The Big Dig

Last summer, my perennial garden (never lovely at the best of times, really) went to pot.  By that I mean: the weeds consumed it, choked out many plants, and became a crazy hot mess.

Yeah.  That's pretty bad.

This year, it's going to be different.  Starting on Wednesday, my wonderful friend Karen came over for the price of a field hand lunch (roasted chicken with potatoes and carrots) and yanked weeds out.  Then, we dug out all the remaining plants, separating out those to keep and replant, and lots to rehome.

After just that step, it already looked so much better.  But, things just progressively got better and better.  The next day, I dug several miles of roots and sheet mulched the sunny corner (which was a solid mat of horribleness).  Finally, it started looking like a garden.

Of course, every garden needs some plants.  So I headed off to my friend Trudy's place on the lake, which is resplendent with a prolific garden, always in need of thinning and tweaking.  I came home with two tubs full of ferns, hostas, and lily of the valley.  I spent the third day of this garden project moving plants around, determining where to position them, and digging, digging, digging some more.  At the end of the morning, this was the end result:

I ran out of dark pine bark mulch, and it needs a few more plants, but my vision of a woodland garden where one might find fairies is coming to be.  Once everything gets established and fills out, it's going to be lush and beautiful.  I do love creating a garden out of nothing.