimrod and started laundry before drawing water for the bath, ate dinner and collapsed on the couch like a sack of jelly.

Day 2 was less windy and felt warmer, although the thermostat told otherwise.I started with a trip to Lowe’s, this time for garden soil and those special super-sized popsicle sticks that you can use for labeling plants and flowers in the garden. Upon returning, I started the raised planting bed that here-to-fore will be referred to as the maple shade garden.

The wood used was recycled from a neighbor’s fence. I snagged five square fence posts and six 12-foot pieces of clapboard. I cut the posts 20 inches tall, so that after the entire bed was finished, only eight inches of post and board would stick up from the soil line and so that it would be secure enough below-grade.

 

This is the new maple shade garden, viewing it from the front steps. It will be painted a dark blue green color to stay with a natural tone but offset the greens, yellows and reds of what will be planted. Blend but accent!

 

This is how the maple shade garden would look if you were walking up the sidewalk and saying, “Gosh, Paul that’s fantastic work there. The yard is really staring to come together!” Then I would say, “Awww, it’s nothing, but thank you kindly, neighbor.”

With the planting bed finished, it was time to snarf lunch. Then it was on to toiling in the eastern front flower garden because the one on the west side was still frozen. Ahh, the pleasures of gardening in March in New England.

With our flower bed plot plan in hand, I staked out where the flowers would go, labeling those that I was able to plant immediately.

 

Nah, we’re not organized! But this super-duper plan-del-e-icious is going to
guarantee flowering interest from early spring through early fall.

 

This innocent little sprig-of-a-Liriope will eventually turn into…

 

…this beauty!

To this point, we’ve planted Merrybells, Jacob’s Ladder, Liriope, and Mixed Columbine.

With the flowers on hand planted, I dragged my tired, aching behind into our home for a hot shower and to spend the rest of the day with my wife and son. And some Advil.