It's Not Work, It's Gardening!: digging

Showing posts with label digging. Show all posts

Wednesday Vignette: Lucky!

>> Wednesday, September 28, 2016 – digging

I sometimes marvel at how much my garden (and life) are guided by chance -- luck even. A tree falls and somehow misses everything in the yard, a volunteer or two grow in just the right spot to make things amazing, and things like this:

The main electric cable needs to be replaced in your neighborhood but it's located on the other side of the street!

More digging

>> Thursday, December 31, 2015 – canna, digging, overwintering

I spent some time digging more elephant ears and cannas yesterday just before dark. I left some cannas in the ground as an experiment, and thought I would remove half or so of one large planting.

But the planting decided that it wanted to stay in one piece.

An excavation of sorts

>> Friday, October 9, 2015 – digging, discovery

Although it's still quite summery here in St. Louis, I can't repeat my mistakes of previous years and keep all of my non-hardy plant overwintering tasks until the last possible moment. So I started yesterday by doing some excavation in a large pot.

Not much to see yet, although I've already taken out 6" (15cm) of soil. The scoop is no longer useful, as the rest of the work requires a gentle touch and therefore fingers alone.

A little more bamboo work

>> Tuesday, June 4, 2013 – bamboo rhizomes, digging

This past Sunday I had high hopes of tackling two projects related to this bamboo (Semiarundinaria fastuosa 'Viridis'):

I was not looking forward to either of them, but felt motivated enough to tackle them now. Better than waiting until it's hot and miserable -- Sunday was quite cool, giving me the energy that I usually only have once the cooler days of autumn have arrived.

Preparing the cactus beds

>> Tuesday, May 28, 2013 – digging, planning

One of my slowest projects has been the new "cactus" beds. I've been growing several cold-hardy Opuntia species in pots -- it's been over a year since I've received those -- and I also have a few Agaves and a Yucca to plant too.

The planting beds have been laid out since late last summer, and I finally got the beds prepped and ready for planting this past weekend. I don't think I've ever spent over a year deciding on a new planting bed before.

The walkway beds expand

>> Wednesday, May 22, 2013 – digging, planting

My newest planting beds -- those along my new-last-year walkway -- began their expansion this past weekend.

Although I'm more than pleased with the way these beds are going, they're just not big enough. There's much more room for plants out here!

A little change

>> Monday, May 6, 2013 – digging, grasses

I've got a little problem spot in my garden. (Yep, just one -- the rest is perfect , cough cough) It's this Panicum 'Heavy Metal':

Since the bamboo next to it has grown up this grass doesn't get enough sunlight, so tends to be floppy and weak. So it's time to dig it up!

Dig, dig, plant

>> Sunday, April 7, 2013 – digging, roses, transplant

I tackled a fairly big project last weekend, one that should pay off for me in future years. It may even pay off early this summer.

The first step was to remove this Miscanthus sinensis. It grew as a seedling from 'Gracillimus' but didn't have the narrow blades of the parent, so wasn't overly attractive. It also seemed to flop a bit here. I decided last summer that it had to go.

Another simple fix

>> Saturday, March 2, 2013 – digging, grasses

The other day I wrote about a little project to level part of my parkway turf, then I wrote about removing vinca from the bed in front of the house. There was another little project I tackled on that same busy weekend.

I had been thinking about this last summer, and probably the summer before too: the Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa macra) that's growing between these three rocks.