Sunday Digging

I was outside by 7:30 this morning. It was kinda chilly, but for me, perfect weather for digging. This is a fairly low traffic time on my street so I didn't have too many gawkers. The first thing Mr. W said is "WOW YOU REALLY DUG FAR AWAY FROM THE HOUSE!" What do you think? Is the bed too wide?I probably should have waited until later today to take these pictures but I was just so proud of myself I had to snap a few to post. The one below is the side of the house that leads to my backyard. I was surprised how much sun this area gets. I have no idea how many hours of sun per day equals "Sun" versus "Part Shade" but when I went back out to observe the sun at noon, it was still fully shining on this side garden. I'll keep checking that throughout the day and do some research on what constitutes Part Shade. I had always considered this entire front garden Part Shade but maybe sun loving plants would survive here on the corner.

I'm planning to move all the hosta over to the new Good Neighbor garden. They look really crappy this year but I think it's because I let these beds get so weedy all summer. Is it okay to transplant these hosta now, or should I wait until next spring?

Speaking of the Good Neighbor garden, one of the morning glory ladies scared the crap outta me while I was digging today. She was out gardening early too and I guess she heard me and came over to say hello. Did I mention I'm not social AT ALL? I mean I can do it, and I'm pretty darn friendly thanks to being raised in the south, but I'm a total Introvert. Anyway, she was pretty darn impressed with my newest gardening project, especially when I told her I was planning to plant some things on the side of the house for them to enjoy from their windows. She had noticed the Hibiscus that volunteered right under their morning glory vine and since she seemed to like it so much, I told her to dig it up and take it. I just don't care for them. The fact that it couldn't determine whether it was a weed or not is a total turnoff.
Goals for this week:

1. Finish removing sod from new beds (get out there before I'm fully awake and have a chance to talk myself out of it.)
2. Remove everything in kitchen garden except tomatoes. Try to find a place to compost it.
3. Transplant sod from front yard to the spot where the kitchen garden is currently.

Morning Coffee

Here's what I did this morning. This is where the red clematis will go, along with whatever else I can come up with. This took me about 2 hours to clear. Now I'm trying to figure out what (if anything) I need to do to amend the soil before I start planting. I don't have a compost bin so anything I put down will need to be something I can buy commercially. The day lilies that I removed from this space never bloomed in the 3 years I've lived here. Does that mean the soil sucks? I'm thinking of throwing down a bag of organic compost and a bag of peat moss but I have no clue if that's the right thing to do. Suggestions?

It seems like the harder I work, the worse my backyard actually looks. See how messy it is? I think this is a case of not "cleaning as I go." You know how dishes pile up so badly while you are trying to prepare a great meal? And if you don't wash as you go, your kitchen is a disaster when the meal is finished? This is what happened here. I just keep throwing the weeds and sod over in the yard thinking I'll clean it up later. Now it looks horrible and it'll take me God knows how long to get rid of this crap. Plus, I'm getting pretty sick of taking pictures of dumpy looking stuff. Oh, how I long to be able to post pictures of my garden full of beautiful flowers like the other garden bloggers....

The hedge roses are growing!

The pink Simplicity Hedge Roses are getting leafs! I'm pretty excited! This is the best looking one out of 26 and at least 1 of them looks pretty hopeless. It has no new growth whatsoever. I'm still hoping it will come to life over the next few days. As you can see by the ground beneath the rose, I need mulch - really bad. Gardening is expensive. I mean compared to some things it's not, but it's hard to rationalize ordering a couple hundred dollars worth of stuff that's gonna stay outside. I've been working hard on digging up grass. It's really what I should be doing right now. It's nice outside, the sun is not shining on the area in question, and I'm pretty bored. On the weekends I garden for a couple of hours in the morning. At some point I start feeling like I'm so covered with dirt and bugs that I can't stand it anymore. Then I throw down the shovel and haul ass into the shower. I hate feeling dirty which makes the fact that I've suddenly become obsessed with gardening even more hilarious. Right now I'm thinking "I should really dig up some more grass or get rid of the piles of grass I dug up earlier but I don't want to get all dirty again."

Springhillnursery finally sent me an email that they shipped my 2 Clematis. I'm already disappointed with them because I feel like I ordered these things soooooo long ago. The 4 trellises I bought are still leaning against the back of the garage. My goal for the weekend was to remove all grass from the new beds and hang the trellises. I don't see how it's gonna happen unless some actual garden fairies show up in the middle of the night.

Tubs of roses

The Hedge Roses arrived today! Here they are soaking for 12-24 hours per the instructions.
I dug 26 holes in 2 days. I thought I was way ahead of schedule since the roses were not due until next week but as it turns out I'm right on time. Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow?