7 days into the first stage in our overall Coastal Cottage Garden project, as shown from above.
We've got the beds laid out with local round stones, dug up from our land.
I spent over an hour at the local garden waste recycling/composting plant where I was able to purchase 3 large garbage bags of soil for the project. Since we are local residents, each bag cost $1.00-this is obviously a new favorite place of mine!
I had to shovel the soil into my own bags, but you can't beat the price or the quality and diversity of soil amendments they offer.
I brought home 2 bags of Humic and 1 bag of Perennial Mulch.
Well, with the rocks in place according to the plan, and soil amendments in hand, it was time to get busy!
I had given the lawn area several days to dry out to ease the excavation. My wonderful husband showed me a fantastic tool to help dig up the lawn...it's a type of pick axe with a scoop on the end. It is best used like a swinging pendulum. Many hours and sweat from the summer heat later, the first bed had been cleared of grass and existing plant material. The bed was then tilled up (husband's strength needed!) with the pick end of the axe. I added several wheelbarrow's full of Humic and tilled that in as well. I worked to rid the bed of any remaining weeds, roots, rocks (ugh!), boulders (double ugh!) , and gigantic root filled dirt clods (triple ugh!) . I broke down by hand, or hula hoe, any small dirt clogs, working also to even out the bed. I then spread a 2-3 inch topper of Perennial mulch over the bed as the sun went down for the day. Tough Work!
