Monday, May 6, 2013

Preparing a flower bed...planting, screening, irrigating, and mulching

Being ADHD, I am true to form by being scattered.  Overwhelmed with the huge garden, I have opted to take this piecemeal into manageable goals.  Today I will work on the beds closest to the house.  Today I will finish planting, screening, mulching and irrigating an area.

This needs to be trimmed, irrigated and babies transplanted.  Gonna use the water timer and use drip irrigation in this bed under the statue.  This used to be an old tree stump.


There were lorapetlum here but it didn't make it.  There are hydrandgea, two climbing golden showers here.   Perhaps put zinnia on the corner and another hydrangea in this section.  Using leaves as filler for mulching and puttting drip and sprinklers here.  Lining up the bricks better and PERHAPS using all the newspaper I picked up out of the year against the edge to stop those weeds from popping out.  This will be on the water timer...the same line as the Mexican Heather.


Putting coleus here since it is deep shade on this side.  Zinnia on the corner.


Black screening this area which is the path to the hose an water timer.


Finish mulching and put a sprinkler on the second prong of water timer.






Fix bricks


Water Timer


The third prong of the water timer will go to the side of the house where climbers and gardenias are.  Very aggressive area weed wise.  Will screen and mulch..perhaps brick as well.


Climbing pinata at corner of house.


Babies from Mexican heather will use as fillers on the side of house.


Zinnia an coleus




Hydras


Greenhouse in bad need of repair.
Put out coleus and zinnia that I will plant

Coleus are being placed in a much deeper shaded area




Zinnia on the corner

Screen the area including the pathway

Yes, despite the newspaper issue I opted to dig them out of the trash and place it under the screen

Planted the plants


Screened the pathway

I used a soaker hose around the wall, a sprinkler in this section and tubing and smaller sprinkler in the third bed.  I bought this sprinkler from Dollar General


Water timer which covers three areas

Now to put it in the drip/sprinkler system.  This is an orbit accessories box that I bought on Ebay for 15 dollars plus 1/2 inch tubing and 1/4 inch tubing

Nozzle that fits on the 1/2 inch tubing.  If you aren't familiar with drip irrigation systems a great one to start (an affordable) is Mister Landscaper starter kit.

Put the nozzle on the tub

Measured out the tubing to make sure it was the correct length.


Put the nozzle on station 1 of the timer

End cap of the tubing
Sprinkler that is going on the tubing I bought on Ebay as well

Put small tubing on the sprinkler

Pierce 1/2 tubing
Put component (don't remember the name on tubing
Then attach spinkler


Put sod staples to keep in place



Check sprinklers for coverage area

Then I use leaves (hoping it wouldn't be the same issue as the newspaper but I needed filler for the beds

Finish putting in all the sprinkler insuring they covered everything


Finally covered with mulch on top of the leaves.  I am hoping this was worth all the work I put in today because this is what I did with my day.



3 comments:

HolleyGarden said...

That's a lot of work - especially in one day! It looks great! I generally only use newspaper/cardboard instead of the black weed fabric, because I'm always adding unplanned purchases to my beds, but I agree that the fabric will keep the weeds down longer. It has got to be very satisfying to look out there and see all your progress.

Unknown said...

Be careful with the roses with rosé Rosetta around. Knockouts are not as perfect as they used to be.
http://www.greenseasons.us/2/post/2013/04/knockout-roses-facing-extinction.html

Cerberus German shepherds said...

@Holley, it took about 6 hours to do,. hopefully it will be pretty