OOOH Pain!!

Sunday I spent 4.5 hours straight in the garden, today I hurt. It was gorgeous out, 75 and breezy. Yes I wore both my hat and my sunblock, such a good girl. I made myself some ginger peach iced tea, turned on the oldies station and went to work. We had figured out a space about 5x9 to the left of the sliders and I just started digging. I scared my sweetie when I used the circular saw to cut a board in half so I could pound stakes. He doesn't like me to use powertools, I don't understand why....

So I lined up the stakes and tore away all the sod and put it in the holes that exist in my yard. It takes work to tear away sod. First you have to loosen a 2 foot section with a shovel. Then you take the pitchfork and work your way around it. This sod section, with it's lovely clay bottom can weigh up to 30 pounds. You try and lift it in one section and inevitably it breaks off. You shake off as much clay as you can and then either throw it in the wheelbarrow (borrowed from the neighbor) or carry it over to the hole. Then you jump on it a bit to make sure it stays down. It's looking kinda lumpy but better than a weedy hole. It will probably wither and die in about 2 days but Oh Well!!

So after I lifted all the sod I decided my herb garden wasn't big enough. I did a diagonal on one side and I think it looks pretty cool. I then spent time on my knees putting in the brick border. I continued it from behind the lavender so now it extends from the steps all the way over to the neighbors privet. I bordered the other side too.
Next step was mulching it. My back yard is 95% clay so you can imagine I needed lots of mulch. I still think I need to go back to the store for more mulch. I took the pitchfork and went down the 8 inches that the herb book told me to go down (poor arms) and then I took my garden weasel, so cool that I have a garden weasel, and got rid of all (most) of the big clumps. Now my lovely herb garden is covered with a blue tarp so no weeds can grow before I go shopping.

I'm going to make a brick path tomorrow morning so I can walk through the middle of my herb garden. I want to do a diamond in the middle as I think it will look really cool. Now all I have to do is find time to get up to the nursery to get the herbs. People keep telling me where to go, but I like Valley View Farms in Hunt Valley. They are local and they have a great selection. Friday night is looking possible. Maybe I'll drag Alison up there on Thursday night.